Non-Profit Board Member Continuous Learning

How can we encourage continuous learning of our non-profit board members after the orientation?

There are multiple ways to allow a board to further develop their skills.

Media Review

Assign some media to the board to review between meetings, and have a discussion as a group on how the board can incorporate this learning into the board activities. This could be a book, a journal article, a podcast, or a YouTube video on a topic of your choice. Have each board member make recommendations on material they would like the whole board to review and discuss.

Online learning

Online board education has largely replaced face-to-face conferences and seminars, and podcasts can be a great fit for busy board members who aren’t able to commit to in person board training.

Board Retreats

Allow some time to have an annual or semiannual board retreat on a specific topic or challenge. Retreats don’t need to be a vacation, you can have a half day or evening set aside once per year in your usual meeting location. This can be a general education topic, developing an annual work plan, building more effective communication between the board and Executive Director, or analyzing a major trend. Any topic that needs a deep discussion is a good topic for a board retreat. Bring in an outside facilitator for particularly contentious issues if needed, but general education topics can be done by the board members themselves.

Board Meeting Time

Designate one meeting agenda item to issues in the sector and allocate time at board meetings to discuss a topic of relevance to the organization. This works well for basic topics such as reading financial statements, reviewing a policy, discussing how to improve communication between board meetings, or volunteer recruitment and retention.

For more information on non-profit board operation, check out our other posts on various board governance topics at https://www.npgs.ca/blog