Imagine giving 3-6 years of your volunteer time to an organization, only to roll off the board and never hear from the organization again. This is a very realistic scenario for many board members. In this week’s episode, we are discussing what happens when you roll off a nonprofit board and how organizations can keep past board members engaged.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Board Tenure and when you leave the board

01:30 – How to engage past board members

Transcript:

“On this week’s episode, the i501cYou – The Podcast for Nonprofit Board Members. I’m going to touch on a topic I’ve touched on a little bit before and speaking and also in speaking to some of our guests. And it really resonated last week with Dawn Stanhope and the fact that I want to talk a little bit about board tenure and when you leave the board.

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So so oftentimes people join a board. They’re of course passionate about the topic, passion about the organization, and they’ll continue to stay on the board for three, six, nine years or maybe even more. Most four terms. We know the proverbial best practices, two, three year terms. So let’s say you’re on the board six years likely. You’ve even ascended to a leadership position.

You’ve been on the board that long and now all of a sudden, after your tenure, after you term out, what is there do magically on that day? Do you lose passion for the organization? Do you not care about the organization? Well, absolutely. Of course not. That’s somewhat silly. But the fact is, oftentimes in the nonprofit world, once somebody rolls off, we really don’t focus on them anymore.

And we just continue to work with our current and existing board. Boy, past board members are just a plethora of opportunity for engagement, for volunteering, for funding, fundraising and just that wisdom and that experience. So what can you do? What can you do when somebody rolls off a board to keep them engaged? Well, like Dawn said in our last week’s episode, you can certainly have an organization for them, some type of a committee, if you will.

In her case, it was Club Blue. I’ve seen that in a number of organizations, but there’s volunteer opportunities around a specific program. It could even be meet once a quarter, twice a year with the past board members have some type of reunion, some type of involvement. At a minimum, keep them on their email list and keep them engaged so that they have an opportunity to continue.

Because I can assure you, as a past board member myself, there have been I’ve been with couple organizations, one never heard from again, and one continuing to get information to this day about. And yes, I’m still passionate about that organization, even though I don’t serve on the board. So you executive directors out there, you CEOs, your board chairs as you’re contemplating and you’re looking at your board in the evolution of the board, and people will be turning off some at the end of this calendar year, depending on your school year.

Think about how can you continue to keep those folks engaged and involved. They don’t have to do it as a board member, but they can still be an asset to your organization. So that’s my thoughts for today. I’m Michael Corley and I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you that i501c You the podcast for nonprofit board members and we’ll see you next week.”

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