The 15th conference of the parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity concludes in Montreal today. The conference serves as a biennial convening of global governments to set 10-year goals on conservation and sustainable resource use and to carve a path to mitigate biodiversity loss.

Many charitable organizations are conducting year-end wrap-ups including assessments of key accomplishments and metrics, annual reporting and board meetings. Given the complexity of IRS and state charitable org regulations for public charities and private foundations, governance is often seen as checklist when it is in practice dimensional as it must be incorporated into organizational strategy and operations to be effective.