Organizational governance relates to the legal and formal structure for exercising power and authority in the association, and ensuring a smooth operation benefiting both its members and the organization. Though each business membership organization can have its own unique structure, there are certain common elements including members, board of directors, chairman of the board, officers, executive committee, staff and volunteers.

A poorly governed organization cannot deliver on its promises, effectively implement its programs, and fully meet its mission. ICT can support and improve an organization’s responsibilities – from monitoring and assuring performance of tasks and assignments to allocating and monitoring resources. The following free and low-cost tools can support with governance of your business membership organization:

  • Asana is a web and mobile application designed to help teams track their work. It is a no-cost tool available on Android, iPhone, or desktop that tracks tasks and conversations to help project management.
  • FixMyCommunity is a free tool, as part of NDI’s DemTools, that allows citizens to instantly report to the local governments problems they see such as potholes, graffiti, or broken streetlamps. This resource allows for creating channels for reporting problems to a governing body, compilation and sorting of data submitted by citizens, and building legitimacy and efficacy into government services.
  • Slack is a free, cloud-based tool used for instant messaging and collaboration. It is hosted online but is accessible via mobile app or on your computer desktop. Features such as automatically archiving all of your interactions, a search engine, and easy customizability make this platform helpful for strategy and operation.
  • Trello is a free, collaboration tool for program or project management that organizes your projects into boards. The interface allows for staff or group members to quickly see what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in the process – with capabilities to add deadlines/due dates, assign group members to certain tasks, and comment.