Keeping Your Board Engaged: Tips to Meet the Challenge
Non-profit organizations utilize their board members to optimize their ability to pursue its programming goals and meet financial objectives. Two key hurdles that many nonprofits face when it comes to their board is consistently keeping them engaged with you and recruiting new members. Your board members should be very diverse, coming from different backgrounds and industries and it can sometimes be challenging to have everyone reach towards the same goals. Engagement can mean a lot of things to a lot of people but communication, bringing value and providing relationship-building opportunities are three key areas that nonprofit executives should think about. Here are a couple of thoughts:
Encourage Communication Among Members:
This might seem like an obvious step, and you might assume that your board members communicate among themselves and get to know each other. Don’t assume. I can’t tell you how many boards that I served on where members didn’t reach out to each other therefore impacting what we could accomplish. I’m sure you can acknowledge that your board members have different motivations for participating. In most cases they’re there to help further your cause but there are other motivations too including building their network, learning board leadership, or it’s just something to add to their resume. If you can coach your board on the benefits of communicating among themselves, their engagement will strengthen. Host board meetings that emphasize collaboration and consistency. Can you include participation from multiple board members at those meetings, not just committee chairs? Also, having recurring scheduled meetings encourages uniformity and develops positive communication habits. Encourage board members to communicate outside of your scheduled meetings. This could mean using social media, in particular, LinkedIn to connect with each other. Arrange meetings among random board members so they can meet outside schedule meetings. We’d also recommend hosting regular board socials to help board members bond and meet other members. If your members have “friends” on the board, that will naturally increase their engagement and participation at meetings.
Support and Training:
Keeping your board members educated on your mission is an important step in their engagement so regular support and training is necessary to help them stay focused. Start with asking your board what you can do to provide resources and training to make their experience more engaging. Use a simple survey mechanism to find answers and commonalities. I use PointerPro. In many cases, board members need to know how they are presenting your nonprofit with a simple elevator speech. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on a board or worked with a nonprofit where this can be a major factor in getting them to give you introductions or referrals. Offering training around how they can share content via your social channels can have a huge impact on your reach and it’s a relatively small lift.
Informing your board consistently on what’s happening on your team, your programming, etc. is critical. Provide them with simple one-sheets about programming so it’s easy for them to share with colleagues. Make sure you provide an updated board member contact sheet so they know how to reach everyone. Some boards can have a huge amount of members so it may be difficult for them to keep track. In addition, make sure they know who to go to on your staff for various questions or decisions.
Engagement Opportunities:
In order to increase engagement, I suggest you put together more organized engagement opportunities throughout the year. This could be board socials, requirements to attend your events or board challenges. Board socials are a great way to help your members develop deeper bonds with each other. Getting out of the workplace or boardroom can be relaxing and fun. You can also ask board members to “sponsor” the socials as a way to increase their own brand awareness and contribute to your financial goals. Attending a certain number of your organizations’ events should be a requirement of every board member, not just a benefit. As you know, having board members at your events shows engagement, can help with bringing in new sponsors or donors and can help keep them informed of your mission. Lastly, executing on a board challenge can be a great way to get even your least engaged board members participating in fundraising and awareness. You can focus on an annual event or even just a period in time. Your board challenge should be set up with some simple rules, goals, resources, teams and reporting structure. It’s a little more to manage but the outcomes can be huge.
The effect that non-profit organizations have on our region is astounding. We’re all lucky to have such organizations helping our communities. Behind the curtain of all of these organizations are board members that must collaborate to achieve the high goals you set. Keeping them engaged by encouraging communication, training and team-building opportunities is essential to reaching your goals.
Partner with Dinkel Business Development, LLC Today
If you want to learn more about engaging your board and the benefits of metric-driven business development, we’re here to help. Please call us at 443.226.0163 or reach us via email at john@dinkelbd.com to get started.
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