Nonprofit Boards: 3 Tips for Better Remote Communication

With the onset of the pandemic last year, your entire organization had to make substantial adjustments to transition to remote work. Your board members were true champs and took those challenges in stride. At this point, they’ve likely fallen into a reliable communication routine. Now, things are looking up, and some organizations are slowly transitioning from a fully remote workspace to a hybrid format. As you make that shift, it’s best to have some strategies in mind to make sure everything runs smoothly. If you’re doing it right, remote work can actually increase performance by up to 13% according to a Stanford Business study.

If you need a few pointers to strengthen your approach to account for remote and in-person participants, we’re here to help. We know remote board communication tactics differ from face-to-face communication strategies. Thankfully, there are several straightforward considerations to improve communication:

Remote work can actually increase performance by up to 13% according to a Stanford Business study.

1. Refine your approach to board meetings.
2. Maintain productivity between meetings.
3. Emphasize relationship building.

Over the past year, we’ve learned a lot of hard lessons about communication. While effective virtual management isn’t a brand new topic, it’s an essential discussion item to add to your agenda, and it’s certainly a new goal for boards to strive for. Let’s dive into how your board can develop effective communication habits.

1
Refine your approach to board meetings.

Your board meetings provide a regularly scheduled time for your board members to come together and discuss your organization’s efforts. These meetings are when your board collaborates the most and formulates plans to put in motion, making it a logical place to start when refining your remote communication strategies.

Whether you’re sticking to fully remote meetings or transitioning to a hybrid format, it’s worth considering how you’ll keep everyone engaged and productive. Boardable’s guide to hybrid board meetings thoroughly explores the proper steps for making the most of these types of meetings, summed up with this graphic:

The article hits on some easy-to-implement strategies that will help keep partially remote meetings focused, engaging, and overall worthwhile during each step of the process. Some of the most notable suggestions include:

• Share an agenda in advance. Your agenda is the driving force of your meetings. It serves as the roadmap for your chair, helping them transition between topics. This is especially important for keeping everyone on the same page about what needs to get done. The board chair should be thorough when creating the agenda. Add clear discussion items, the desired outcome for each topic, and time limits to keep the conversation moving. Then, share it in advance so everyone can come fully prepared to participate.
• Define proper meeting etiquette. A new meeting format can naturally generate some confusion around how to participate and maintain order. Set expectations upfront and share a few guidelines. For instance, attendees should mute their mics whenever they’re not speaking, close extra tabs to eliminate distractions, and raise their hands or send a message in the chat to indicate they have input or a question.
• Designate an in-person participant to monitor the digital boardroom. Remote communication becomes especially tricky during hybrid meetings involving both in-person and remote attendees. Assign someone who’s attending in-person to be the eyes and ears for virtual participants. This person can let the board chair know when someone virtually raises their hand. Plus, this allows connectivity and audio issues to be quickly addressed.

The last thing you want is to waste your board members’ precious time with a disorganized meeting. Taking the time to ensure your meetings are valuable for everyone will result in better outcomes for your organization. Plus, board members will appreciate having a bit more structure and will recognize the extra effort you put in to make their time with your organization worthwhile.

2
Maintain productivity between meetings.

If your board members only communicate during meetings, you’re missing out on a ton of value for your team. Your meetings may be the time when board members discuss action items, but the time between meetings is when they can put those changes into motion.

With a solid communication infrastructure in place, your board of directors can get a lot done outside of their meetings. Here’s how we suggest your board stays focused and keeps your mission top of mind even when they’re not together:

• Set up discussion boards. Email threads can be long, disorganized, and generally confusing to keep track of. Establish an open line of communication by offering a single, organized location for board members to discuss anything that pops up between meetings. This makes it easy for them to communicate any challenges that arise and make quick decisions that they would otherwise have to wait to discuss at the next meeting.
• Share and collaborate on documents. If you don’t have a secure way to share documents with board members, it’s worth considering. By sharing important documents to review between meetings, everyone can review them and provide any input whenever it’s most convenient for them. That way, there’s no need to waste time walking through them in-depth during a meeting.
• Assign tasks. Productive board meetings always result in a list of follow-up tasks that will push your mission forward. Make sure to clearly define who’s in charge of which activities and assign tasks immediately following your meetings. Otherwise, you risk showing up to the next meeting with incomplete tasks and everyone asking, “Oh yeah, who was supposed to do that again?” It’s up to the board chair or administrator to check in periodically to make sure everything gets done.

The right communication technology will empower your team to stay connected even when they’re not in the virtual or hybrid boardroom. Even better, dedicated board management software platforms combine all sorts of helpful communication features, so you don’t have to rely on patchwork solutions to get everything done. One system houses your documents, discussions, meeting information, and tasks.

3
Emphasize relationship building.

When your board isn’t able to gather in person, it can be challenging to reinvent a spirit of positivity and openness that you’d normally build in person. However, a little bit more intentionality and effort will enable you to establish healthy working relationships with and between your board members. Let’s walk through a few ways you can invite them to interact outside of regular board activities.

Board Retreat

You’ve likely noticed that the pandemic and a lack of face-to-face interaction deflated member morale somewhere along the way. A board retreat can help reinvigorate board members’ passion, making it easy for them to connect with one another and strategize for your organization.

You may choose to hold a small, in-person retreat if your board members feel comfortable joining. Alternatively, you can replicate many of the same activities virtually. The main idea is that you’re still able to collaborate face-to-face about your mission and partake in team-building activities as necessary. That means employing the use of collaboration tools, like video conferencing technology.

Figure out what matters most to your board this year and focus on that. Do they need to get to know each other? Do they need to develop leadership skills? Do they need to set goals for your organization? Pick one or two things that you’d like to get done, so you don’t overload the agenda. That way, you can focus on the most important tasks at hand.

Volunteering

Virtual volunteering enables board members to develop a hands-on connection to your mission. It allows them to work together and make a tangible difference on your cause outside of their regular board work. Examples of virtual volunteering for board members may include:

• Volunteering professional skills in a committee
• Participating in a peer-to-peer fundraiser
• Researching your cause and similar organizations
• Gathering necessary supplies for your organization’s work
• Communicating with supporters

Once you return to in-person activities, volunteering provides an informal situation where board members can interact, form relationships, and deepen their involvement in your cause. It’s a highly effective way to establish stronger bonds for everyone involved. As a bonus, if you have them track their time, you might be eligible to also receive volunteer grants.

Social Events

Encourage board members to get to know one another with a social event. Informal gatherings allow them to connect on a personal level by talking about their families and work lives instead of just your organization’s work.

A more relaxed environment like this promotes a sense of friendship, which may ultimately improve their chemistry in the boardroom and help conversations flow a lot smoother. Further, social events are especially important while working remotely, because many of us are missing those much-needed social interactions.

If your vaccinated board members feel comfortable attending a small gathering, consider hosting in-person social events like an escape room where they work together to solve puzzles or a dinner at a local pizza joint. Remote gatherings look a little different. Your online social event could simply be a conference call where they’re free to talk about anything or an online trivia night where they test their random knowledge.

Thank-You Event

The last thing you want is for board members to feel unappreciated. Remember, they're volunteers, generously giving you their time and attention because they care about your mission. They deserve a pat on the back for their generous support every so often.

Sometimes, simply saying “thank you” does the trick, but with all the hard work your board members put in to overcome the distance, why not go all out with a thank-you event?

InitLive’s extensive list of volunteer appreciation ideas explains the importance of going above and beyond with expressing gratitude:

“Effective appreciation ideas do more than just say ‘thank you’ to your volunteers. They also encourage supporters to come back, build dedication to your organization, and create a team environment that drives more long-term engagement.”

If your board members feel comfortable attending a thank-you event in person, you can host a luncheon, bowling night, or movie night. Although, you may have to get creative if you want to host your thank-you event virtually. A virtual board member appreciation event could be along the lines of an online gala. Everyone can get dressed up, and your staff can create a presentation to thank them for all their hard work throughout the year.

What it boils down to is that your organization needs to proactively express appreciation to board members if you want them to serve for another term.

One of the many lessons that we learned from 2020 and 2021 is that technology is constantly adapting and communication will always have a digital aspect to it. Failing to adapt will hinder your organization’s growth, which is why it’s so crucial to define your digital communication plans.

Your board members have too much responsibility on their shoulders to let communication fall by the wayside. Whether your team is in meetings or between them, they need a solid infrastructure to collaborate on your mission and get to know one another. In turn, you’ll start to notice that board members are much more excited to be on your team, which can inspire real change for your cause.