How to Create an Effective Nonprofit Board Report – Yearly

One of a nonprofit’s greatest tools is its board of directors. A board of directors helps set high-level strategy and helps to progress the mission. A board meeting—structured by an effective nonprofit board report­—is one of the best ways to update members, motivate them, and unite them. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through how to create an effective board report for your next meeting.

We’ll discuss questions like:

• What is a nonprofit board report?
• Why is a nonprofit board report important?
• What’s included in a nonprofit board report?
• What should I avoid when creating my board report?

What is a nonprofit board report?

A board report is a comprehensive document that updates members on the operations of the organization. A board report helps members keep up to date with successes and setbacks to help make decisions for the future.

Board reports can be created in a variety of formats. But, to save time and money, we recommend creating a digital report that can be downloaded and printed as a pdf to bring to the meeting. That way, your organization can send the report out via email before the meeting. And as a digital file, the report can be projected at the meeting.  

Why is a nonprofit board report important?

A board report is essential for board member engagement and retention. A board report is an opportunity to reiterate your mission, inform members of crucial information, and engage them in future decisions. Plus, they can help serve as the agenda for your next board meeting.

Digital board reports also allow organizations to streamline many of their processes. By including links to event registration, additional information, and more, nonprofits can use their board reports as one central information hub. And, a digital report is perfect for presentations. Keep your board and staff on track during the meeting by projecting the digital report onto your computer or screen.

Now that we’ve covered what board reports are and why they’re important, let’s dive into what to include in yours.

What’s included in a nonprofit board report?

Every board report looks different, depending on the mission and objectives. But, most board reports include the following sections.

The nonprofit board report checklist:

• Introduction
• Highlights
• Successes
• Updates
• Finances
• Key takeaways 
• Industry news
• Current challenges
• Gratitude
• Conclusion and action items

Now, let’s break down each section into further detail.

Introduction

The introduction serves to welcome members and provide an agenda for the meeting.  This is also a great place to reiterate your mission and goals. Or even to remind your board what their role in your organization is and why it’s important.

Highlights since the last meeting

To begin the meeting, quickly cover major updates. This can be done using a bulleted list of key highlights.

Overview of successes

In this section, it’s time to share your accomplishments. To showcase them, include video or photos of your success as well as relevant impact stories and case studies. Likewise, be sure to include event recap videos and beneficiary testimonials, if relevant.

Updates on the organization and mission

Let board members know what’s going on behind the scenes. Include detailed information about new hires, programs, or newly launched initiatives.

Financial overview

Include metrics around your revenue and expenses using a pie chart. Clearly label data sets and add helpful context where necessary.

Key takeaways from successes

To help show takeaways, include more case studies, infographics, and other forms of data visualization. Use bold brand colors to emphasize and highlight the most important conclusions. Help board members connect the dots.

Relevant industry news

Explain to board members how your organization fits in within the rest of the industry. Consider what challenges your competitors are facing, and how you’re organization is fairing. And, how you’re responding to the challenges of the industry in real-time. To do so, embed relevant social media posts and links to further resources for context.

Current challenges and potential solutions

Once you’ve highlighted your successes, it’s time to address the problems. Outline what you’re struggling with, and how you and your organization might problem-solve. Create a timeline for your projected progress.

Gratitude

Highlight specific board members for their efforts with photos and profiles. Or, even better, a quick video. Showing gratitude to board members will make them feel appreciated, which is key for retention.

Conclusion with action items

End your board report with a list of key, actionable takeaways. Remember how important CTAs are to annual and impact reports. Board reports are much the same. Make sure that your members know exactly how they can help by the end of the report. And, in this section, include links to upcoming events or fundraisers.

Now that we’ve covered the necessary sections, let’s review what to avoid in your board report.

What to avoid in creating your nonprofit board report

Including redundant information.  Board members are notoriously busy. That’s why your board report mustn’t include any unnecessary material. Ensure that your board report is clear, succinct, and to the point.

Writing for the wrong audience. When creating your annual report, keep your audience in mind. Unlike writing for volunteers or beneficiaries, writing for your board involves specific language. Tap into what they’ll be interested in hearing, and what matters to them.

Making your board report look like a textbook. It’s important to avoid writing your bird report with dense paragraphs. Though the report is informational in nature, be sure to make the material exciting with fonts, colors, photos, and interactive elements. Think clickable links, interactive graphs, and videos!

Including unbranded content. Your board meeting and the report is a great places to reinforce your brand and vision. One easy way to accomplish this is by designing your report with your unique fonts and colors.

Not optimizing user experience. We know. User experience sounds like a very technical term. But what it really means is making sure that your board members can interact with your report with ease. That means clickable links to sign-ups, links to partner websites, and even donation links.

Are you ready to make your own printable, digital board report? Check out Yearly’s free trial to start building an interactive, exciting report for your next meeting.