Beach Reads for Boards (+ Nonprofit Leaders)

Books worth picking up before you're back in the boardroom this fall

Photo by Tom Hermans

Happy summer, everyone!

I’m a voracious reader. Every year I chew through 100+ books across all kinds of genres. As summer rolls in, I’ve been pulling together my reading list for the season, and as always, a few books on leadership, boards, and the nonprofit sector find their way in.

If you serve on a board or lead an organization, and are planning to spend time on the beach with a book, below are some titles I’ve read and think are worth your time. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some help you understand the sector better, including its possibilities and its problems. Others are practical, focused on the skills that can make you more effective. Not all are explicitly about governance or nonprofits, but I think all of them can help make you a better leader.

Happy reading and see you next week as I resume my regular schedule of weekly articles!

Caitlin

📌P.S. I'd love to make this a two-way conversation. If you've read something recently that's made you a better board member or leader, hit reply or drop a comment. Always looking to add to the stack. :)

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Books for Exploring The Sector, Its Possibilities, and Its Problems

Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Unlocking the Full Potential of a Vital and Complex Sector by Vu Le

An obvious inclusion. If you’ve ever read Vu Le’s blog Nonprofit AF, you already know what you’re in for: sharp, funny, and consistently right about things the sector doesn’t want to hear. This book was published in late 2025, with each chapter tackling a different topic… which I look forward to assigning to my master students this fall! (Boards get their own chapter, and it is not flattering.)

Nonprofit Turnaround: A Guide for Nonprofit Leaders, Consultants, and Funders by Jan Glick

Don’t let the boring cover turn you away. This book is fantastic and a must read for nonprofit leaders. Glick walks through how to recognize crisis symptoms, build a leadership team under pressure, and make hard decisions about culture, programs, and the business model. Considering the state of the sector, better to read it before you need it.

Scene Change: Why Today’s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact by Alan Harrison

Just finished this book earlier this year. Though framed for arts organizations, I’d encourage anyone to give it a read (at least the first few chapters). Harrison’s argument is simple: excellent art alone is not a nonprofit mission. If your programs aren’t creating real, measurable change in the community, you’re not fulfilling your 501(c)(3) purpose… no matter how good the art is. More broadly its a commentary on how to keep your organizations priorities straight,

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade

A short pocket read. Spade talks about community-based mutual aid networks as an alternative (or at least a complement) to traditional nonprofit service delivery. You don’t have to agree with his politics to benefit from understanding the critique.

Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva

Villanueva writes from his experience as a Native American philanthropist to challenge the colonial patterns embedded in how wealth moves through the nonprofit sector. The questions he raises about power, proximity, and whose judgment gets trusted are ones every board should sit with.

Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Fast-Moving World by David La Piana

Most boards are still running traditional multi-year strategic planning processes that bear little resemblance to how the world actually changes. La Piana makes the case for a more iterative approach to strategy, where you treat the strategic plan as a living conversation rather than a document to ratify.

Books on my to-read list in this category this summer:

• Philanthropy: From Aristotle to Zuckerberg by Paul Vallely - I love books that blend together history, anthropology, and philosophy to help me better understand philanthropy. Hoping this stands up!

• Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas - A critique of how wealthy elites use philanthropy to protect the very systems that generate inequality. Interested to see how it might change my viewpoint on donors in the boardroom.

Books for Building Skills and Ways of Being That Make You Better in the Boardroom

These are not board-specific books, but reads that helped me lead organizations and the boardroom better.

Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

If you know me, you know this is one of my favorites. The ability to give and receive honest feedback is a critical facet of strong leadership… and boards are teams too. They face the same challenges with honesty and directness that any team does. Scott’s framework (care personally, challenge directly) is as valuable in the boardroom as it is in the executive suite.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

A lot of board meetings are, let’s be honest, not great. Parker’s book is about how to design gatherings that actually accomplish what they’re meant to accomplish. Every gathering should have a clear, specific purpose that shapes every decision about format, structure, and who’s in the room.

Reinventing Organizations by Frédéric Laloux

Laloux maps the evolution of organizational structures and makes the case that most organizations are still operating on management models that no longer fit the world we live in. His concept of “teal organizations” will either strike you as visionary or unrealistic. Either way, it will force you to examine assumptions about hierarchy and how decisions get made.

Books on my to-read list in this category this summer:

• The 2-Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray - Seems like a quick read with practical advice for building a stronger network (a key skill for any board member or leader!)

• Love and Work by Marcus Buckingham - I’ve always disliked the phrase ‘Do what you love.’ — and am curious how Buckingham will approach this mindset.

• Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows - On my quest to continue to collect frameworks and mental models. I already a believer of systems thinking, but don’t mind expanding on that.