Who governs in a crisis? Insights from the nonprofit credit union sector in Ireland

Nonprofit literature tends to frame governance as a responsibility of the board, but this assumption may not hold in a fast-changing environment. Drawing on interviews with managers of community-based credit unions in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, this article examines who governs during a crisis and why governance arrangements vary across credit unions. This article makes two contributions to the literature. First, it shows that dominant decision-makers formed crisis governance teams (CGTs). Second, membership of these teams was influenced by the competencies of the board, chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior managers. To explain the variation, we introduce four stylised governance arrangements: CEO-dominated, collaborative (board and CEO), board-dominated, and fragmented. Finally, by challenging the view that governance is solely the responsibility of the board, the article offers policy recommendations for the design of nonprofit governance regulation, highlighting the importance of age diversity and succession planning for CEOs and volunteer boards.