4 Nonprofit Board Development Strategies to Set You Up for Success
Your board is a critical asset for making sure your nonprofit organization is a success. They’re the ones making the big decisions that will determine which direction your organization takes next, but that can be easier said than done when the decision makers have to work as a team.
Making sure your nonprofit board works as a team starts with making sure you have the right team members, so let’s look at some nonprofit board development strategies that will set you up for success.
Identify and Implement Nonprofit Board Development Best Practices
Before you start recruiting nonprofit board members, take some time to look at the successful nonprofit boards of other organizations to see what’s working for them that you can implement into your own board. How are they recruiting their nonprofit board members? What are they doing to keep their nonprofit board members engaged to ensure the success of the entire nonprofit organization?
Not everything that works for other nonprofit organizations will work for you, but it will at least give you somewhere to start and some ideas for making sure your nonprofit board is a success.
Know Your Goals and Incorporate Them into Your Nonprofit Board Development Strategies
Everything starts with knowing your goals, because if you keep those goals in mind, you can make sure everything you do moves you towards those goals, and that includes your nonprofit board development efforts.
Once you know what goals you want your organization to achieve, you can look for potential nonprofit board members who have the skills needed to achieve those goals. Getting your friends and family on your nonprofit board might fill seats, but it’s not necessarily in the best interest of your organization unless those people also have the right skillset.
Establish Nonprofit Board Contribution Policies and Include Them in the Bylaws
One of the most important steps to successfully recruiting a team member is to communicate your expectations for the role, and that’s as true of your nonprofit board members as it is of your staff and volunteers. To make sure everyone is pulling their own weight on your nonprofit board, you’ll need to establish policies on the minimum contribution you expect from each of your nonprofit board members. This could include everything from board meeting attendance to adding items to the board’s agenda or participating in board meetings.
You might also want to vote on term limits for your nonprofit board members so you can be sure to free up space for new recruits.
Have a Nonprofit Board Manual and Board Mentors
Just like you have an employee manual and volunteer manual to provide guidance to people in those roles, you should have a board manual that lays out everything that’s expected of your nonprofit board members so there are no surprises.
It can also help to assign a board mentor to each new nonprofit board member. Preferably this would be an existing board member who has been in the role for a while and can show your new member the ropes.
Get a Strategy Rockstar to Identify Strategies for Your Nonprofit Board Development
As a Strategy Rockstar with more than 20 years of experience helping both small business owners and nonprofit organizations increase their revenue, I can help your nonprofit organization through any challenge. Whether you’ve been considering some nonprofit board development strategies, you need fundraising tips, or anything in between, you can schedule your FREE clarity call now so we can talk about how I can help.