How To Make Your Non-Profit Board Meeting Engaging
Building your non-profit organization takes time, dedication, commitment, and a great team to support it.
Once you’ve built your team of volunteers and supporters, it is important to meet to discuss the various aspects of your organization. However, while meetings are beneficial to an organization’s growth, they can become ineffective if not run correctly.
Today, we will learn how to make your non-profit board meeting engaging.
How To Make Your Non-Profit Board Meeting Engaging
1. Have a Purpose To Meet
There’s nothing worse than gathering your team for a meeting that has no real purpose. Meet only when necessary. If you don’t, your team will become uninterested and disengaged because they feel their time is being wasted. If what you want to discuss can be accomplished in a simple email do so your team will thank you for it.
2. Know Who To Invite
Unless you’re having a “Come to Jesus Meeting” that requires your whole team meetings should involve only those who are directly related to the topic. Determine what needs to be discussed and invite the necessary members of your team to keep the meeting brief and productive.
Note: Authority figures within your nonprofit organization must be present when major decisions are made.
3. Create an Agenda & Send in Advance
I can’t emphasize enough how beneficial a preplanned agenda can be for keeping your meetings quick and concise. Every meeting should have an agenda with clear objectives and a time frame for discussion. You should include an explanation of how each topic up for discussion and how you will be taking suggestions. This will help your team fully understand the conversation and improve the productivity of your meeting.
4. Keep Attendees Engaged
Make your meetings meaningful and engaging by keeping things going at a brisk pace, but allow enough time for a thorough discussion. Call on your members by name when their participation is needed. Vague discussions lead to vague responses. Have everyone look at the same document throughout the meeting to keep them involved and ask for feedback.
5. Provide a Closing Summary at the End of Each Meeting
Keep your team on the same page before you leave each meeting by doing a quick summary of the discussion and decisions made. Allocating 5 minutes at the end of your meeting for this summary will ensure shared understanding and clear commitments.
Bonus Tip: End the Meeting Early If You’re All Done! Never waste people’s time. If you waste theirs they will waste yours.
Now that you know how to make your meetings super-efficient, don’t forget to file your annual 990 Forms with ExpressTaxExempt. If your organization operates on a fiscal tax year starting in February your IRS Form 990 is due this Friday, June 15th.
ExpressTaxExempt helps you remain tax exempt and free from IRS penalties. Create an account or sign in today to handle your nonprofit organization’s tax filing needs.
