Note on the Governance of Nonprofit Organizations: Lessons from Mayo Clinic

Abstract

In this note, we first discuss the governance problems in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) from both a theoretical and practical perspective. We then describe the governance structure at Mayo Clinic based on a review of documents, written descriptions by those involved from the beginning and interviews with members of the leadership in recent years. Based on this, we explore the principles that determined the clinic’s governance and the lessons that can guide other NPOs. The clinic’s history reveals unusually careful thinking about the governance principles at its inception, and continued devotion to these principles even while adapting, as needed, over the years.

Keywords: non-profit organizations, corporate governance