ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the literature on nonprofit organizational and nonprofit governance effectiveness. Effectiveness studies have proliferated to the extent that the field now supports a number of meta-analyses of nonprofit organizational effectiveness. Complementing the notion of variety in compositional effectiveness, there is evidence of a growing 'effective governance as social construction' literature that parallels the growth of social constructionist explanations of organizational effectiveness. If the literature of organizational effectiveness is slowly coalescing around the notion of the social construction of effectiveness, the field of study of governance effectiveness may soon follow suit. A major dimension of contention in the board literature is that of board diversity, with an emphasis on board member demographics. Whatever the terms, the substantial literature on social elites in the United States suggests that board member elite status also could be a trigger of legitimacy.
