The Executive Director's Report

Every board meeting agenda includes the Executive Director's Report.  In my opinion this is one of the most important pieces of information the board receives as part of a board meeting.  I was talking to a young Executive Director recently and he mentioned that he wasn't sure what kind of information his report should contain. 

"I don't want to overwhelm the board with too much information," he said.  How much is too much and how much is too little information for the board?

 

I have put together a few tips on what the Executive Director's Report should contain.

    1.  Strategic Plan update-- the organization's strategic plan is your framework for the report.  What have you (as the Executive Director) done to further the strategic plan?  What goals or objectives have been worked on? What progress has been made?

2.       Successes- Be sure to include success into your Executive Director's report.  This is your opportunity to talk about the achievements you've made.  Feel free to include follow up on items from the previous meeting.

3.      Program Highlights --I was a board member of an organization that included program highlights in the Executive Director's report.  It included a short synopsis of the program, its goals, funders and how the program helped to meet the mission of the nonprofit organization.

4.       Opportunities-- The board report should also be used to describe opportunities with partnerships, collaborations, alliances and funding.  Describe things that you see as leverage points for the organization. 

5.       Try not to overwhelm--As Executive Director you are very knowledgeable about issues that relate to your programs and mission.  One mistake I commonly see with the director's report is giving the board way too much information to chew off at one time.  Your board members are smart people but they don't live and breathe the work that you do.  So feeding the information to them in bite size pieces is very important.

6.      

      Survey them-- I want to add this last tip because in this day and age it is so easy to survey board members without picking up the phone.  Go to www.surveymonkey.com and create an easy and short survey to get input from board members on what they would like in the Executive Director's report. 

These tips will hopefully enable you to provide more informative reports to your board of directors.

Next time, the topic will be How Diversity Can Positively Impact Your Fundraising Goals.  I also have a special giveaway for followers.  So stay tuned.