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Board Portal Best Practices: The Nonprofit—Board Relationship

By Allix Beckmann, April 18, 2019

When you’re a busy, top level executive in the corporate industry, finding and joining a cause could be the difference between a long, fulfilling career—and burn out.

So where do successful CEOs go for fulfillment outside of their busy day jobs? Often, they’ll start by serving on a nonprofit’s Board of Directors.

For many, serving in this capacity allows them to really make a positive impact on important issues, without being overwhelmed by mundane tasks. After all, the intended role for nonprofit directors is to oversee the organization in the advancement of its mission.

Unfortunately, many nonprofits don’t have the resources or capacity to take over all the necessary organizational tasks so that board members are able to focus on the organization’s mission. This means that the nonprofit, even though the cause is truly cared about, isn’t having the strategic impact that it could. And the directors aren’t able to serve in an engaging, impactful way.

Directors want to be engaged with the organization—thinking of ways to further the mission, and sharing that mission with their communities— monthly meetings just serve as a way to share those ideas with each other. Meetings, at their best, can serve as a time to get reconnected and inspired with the organization’s mission.

But today, nonprofit organizations need more from board members than just showing up. 

The qualifications of a successful nonprofit board member are unique. They need to not only be passionate about the mission, but they also must understand and be equipped to carry out all their board responsibilities. To ensure that directors are able to fulfill those duties, the organization has an equally important role— eliminating any obstacles that could make serving on the board difficult. But sometimes extra help is needed to carry that out.

A board portal with communication tools, goal summary functions, and KPI charts— can provide that extra help organizations need to improve the relationship with their board.  Board portals can make serving on the board fun, engaging, and easy.

BoardPaq has several features that allow for communication between meeting dates, so it’s easy to keep directors updated in real time instead of waiting until the next meeting in a month.

With BoardPaq’s News function, you can write and share important news stories on highlights at your organization. This is a fun way for directors to hear news directly from you. After all, reading and learning about a cause you’re passionate about is hardly work. 

As good as it feels to help a good cause, your directors want to know what the true impact is through measurable results. This is why BoardPaq allows for Key Performance Indicators—Numeric KPI’s can be charted through the graphs feature. This is an effective way to track the success of your organization or its programs. Goal summaries or updates can also be shared.

BoardPaq provides a group email feature that allows all directors to be updated, at the same time, about important information. You’ll no longer have to worry about leaving someone’s email out or contact information changing. BoardPaq will automatically send out an email you choose to everyone on the board, with the information they use to access BoardPaq. Since it is sent through BoardPaq’s secure portal, you don’t have to worry about accidentally sending out someone’s contact information that they wished to keep private.

BoardPaq is dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations and their boards work more efficiently, so that more time can be spent on strategic goals that add value to the mission.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of BoardPaq and how your organization can use the nonprofit sector’s most innovative board portal, schedule a demo with a member of our team today.




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Allix Beckmann is a professional writer based in St. Louis, MO. Allix holds a Master of Arts degree in Nonprofit Administration, and has served as a project & marketing manager for several organizations. She provides copywriting, social media marketing, and content writing to a variety of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and social enterprises.
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