A very good question! As @ptomato has already pointed out, the information on GuideStar is derived from our non-profit 990 filings, which are submitted are filed a few months after the year end, and then published a couple of years later, so our rating there doesn’t reflect current practices. With support and encouragement from Neil we’ve been trying to implement these governance best practices and check more of the boxes on that form - we’ve established an compensation committee of the board to review the ED perfomance and salary, set up a conflict of interest policy and forms, etc.
As @shaunm says we’ve been transparent for quite a while when it comes to finances, but to my eyes the information has not been as detailed or punctual as I would like for the Foundation, and has been biased towards the past or “just in time”. I and the board have been giving Neil pretty constant feedback that the Foundation needs to do better about timely reporting on use of resources, forecasting and financial goal-setting. In fairness, on top of very understandable constraints of time and focus that are not uncommon for non profits, we’ve faced serious illnesses and had all kinds of technical issues there. Franky we have been struggling with trying to stick to FOSS systems and not even being able to find external consultants to get the support and functionality we need. This means the reporting of finances remains slower and less accurate than I would like to see, and forecasts are sketchy - but we’re pushing on it and would love to share any improvements publicly as they occur.
In terms of leadership training, and being clear about how we translate the mission of the foundation into our strategy, we’ve already started to share strategic goals but have not quite lined them up with things like a succinct statement of our mission, some 5 or 10 year goals, etc. We’ve been working with a consultant during the past board term on this, and training to bring the board’s level of attention to a more strategic level, and I hope we can continue this as a priority for the next board.
I’ve responded in some more detail about our work on transparency at Question: Adoption of a Freedom of Information policy - #2 by ramcq as well, but I think moving towards a well-known best practice such as GuideStar’s Seal of Transparency is a superb idea and would definitely support it through the next board term.