I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me: 3 Tips for Board Engagement
One of the recent submissions to our "I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me" series captured a truth many nonprofit leaders know all too well:
"CEOs and EDs often don't understand how to work with their boards for success. They are hired for other skills and often find working with the board takes too much time and don't understand how the board can support them in their work." Lisa (thank you!).
Lisa is onto something important. CEOs and Executive Directors are frequently promoted or hired for their programmatic, operational, or fundraising expertise — not for their skill at managing a governing board. The result is a wide range of dysfunction. I've worked with organizations where the board is so deep in the weeds that the CEO/ED feels unable to do their job. I've worked with just as many where the board shows up, rubber-stamps motions, policies, and budgets, and offers little else.
If you're a CEO or ED looking to engage your board more intentionally, here are three strategies worth considering.
# 1. Build Their Ownership Around the Strategic Plan
Does your board own the strategic plan alongside you, or does it merely approve it once a year and move on?
In practice, your strategic plan should serve as the backbone of your board meeting agendas. If your meetings aren't currently structured around the plan's goals, objectives, and strategies, making that shift can transform how your board engages. It keeps the plan visible and top of mind, prompts board members to think concretely about how they can support it, and keeps everyone informed on where key performance indicators actually stand — rather than surfacing that information only at year-end.
# 2. Know Your Board Members and Their Strengths
Every board is a collection of different skills, and identifying those strengths gives you the opportunity to engage members in ways that actually fit them.
Not every board member is cut out to "hustle for funds" — but they may be a strong writer who can pen an op-ed, a social media natural who can serve as an ambassador for your organization, or a steady hand who can mentor a new board member for a year. For the members who *are* strong fundraisers, set them up for success: give them a script, a specific goal for each engagement, and follow-up tools such as personalized thank-you notes bearing your agency's logo.
Whatever the win — new funding, a new partnership, a new champion for your cause — celebrate it at the start of every meeting. Recognition builds momentum, and momentum builds engagement.
# 3. Make It Fun
Strategic planning can sound daunting — even like the last thing anyone wants to spend a meeting on. But as the CEO or ED, you have more control than you might think over how the work *feels*. Look for small ways to bring energy and levity into the room.
That might mean opening every meeting with a groan-worthy dad joke. It might mean carving out five minutes for a quick "scavenger hunt" — sending small teams off to find and photograph three things around your facility. Or it might mean energizing the board with a moment of genuine impact: a video thank-you from a client, or a brief mission moment shared by staff.
As Maya Angelou put it: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
That's true of your clients. It's just as true of your board.