We examine Australia's 56 community-based regional NRM boards of management with responsibilities for delivery of two major national programs: Natural Heritage Trust Extension (NHT2) and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP). The construct of community-based boards, as a lynchpin in the institutional model, has received little attention. Existing literature largely examines boards as individual case studies or in a cursory way within the broader regional arrangements: this article explicitly examines boards, and their current form and function. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is used to examine the efficacy of boards as key agents of regional NRM planning and implementation. The work concludes that the people who comprise the regional system are constrained in performing changing and increasingly onerous roles with uncertain resourcing, and some regional actors are marginalised from decision-making. It identifies a need for governments to streamline program administration, introduce greater clarity and consistency in bilateral agreements, moderate regional responsibilities, enable regional flexibility, support effective capacity building measures and ensure consistent resourcing.