Part 1: Tips for keeping your board in the loop
Written by Zoe Alexis Whitehorn
As a nonprofit leader, you know just how important communicating with your board members is. Board member awareness, buy-in, input and collaboration…well…it all matters.
Boards may play many different roles depending on your organization, but they share one important characteristic: they’re essential partners in your organization’s success.
That’s why we created a series of tips for communicating with your board. For this first installment of our two-part series, let’s start by understanding board member capacity for information, and how to create a great board update.
Characteristics of A Typical Board Member
Board members are often key collaborators in communications work. Understanding what’s most important to them is critical so we can meet them where they are with the right information, at the right time.
As volunteer members of your organization, they’re busy – board members often have full-time jobs or hold different roles and priorities outside your organization. They aren’t always in the day-to-day weeds on your work, and they may need more background information or reminders than your colleagues, for example. (“But we’ve already told them” isn’t going to fly,)
They care about mission, impact and return on investment (ROI) – they’re deeply dedicated to your organization’s mission, and want to see how your work aligns with and helps achieve your organization’s goals. Show them your impact!
While your board likely has diverse perspectives, skill sets and lived experiences, board members may come to the table with different levels of communications expertise. Maybe they have a different understanding of what “core messaging” means than you, or perhaps they’re used to writing papers for peers and not for the community, where simplicity and readability matter greatly.
With all this in mind, here are two tips our team has learned from years of experience working directly with boards.
Share Context. Repeat.
Remember, your board members are volunteers, and they’re likely juggling a lot, with full inboxes and full brains.
Sharing context early, thoroughly and often is an act of kindness. It can also help build buy-in, get you to a yes and set a productive, collaborative (read: effective) tone for your next initiative.
For example, if you’re recommending the organization sign a contract with a new vendor (like, might we suggest, a fabulous woman-owned, all-remote communications firm that loves kids…), accompany that recommendation with context about staff capacity, project scope and goals, and hone in on what very important need this new vendor would fill.
Then, repeat, repeat, repeat. Include project status and processes whenever you reach out or speak to the board. Every. Time.
Tips for a Thorough Board Update
Ask yourself what someone new to this work might need to know about how you arrived at a specific decision, how you upheld organizational values while selecting a vendor, or perhaps how carefully you developed an important deliverable like a new set of core messages.
When sharing updates in this way, you might ask yourself:
How have you arrived here?
What decisions has the board already approved?
What’s next?
Where can board members expect to weigh in?
And, of course, when will it all be done?
Ensuring your board updates are thorough, include context and are shared repeatedly will help you work well with one of your most important partners.
