The National Governors Association—the bipartisan organization of the nation's governors—promotes visionary state leadership, shares best practices and speaks with a unified voice on national policy.

Its members are the governors of the 50 states and five territories.

The NGA chair, vice chair and other members of the nine-person Executive Committee, who are elected annually, supervise the association's operations on behalf of the entire membership. NGA maintains four standing committees – Economic Development and Commerce; Education, Early Childhood and Workforce; Health and Human Services; and Natural Resources – enabling governors to examine and develop policy and address key state and national issues. NGA also creates special ad hoc task forces of select governors to focus on high-priority issues for states, including a "Chair's Initiative" task force organized each year to reflect the special focus of the chair.

NGA Leadership - (pdf)

The NGA Center for Best Practices helps governors and their key policy staff develop and implement innovative solutions to governance and policy challenges in their states. The NGA Center tracks, evaluates and disseminates information on state innovations and best practices in a variety of issue areas. The NGA Center helps governors and their policy staff learn about emerging issues, and it develops cutting-edge solutions to stay ahead of problems by providing on-site analysis, convening focus groups and bringing together experts from across the country.

Center for Best Practices Homepage

The governors convene at NGA meetings twice a year. The Winter Meeting is held in Washington, D.C., usually in February. During this meeting, governors focus primarily on federal-state issues. NGA's Annual Meeting is held in a different location each summer, typically in July or August. NGA's executive committee selects the site for the Annual Meeting based upon bids from governors interested in hosting the meeting.

Like most associations, NGA's meetings are the business meetings of the organization. These are meetings for NGA members – not meetings for the general public. No outside groups or individuals participate in the meetings, unless they are invited speakers or panelists. Registered attendees for NGA meetings can observe business sessions, but they do not participate. C-SPAN often airs these business sessions. No attendees, including the media, are allowed to observe "Governors-only" sessions.

NGA has separate funding sources that provide revenues for the two different staff operations that make up NGA. Individual states pay dues to belong to NGA, and these revenues fund the state-federal operations of the organization. NGA's Center is funded primarily from federal grants and contracts and through private foundation grants. These grants support the work of the Center experts and research teams on specific areas called for in the grant proposals. Approximately 10 percent of the Center's funding comes from NGA's Corporate Fellows Program.

Founded in 1988, the NGA Corporate Fellows Program promotes the exchange of information between the private sector and governors and stimulates discussion among the Corporate Fellows on emerging trends and factors affecting both business and government. With an annual contribution of $20,000, companies that participate as Corporate Fellows invest in finding solutions to tomorrow's public policy challenges. Working through NGA's nonprofit arm, the NGA Center for Best Practices, the program generates a spirit of partnership through meaningful dialogue between leaders of the public and private sectors.

Corporate Fellows Program Homepage

Financial responsibilities for the NGA Annual Meeting are shared by NGA and the host state. Host state fundraising comes from a variety of sources, including businesses and corporations in the state who are supportive of the state’s host status responsibilities. Contributions may be monetary or an in-kind donation of goods and services within NGA guidelines.