5 Keys for Promoting Board Engagement
After a year in pandemic mode, a lot has changed in our nonprofits. In over a year, many boards may have seen member’s terms expire and new board members join the ranks. Even without any changes, maintaining an engaged board of directors is essential and new strategies can breathe fresh air into an organization. With new faces, developing the relationships between your nonprofit’s leadership and the board is important and often challenging. Nonprofit leaders and board members have a unique relationship in which leaders serve the board but also play a role in keeping them accountable and engaged. In this blog, we examine five ways to engage board members and avoid having a board that is set to cruise control.
Education
In the same way educating members boosts their motivation and ability to engage, educating your board members advances them, their engagement, and your organization all at once. A lack of engagement may not be from a lack of interest but rather it could stem from lacking confidence in one’s ability and knowledge of nonprofits. Many aspects of nonprofits are not common knowledge, and a little education can go a long way. Make education a part of the onboarding process for new board members, and continue to educate on high-level subjects applicable to nonprofit governance such as budgeting, fiscal responsibility, strategy, etc.
Building confidence will benefit your organization in the long run as new board members become more engaged and better prepared for when they become the senior members of the organization’s board.
Allow for Access
While space between the day-to-day staff and the board is important. That space should not become a chasm that shuts out the board from easy access to opportunities for engagement.
Make sure to build into your organization a plan to regularly provide board members with volunteer opportunities.
Discuss the best way to communicate with the board broadly rather than just default to a certain type of communication.
Use a program/storage method that allows for board members to access board documents, educational materials, calendars, and other pertinent resources the board would need.
By making these resources and opportunities available at all times, board members can take advantage of them on their own time and likely on a more regular basis. If board members cannot access any of this information until their next board meeting, they could end up only hearing about volunteer opportunities or get new educational resources four times a year or even less. Similar to education, having important information accessible will encourage members to prepare and participate more heavily in their work. Giving them flexible access to all the resources they need will help support engagement.
Recognize your Board Members
In the same way we recommended that you recognize your members, you need to recognize your board members. These individuals are also giving their time, connections, and name to your organization. They deserve recognition. At the same time, recognition will motivate engagement. People like to be recognized so be sure to acknowledge your board where appropriate. Easy ways that almost any organization can facilitate are:
Add profiles to your website.
Spotlight them at events.
Recognize (and celebrate) their anniversary for starting at the organization.
Make sure they get to meet top donors and major partners.
Cover individual achievements. Whether it is volunteer hours, large gifts, etc., blog, post, shout-out, or celebrate the great work that board members do, and this will encourage less engaged members to get involved.
Board members contribute a lot to your organization when they volunteer for the board. The members that are stepping up beyond that role ought to be recognized in order to encourage them and others who are not yet engaged. Use this strategy to quickly and easily encourage engagement amongst your board members.
Assign Tasks
One reason for low board engagement could be that a single/few board member(s) does a majority or all of the work. Assigning tasks on an individual basis rather than a board-wide basis will allow for the distribution of work and broader engagement. Regardless of expectations, requesting something of the whole board typically will follow the 80/20 role where 80% of the work will be done by 20% of the people. By directing requests at individuals you can increase engagement, and you have the opportunity to optimize tasks using members’ specific skillsets. Going into annual budgeting, targeting board members with financial backgrounds can help in ways attorneys cannot, and similarly, someone very outgoing or comfortable with public speaking may be a better option for introducing an event than someone less outgoing. While it would be great if the board delegated your requests for engagement on their own, you can still get to that point with some extra foresight. Assign tasks in order to boost accountability and as we said in our previous tip, recognize the skills each individual member possesses.
Expectations
This step is difficult because board members may find this very subjective. To some members, showing up is engagement. Simply being a board member is the substance of their engagement. To avoid confusion over the level of engagement that qualifies for your board, set clear expectations as soon as possible, so board members know what is expected from the outset of the term. Here are a few ideas to incorporate into your expectations for board members:
Quarterly goals for volunteer hours, attendance requirements, giving requirements, or new networking development opportunities.
Build education on expectations into your official onboarding training for new board members.
Review how board members are doing. Allow for feedback from multiple perspectives (other board members, staff, directors, volunteers, donors, etc.).
Expectations are important no matter what task you are overseeing someone undertake. For a position as critical as a board member, expectations must be built into the job description and the education given to board members new and old. Support your member’s engagement by letting them know what is expected of them. All the other strategies lack impact if members do not know what is expected of them.
Your board of directors plays an important role in governing the direction of your nonprofit. They also have a responsibility to be the number one supporters of your organization. From advocating to volunteering to introductions, board members ought to contribute essential benefits to your organization that effectively advance its mission. Engaging your board to do this is important but sometimes difficult, but planning can make a difference in pushing your board to engage. Most of these strategies are centered on building confidence in your board members. The more they know about how a board works, what is expected of them, and the tools at their disposal, the more confident and therefore more engaged they will be. Try these out and advance your board’s engagement and the mission of your organization. Also, be sure
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