Insider Newsletters: An Easy Way to Keep Your Board in the Loop and Engaged

Article Highlights:

• A small effort that gives you a big boost in your relationship with your board.
• What does an ED need from board members?
• Here’s how it works.

A small effort that gives you a big boost in your relationship with your board.

I’ve known many situations where an executive director needed support from their board and didn’t get it, because the board members were essentially strangers to the ED and to the work.

So, I recommend that you make sure to build time into each board meeting to show off the successes of your organization’s work.

The insider newsletter is a way for an executive director to keep their relationship with their board warmed up.

Why is there a need for this?

If you’re an ED who’s a stranger to your board, they might not be there for you when you need them — and then you can be in real trouble.

And this can happen more easily than you might think: If your board meets for two hours a month, that’s only 24 hours over the course of a whole year — which is not much time for them to get to know you.

It can get worse: If the board cancels the August meeting “because everyone is on vacation,” and then cancels the December meeting “because the holidays are so busy” — now that’s only 20 hours a year.

Say a board member misses two meetings? Now that contact time is down to 16 hours, or the mere equivalent of two workdays out of an entire year.

And if board meetings are filled with reports, that doesn’t leave much time for you to build a relationship with each of the board members.

What does an ED need from board members?

• Partnership: You want board members to know you, appreciate you, and be on your side. You want them to be your advocate, too.

• Crisis Management: If they only spend time with you in meetings where you’re talking about problems and crises, they might begin to see you as a “problem person” — even if you handle those problems really well in the end.

• Strategic Planning: When it’s time to do strategic planning, you want board members to have respect for you, listen to your ideas, and take your proposals seriously.

• Annual Evaluations: When it comes time for your annual evaluation, you want board members to see you as someone who is successful and upbeat.

• And if, God forbid, a board member decides they don’t like you and comes after you? You’ll want to have a strong relationship with the rest of the board members so they’ll stand by you and defend you.

Make time to develop a positive relationship with each of your board members. This could be calling them, taking them to lunch, or asking them to give you their best thinking one-to-one on critical issues.

And I recommend that you set up an “Insider Newsletter.”

Here’s how it works.

It’s an email.

You keep it short: Maybe only two or three sentences. Sometimes it can be a little longer if you have a really good story to tell.

You use the same subject line on every one, like: “Insider Newsletter,” “Top of the news from the Teen Action Program,” or “Sound bite from the Teen Action Program.” Whenever board members see that subject line, they know it will be a quick read and a fun read, so they’ll click on it first.

Most importantly, the content is only good news or thank yous.

For example…

We got our major grant renewed this afternoon. And the foundation increased the amount by $100,000! The foundation president called personally with the news and said, “Year after year, you guys knock our socks off!”

I so wish you could have been on that call with me. Have an extra dessert tonight to celebrate.

Or…

Last night, board members Frank and Janice went out to meet with a possible new donor and came back with a check for $5,000. Congratulations to them both!

More on this at the next board meeting.

Or…

Gabriella came into my office 5 minutes ago, back from doing a workshop in one of our high schools.

She said, “A teen girl came to the library for talk time. She sat down on the bench next to me and said, ‘I can’t take this anymore. I’ve been too ashamed to ask for help, but things are so messed up at home, I have to ask. Will you help me?’

Her eyes filled with tears, and she took my hand and held onto it for the full 30 minutes that we talked. This school has an excellent counselor, so I walked this girl down the hall and introduced her.

Today just might be the most important turning point this girl will ever have in her life. I’m so thankful that I get to work here and make this kind of difference.”

I wanted to tell you this story so you can see what your support means to the teens in our community.

Or…

I had lunch today with six other EDs and every one of them was complaining about their boards.

All I could think is how grateful I am to have each of you on the board of TAP. And that you’re so focused on the mission and that you work so well together.

PS: I didn’t tell them about you all because I don’t want them to try to steal you away from TAP!

You only send out an insider newsletter when you have something really good to send: So maybe you send out two this week — and then maybe nothing for the next three weeks.

Through the insider newsletter, your board members are getting upbeat news in quick bites on a regular basis, so your work will stay present to them — rather than allowing them to forget about you between meetings.

And through this insider newsletter, your board members are developing warm feelings about you.

This insider newsletter only takes 3-5 minutes to write. A small effort that gives you a big boost in your relationship with your board.

A tip: Ask your staff to collect success stories for you — which is a good thing to do anyway. You can use these stories in your appeal letters, grants, and public talks.

At my old organization, the Child Assault Prevention Project, I put together a six-page collection of stories about kids stopping bullies, getting away from kidnappers, and getting help when a familiar person was abusing them.

These stories, short and punchy, were the most effective part of our marketing.

And these stories matter in another way, too. They can help you and your staff appreciate yourselves for the work you do. It’s so easy to get focused on the problems and speed past the victories. 

You might also like:

• A Nonprofit Partnership: How One Board Member Connected Two Organizations and Boosted Both
• Innovative Leadership — Culture Doesn’t Have to Eat Strategy: Tending to Human Factors During Strategic Planning
• Board Horror Stories: How to Reduce Board Resignations
• Five Years and Growing: How One Nonprofit Built a Sustainable, Collaborative Mission
• Measure What You Value: Designing a Values-based Performance Appraisal System

 

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