board meetings Archives | EventUp Planner

Board meetings are vital for organizational success. However, planning successful internal meetings can be challenging when juggling attendee coordination, agenda building, venue selection, and more.

Plus, the traditional format for board meetings just doesn’t cut it anymore! No one wants to attend a boring meeting that lacks focus and doesn’t foster meaningful dialogue.

For forward-thinking companies, board meetings need to stimulate innovation and smart decision-making. Well-planned board meetings create value by aligning key stakeholders, analyzing important issues, and setting the strategic vision for your organization.

Keep reading to learn about best practices for planning effective board meetings. 👀

And remember, with EventUp Planner’s powerful all-in-one platform, you can save valuable time, reduce planning stress, and run strategic board meetings that deliver meaningful business results!

Planning Board Meetings: Best Practices

Planning strategic board meetings that drive decision-making is an accomplishment to be proud of. With the right approach and tools, any meeting planner can plan and execute a productive session that delivers immense organizational value.

Follow these proven best practices to set yourself up for success:

Define clear objectives and focus areas

Having a clear purpose is essential for effective board meetings.

First, set a strategic focus by collaborating with leadership to pinpoint key issues and objectives for the meeting agenda. Prioritize 2-3 key topics that deserve substantive discussion and dialogue. This purposeful framework keeps everyone engaged and prevents the meeting from getting derailed.

Determine the ideal meeting format

Once you’ve identified key objectives, decide on the ideal format for the board meeting — whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid.

Choosing the right format for your meeting encourages maximum engagement and collaboration. Each format has unique advantages. For instance, in-person allows for richer in-room discussions, while virtual enables broad participation regardless of attendees’ location. Hybrid gives you the best of both worlds.

Schedule board meetings well in advance

Give board members as much advance notice as possible. Their calendars fill quickly, so scheduling meetings 6-12 months out boosts attendance from key players. Last-minute meetings risk low turnout and postponement.

With EventUp Planner’s scheduling tools, you can check availability and lock in optimal dates from the start when calendars are open!

CHECK OUT: 3 Reasons Board Members Should Be Involved In Events

Prepare comprehensive board books/materials

To promote productive discussions, board members need access to relevant information and reports in advance. The better the prep materials, the better the discussion!

A board book is a collection of reports, presentations, and materials that helps board members prepare for the discussion. This should follow a standard format so that participants know what to expect at each meeting.

But a board book doesn’t have to be a physical document. EventUp Planner has customizable digital templates that make distribution a breeze so that board members can prepare well in advance.

Allocate sufficient time for the most important topics

While board meetings cover important operational issues, the focus should be on strategic discussions that drive value.

Build in enough agenda time for each key topic — 30-60 minutes per topic is recommended. Having ample time for back-and-forth dialogue ensures issues are discussed thoroughly, which ultimately leads to better decision making.

Must-Have Software Features to Run Better Board Meetings

EventUp Planner’s comprehensive platform empowers you with key features to elevate your organization’s most important board meetings:

👨‍💻 Hybrid or virtual meeting capabilities

Modern board members are increasingly distributed, making virtual or hybrid meeting components essential.

With EventUp Planner, you can seamlessly accommodate both in-person and remote participants through robust hybrid capabilities. Leverage our virtual event tools to live-stream discussions or make sessions available on-demand with full engagement features like polls, Q&A, and more!

This hybrid flexibility ensures your entire board can actively take part from anywhere in the world.

📆 Scheduling tools for a comprehensive, accessible agenda

An easy-to-understand agenda is the backbone of strategic board meetings.

EventUp Planner’s intuitive schedule management tools allow you to effortlessly build out your full program. Simply drag and drop sessions, speakers, rooms, and other elements using the visual scheduling interface. You’ll get alerts for any overlaps to avoid double-bookings.

Once your agenda is set, publish it instantly to your branded event website, with all updates syncing automatically in real-time. Attendees can explore the full schedule, sessions, and other important event details through an accessible digital experience.

📧 Clonable, easy-to-build communication workflows

Successful board meetings rely on ongoing communication and collaboration amongst participants before, during, and after the meeting. EventUp Planner simplifies this process every step of the way with:

Centralized agenda templates get everyone prepped and on the same page
Pre-meeting workflows including invitations, reminders, and document sharing
Post-meeting workflows to share insights, assign action items, and drive accountability
The ability to easily clone previous meeting assets and communication flows so you’re not reinventing the wheel

Streamlined communication means you’re maximizing the information being shared during strategic board meetings, which leads to greater alignment and productivity.

Meetings Made Easier: The Power of Meeting Planning Software

Our purpose-built platform creates the ideal command center for planning board meetings. This includes numerous benefits to you, the amazing planner behind it all:

✅ Save hours of time with centralized event scheduling, communication, and management capabilities

✅ Reduce planning stress and headaches with automated tools that catch conflicts

✅ Deliver engaging, interactive meeting experiences that ‘wow’ stakeholders

✅ Provide a professional, on-brand experience across virtual and in-person components

With EventUp Planner handling all the heavy lifting, you can focus on strategic priorities instead of time-consuming manual processes.

GO DEEPER: How to Bring Event Costs Down Using Corporate Meeting Planning Software

Plan Better Strategic Board Meetings with EventUp Planner

Planning effective board meetings that drive strategic impact is no easy feat.

Between coordinating attendees, building agendas, and juggling logistics, planning these important events is a big undertaking. But you don’t have to do it alone!

EventUp Planner’s all-in-one platform streamlines the entire planning process from start to finish so that you can focus on creating the best possible board meeting.

See how our intuitive tools can transform your approach — book a demo today!

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Manage your entire event portfolio and drive down the cost per event with each additional event you execute. EventUp Planner has flat-fee pricing, with no surprises.

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Book a call with our team to learn how EventUp Planner fits your needs.

Nonprofits host many events each year for various purposes, from fundraising to volunteer training to donor appreciation. Successfully hosting all these events requires a dedicated team of planners who will handle all the necessary tasks and logistics. However, that’s not to say that support from other community members isn’t beneficial.

In particular, your organization’s board of directors can provide key support for your event—you just need to know how best to leverage their skills and connections. In this guide, we’ll cover three reasons why your nonprofit’s board members should be involved in your events and tips on how they can help. Let’s begin!

1. Strategic Insights

Board members often handle governance and oversight of their organizations, as well as strategic planning to support the organization’s mission and goals. Their duties may fall in the following areas:

Mission and vision. Board members often help refine their nonprofit’s mission, vision, and strategic goals, which guides the nonprofit’s operations and the board’s own responsibilities.

Finance. A board of directors may keep finances organized by approving budgets, monitoring the nonprofit’s financial health, and ensuring proper financial management and reporting.

Compliance. Board members may identify potential risks to the nonprofit and ensure that it adheres to all legal requirements.

Long-term strategy. Since a board of directors handles governance and oversight, including policy development and performance monitoring, they’re usually in a good position to lay the foundation for the nonprofit’s long-term strategy and secure the resources it needs to grow.

Having the skills to perform these duties translates well to the strategic oversight of your nonprofit’s event. For example, your board members who deal with big-picture finances for your nonprofit may be able to assist your financial team with establishing the event’s budget, pricing tickets, and recommending cost-saving measures that optimize the event’s return on investment (ROI).

Additionally, since your events likely fit somewhere in your organization’s overall strategic plan, your board members may have key insights to offer your event planning team. For example, if you’re hosting a fundraising event as part of your capital campaign, your board can let you know how much money the event must raise for your nonprofit to meet its campaign goals. Or, for a campaign kickoff event, they might provide the overarching goals and vision for the campaign that your nonprofit should present to its stakeholders.

2. Networks

Another reason for board members to get involved with your nonprofit’s events is their networks. Usually, nonprofits choose well-connected, wealthy, and passionate individuals dedicated to helping the organization succeed to serve on their board of directors. Since one of the main reasons you’ve chosen them is for their connections, why not leverage them for your events?

For fundraising events in particular, have board members reach out to previous or potential major donors in their networks to ensure you meet your goals. They can work closely with your major gifts officer to identify these valuable individuals, connect with them, and build relationships.

With a pre-existing relationship or connection, major donors will be more inclined to make a large gift for your nonprofit’s event. And, they’ll appreciate that your nonprofit is communicating with them through a high-level member of your organization.

Another way your board members’ connections can benefit your nonprofit is when it comes to partnering with businesses. According to Double the Donation, charitable organizations usually seek sponsorships by:

Contacting local businesses
Seeking out shared values
Researching online

After they identify potential corporate partners that can make a significant impact on their event, the nonprofit’s sponsorship team will begin outreach to them.

With your board members’ network, you may be able to skip a few steps in this process and avoid difficult discussions. Have board members recommend businesses and corporations they have connections with and may be interested in sponsoring your nonprofit’s event. The board member can reach out to their points of contact to solicit the business’s help themselves, improving your chances of successfully landing a sponsorship.

3. Board Engagement

Our last reason why board members should be involved in your nonprofit’s events is engagement. Just as you motivate your organization’s staff members, you should have strategies in place to keep board members feeling energized and dedicated to your nonprofit’s cause.

Engaged board members:

Are connected to your mission. When board members are engaged, they feel a personal connection to your nonprofit’s mission and are passionate about furthering it. This makes them more likely to regularly attend meetings, participate in key discussions, and contribute to important decision-making.

Lead by example. Engaged board members aren’t afraid to advocate for your nonprofit within their communities and amongst potential donors and partners. They’re happy to take on additional responsibilities, interact with staff members and supporters, and show off their dedication to your nonprofit.

Improve organizational culture. When a business has engaged employees, it results in a more positive company culture where everyone feels motivated to work hard and meet company goals. It’s similar for board members in a nonprofit—their dedication will inspire staff members to work harder and supporters to volunteer and donate more.

Don’t forget, at the end of the day, your board members should be your nonprofit’s staunchest supporters—meaning they’re often major donors themselves, too. Donorly highlights three markers of major donor prospects:

Capacity markers, or wealth markers, indicate a donor is in a financial position to be a high-capacity donor for your nonprofit.

Affinity markers, or warmth markers, show a donor is interested in supporting your organization’s mission because it resonates with their experiences or values.

Propensity markers, or habit markers, indicate a prospect has demonstrated a personal commitment to support nonprofits with their donations and time.

Your board members should have all three of these markers. The fact that they agreed to serve on your board means that they’re willing to support nonprofits in general and boost your mission in particular. Keeping them engaged is valuable beyond their roles as board members, as they may also serve as loyal major donors.

By encouraging board members to get involved with your nonprofit’s events, you’ll have an easier time keeping them engaged and retaining their support.

With the help of your board members, you’ll host events that give attendees exactly what they want—a lively way to get involved with and support your mission. Not only that, but you’ll make event planning easier by tapping into your board’s expertise and connections, keeping them engaged with and dedicated to your cause. Be sure to show your appreciation for your board members’ hard work and encourage them to lend their aid to your events again in the future!

Tag: board meetings

How to Plan Effective Board Meetings