The following two books may be of interest to the Board Members and Executive Officers of your non-profit organizations:

Guidebook for Directors of Nonprofit Corporations, Third Edition
http://apps.americanbar.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5070656&sc_cid=5070656-12A
$69.95 each

Nonprofit Governance and Management, Third Edition
https://apps.americanbar.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5070647&sc_cid=5070655-12A
$109.95 each

The books are published by the American Bar Association (ABA). Discounts are available for quantity purchases and ABA members.

I do not have any financial interest in these products.

Thank you!

There are also ways to get into this, at least initially, without spending all that money.

Here is a guide with many of the ideas in it -- specific to North Carolina, but gets you many of the important ideas and concepts.

http://businesslaw.ncbar.org/media/1110 ... ns-2ed.pdf

Here is a 'resource guide' from the law school at Cleveland State University with a wide range of potential tools and information:

http://devel-drupal.law.csuohio.edu/law ... Guide.html

(all one line; worked when I cut and pasted the line)

And here is a theoretical paper (academic jargon alert!) from Canada that covers some of the organizational models:

http://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-styl ... 5final.pdf

There's also the question of whether older editions of these books will 'get the job done' as well as the latest and greatest shiny new version direct from the ABA. For the second (and more expensive) text referenced, for example, the second edition (2005) can be had from Amazon for as low as $21 and shipping at the time I was writing this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... ition=used

and the first edition (Overton, from 1993) is available from all sorts of people for pocket change:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... ition=used

Since anybody reading these books would almost certainly be working with lawyers to implement actual structures or changes to institutions -- I would think the older editions would be essentially just as good as the new ones in a great many respects. They certainly represent a more acceptable alternative to a great many potential nonprofits!