How do you stay connected with your Board of Directors and committees?
What strategies do you use to keep your Board connected and engaged with your important philanthropic work?
Some questions from today's Coffee Talk to think about:
- What are your policies and procedures for your Board of Directors and Committees?
- How do you recruit and bring on new members?
- How do you structure committees and what responsibilities come with that membership?
- Do you have any events or special things you do to engage your Board Members?
Comments
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Hi @MikaylaComes, There is a lot to cover in this request. I am happy to share what I can. I have found grant application review in GLM and site visits to be one of the best ways to engage board members. If you want to share ideas, please reach out and we can set up a call. Kate
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Hi @KateClavijo! Mikayla's questions are some that were discussed during last week's Coffee Talk. We're using this space in Compass to keep that conversation going! We'd love to hear your experience on any one of these topics if you're willing to share, and hopefully others will chime in as well.
Kara
Community Manager
Kara Adams, M.Ed., CAE (she/her/hers)|Community Manager|kara.adams@foundant.com
Headquartered: Bozeman, MT| Remote Location: Chicago, IL | Direct: 312-802-1374 |www.foundant.com|
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I wasn't able to join the discussion live and just finished listening to the recording. One of my roles with the Community Foundation of Carroll County (MD) is board liaison. I'm looking for a secure and (hopefully) easy way to share documents and information with a board that trends older and less tech savvy. Google docs is currently not an option as our board president will not use their products.
Someone mentioned Boardable, which I will definitely check out. There was also a comment that some are using Foundant's grants or scholarship modules, which I would love to hear more about. (This is our first year using SLM so any insight would be great.) Are there other organizational tools you are using to give board members access to documents, allow committees to communicate, etc that is secure and not too terribly hard for people to learn?
Thanks for the help!
Sharon
Sharon Tillman
Communications Director
Community Foundation of Carroll County, MD
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Hello everyone,
I have been at our CF for about 18 months. I want to re-envision our Development Committee's job description (it is currently non-existent). Does anyone have templates they could share of what is working well for them?
We are currently a committee of 4-6 (myself as the Development Officer, our Board Chair in ex-officio status, a Board Member as Committee Chair and then at least one other Board Member and one or two community members.
Right now, I typically tell them what I am doing and they give feedback. I would like to find ways to get them more engaged. Maybe "thank yous" to donors or other strategies.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Laura Malone | Development Officer
Community Foundation Lorain County
lmalone@peoplewhocare.org
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Hi @LauraMalone,
We started asking Board Members and Committee members to make thank-you calls to our donors. We send them a list of donors and a script. It is a great way to get them engaged. You can also encourage them to talk to the donors and learn more about why they gave.
Hope this is helpful.
Have a great day
Mary Ellen
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We have a mission moment at the beginning of each board meeting. A content expert will talk about a specific program our foundation is funding. This has been well received.
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@SharonTillman a national board I served on used OnBoard. it was a great portal to share information, documents, calendars, etc. There was lots of built in security. For example, only some people were given permission to see certain things,. There were folders set up for each committee. It made our board meetings much smoother. The distribution of documents was so much easier. Rather than sending large zip files for the board packet, everything was just loaded on to the platform.
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Our Board Members have all engaged in writing Thank You notes to donors. At the beginning of the year I send out stamps, envelopes and cards to each Board member. Then every month I send a list of names to the Board Member along with address for a thank you to be sent. They are provided a template to follow. This Thank You is in addition to the donor receipt (immediate), donor email from Executive Director (24-48 Hours), and Thank You Post Card (4 weeks).
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