Four Simple Ideas to Engage Your Nonprofit Board Members
Engaging with nonprofit boards is some of my favorite work as a consultant. Strong, engaged leadership – both internal and external – is vital to an organization’s success. Good communication is incredibly important and can foster a positive partnership and greater impact. Here are a few ways to engage members of your nonprofit’s board:
1. Engage members of the board in the strategy
Make sure board members aren’t just handed a list of things to do. People are more inclined to participate and hold themselves accountable for what they help establish. This means, engaging board members in designing a strategic plan, establishing their own committee goals, brainstorming recognition opportunities, and establishing their own giving and participation policies.
2. Consider social media fundraising
Recently, a friend posted a well-written call to action on her Facebook page encouraging people to give to an organization for her birthday. She is a member of the organization’s board, and just the one post garnered dozens of gifts and introduced new people to an organization she’s passionate about.
3. Make it easy to act
Although they may have a strong affinity, board members are not focused full-time on the organizations they serve. Make it easy for board members to participate:
draft an email script for members to introduce the organization to friends
draft LinkedIn/ Facebook/ Twitter message with links for sharing
keep collateral materials easily accessible in shared google drive or basecamp folder
4. Track and report progress by the quarter
Regardless of how often the board meets, commit to establishing quarterly goals and maintaining a consistent schedule of tracking and sharing the organization’s progress toward those goals. This is how most companies report and track toward an annual goal so there may be comfortability in seeing the same system. Think simple, quantifiable metrics: fundraising, programming, board giving, other org-specific metrics. Of course, this is easy to do when there’s a strategic plan in place!
Need help developing a plan to engage your board? Let’s chat!