It sounds like you are describing large non-profits where the CEO’s goals and the mission statement are separable and funding is from many small sources that can’t possibly provide accountability. But a fair number of orgs start as one person’s mission, and your choices are “they stay as CEO” or “zombie org that probably dies shortly”. In that case it seems like the board’s duty is to shut the org down when donors would want it shut down, with an orderly redistribution of remaining money, and otherwise be neutral or supportive. But board members are appointed by the CEO, not the donors, which seems unaligned with that.
It also seems weird to me to say the board is the only check on CEOs. Large funders at small orgs have enormous amounts of power and often do thorough investigations. People complain about it a lot.
It sounds like you are describing large non-profits where the CEO’s goals and the mission statement are separable and funding is from many small sources that can’t possibly provide accountability. But a fair number of orgs start as one person’s mission, and your choices are “they stay as CEO” or “zombie org that probably dies shortly”. In that case it seems like the board’s duty is to shut the org down when donors would want it shut down, with an orderly redistribution of remaining money, and otherwise be neutral or supportive. But board members are appointed by the CEO, not the donors, which seems unaligned with that.
It also seems weird to me to say the board is the only check on CEOs. Large funders at small orgs have enormous amounts of power and often do thorough investigations. People complain about it a lot.