Has your organization had a board retreat in the last 12 months?
What about in the last 3 years?
10 years?
If you’re like many nonprofit organizations, you fall into one of two common camps with regard to board retreats:
- You don’t have them nearly as often as you should (haven’t had a retreat for 3+ years).
- You have them annually and focus on strategic planning, but fundraising doesn’t make it onto the agenda.
(If this doesn’t apply to your organization, congratulations! You’re on your way to raising major gifts.)
Planning a Board Retreat
If you said “yes” to 1 or 2 above, then it’s time to plan a board retreat this year with major gifts in mind.
Spring and fall are perfect times for board retreats, so it’s important to begin planning now.
Action Item of the Week — 2 hours or less
Set a date, location and agenda for your next board retreat.
First, take some time to discuss with your executive director, board chair, and development committee chair, the need to plan a board retreat for the near future.
Then go ahead and pick a date and select a location, preferably not your regular board room. Ask board members if their company can lend you a board room for the day. It’s better to get away from your normal setting.
Lastly, begin to flesh out your board retreat agenda.
What Does an Amazing Board Retreat Agenda Look Like?
Most board retreats are half or full day retreats, and have a significantly different agenda than a regular board meeting. Discuss the goals and outcomes for your retreat (what you want your board members to walk away with) in advance of creating the agenda.
I recommend some version of the following agenda for your retreat:
- Ice Breaker or team-building exercise
- Mission Moment – An activity to tug at the heartstrings of your board members and remind them why they continue to serve (ideally a client discussing how their life has changed, or a testimonial in the form of a letter, a video, etc.)
- Fundraising – Board retreats can be a once-a-year, unique opportunity for training, role play, and taking the fear out of fundraising
- Strategic planning
- Strategic discussion about a key issue your organization is facing
There should be little or no “regular” board business at this meeting.
Should You Hire an Outside Facilitator?
To use or not to use an outside facilitator: that is the question.
I must admit, I’m biased. A big part of my work is facilitating board retreats, and it’s also one of my favorite activities.
There are a lot of benefits to hiring an outside facilitator, but if your organization can’t afford it, you still have options.
Benefits of an outside facilitator:
- Brings an outside, fresh perspective
- Acts as a neutral facilitator
- Offers years of invaluable expertise in fundraising and strategic planning
If you can’t afford to hire an outside facilitator, I highly recommend swapping with another organization (you facilitate their board retreat and let their director facilitate yours). This is an inexpensive solution to cover two of the three bullets above.
Finally, always provide food and drink. Everyone will be in better spirits on a full stomach!
Recap: Set a Date, Location and Agenda for Your Next Board Retreat
You’ve got your next action item for the Major Gifts Challenge. Work with those at your organization to get your next board retreat on your calendar.
Board retreats provide an indispensable opportunity to improve your organization. An organization that’s constantly evolving and bettering itself is in a much better position to solicit (and receive) major gifts than one that isn’t. It’s also a great time to speak with board members about how they can get help with major gifts, including identification of new donors, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship!
Tell me about a past board retreat that you attended in the comments. What was most helpful? And if you haven’t ever attended one, instead tell me what’s the one thing you most wish to gain out of your first board retreat.
This post is part of Amy’s Major Gifts Challenge. Read the entire series to learn how to solicit major gifts by spending just a few hours each month.
We are going through a board recruitment process and one of the themes that has come up is the need for a board retreat (in addition to our 3 meetings each year) AND an opportunity for our board members to socialize with one another. Both of these items are high on my agenda for the next 8 months and I am glad to have my ideas validated by your blog post (s). Thanks so much for doing this!
You’re welcome, Gretchen. I’m so glad this post helped. I can’t wait to hear about your retreat!
Check, this is a regular for us, every summer. It focuses on strategic planning and other big picture things.
What we do need to do is really up the amount of airtime that goes to fundraising/capital campaign this year. I’ll get that in motion now.
K
Sounds good, K. Let me know how it goes.
Our board has had annual retreats but staff is not involved. Likewise, all the board meetings are closed to board members only unless by invitation of which I have had only 2 in 16 months and the discussion was primarily on marketing.
I supply a development report to my board development representative each month but that is all the involvement I have. There is little feedback as well from the board meetings so it is difficult to know what is being discussed about fundraising but my hunch is that it is not an agenda item.
How do I go about getting my foot in the door and engaging the board in a meaningful conversation about fundraising?
Carolyn,
What is your role at the organization? I believe that all senior staff members should be included in board meetings. Why all the secrecy? I would have a discussion with the ED and Board President about including you in the board meetings, expeically on fundraising topics, if not the entire meeting. You could answer questions and help guide disucssions. What’s the downside to having staff in meetings. If nothing changes, could be time to look for another job. Let me know what happens.
I am the Director of Development but the only paid fundraising staff and I also drive the marketing and PR efforts. I agree that senior staff should be included. The primary reason that I have been given for the “board only” mentality is a desire of the board to not be intrusive in the daily functions of the organization. While I support their rationale I think there is a way to have staff included so that it is meaningful without having the board micro-managing the daily operations of the organization. I think the board would also get a more accurate read on the overall health of the organization.
I go to see day-to-day some web pages and information sites to read posts, but this webpage provides feature based posts.
I recently joined the BOD of this organization. (My “daytime” job is Marketing and Development Coordinator for a non-related organization in a neighboring state.) I have suggested a board retreat to the organization that I am on the board of, however it is being met with resistance, but without any explanation of why they are resisting it. I know that a retreat would jump start the BOD members- they have never had one. Many of the BOD members have been in their roles on the board for 10+ years, and the newer members seem to not last too long, so I am thinking that they are a stagnant group. Any ideas on how to propose the retreat in a way that expresses the necessity of a retreat but does not make it overwhelming sounding (even though I know it is not). Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Kate,
Great question. Have you approached the Executive Director and/or Board President individually, or always at a meeting in front of a group? I would take a one-on-one approach, and I bet you’ll make more headway. You can also say that you’ve been reasearching board “best practices” and they always make time for an annual retreat to discuss planning and fundraising. Let me know if that works.
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