How to Lean on Your Board for Support This Fall
This time of year is incredibly busy for nonprofits.
Summer initiatives are wrapping up. Fall events are just getting going. End-of-year appeals are being prepared. And 2027 budgets are being tidied up and finalized.
So, this may be a loaded question… but how are you feeling?
When your plate is this full, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, like you have so much to do that you don’t know the first place to start.
I hear you! But at the same time, your to-do list isn’t getting any shorter before year-end.
How can you make sure everything gets done, maintain your well-being, and avoid burnout?
You turn to a resource people forget they’re allowed to lean on: your board.
While board members typically oversee higher-level operations, that doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to help with other key initiatives, especially during the year’s busiest, most chaotic, and most important quarter.
If your team’s fall to-do lists have gotten a little unmanageable, here are a few things you can ask your board to help with to lighten the load.
✔ Ask them to help with event follow-ups
A big part of marketing is building relationships, which makes event follow-ups a hugely important task… but one that you and your team might not have time for this fall.
So, as your first few fall events come to a close, you can lean on board members to help.
That could include asking them to recognize event sponsors, reach out to attendees to get feedback or say thank you, or even prep some handwritten notes. You could even get them to go through event photos and choose a few of their favorites for you to use in your email marketing or social media posts.
It doesn’t have to be an overly complicated ask. Sometimes the smallest tasks can be the most time-consuming — and that’s where help from the board makes all the difference.
✔ Ask them to collect stories for content
In my last newsletter, I talked about finding people connected to your organization whose stories you haven’t told yet, and giving them a moment in the spotlight.
Asking your board members to brainstorm who those people might be — and what’s needed to tell their story — is a great way to use their support.
Get them to poke through the last few months of emails or social media content, and ask:
- Who haven’t we heard from recently?
- What would make a compelling story from their perspective?
- What photos/videos/quotes do we need to be able to create content about their story?
You’ll want to get the process for this project organized beforehand. That way, you’re just asking the board member to fill in the blanks and set the groundwork for you to post later.
✔ Ask them to double-check your website
Something easy and fairly quick you can get your board members to do is check that your website is updated and ready for end-of-year campaigns.
Ask them to go through your website page by page, checking that links are working, information and staff pages are accurate, and whatever else they see is generally up-to-date.
Make sure it’s clear this isn’t an exercise in updating copy or redesigning the website. That’s best left to the marketing team and their expertise — and you’re not looking for more work at this time of year!
Instead, get the board member to put themselves in the shoes of a first-time visitor.
What would they be looking for? What contact information might they need? Which links are most important? That’s where you want them to focus their attention and flag issues.
And a friendly reminder:
You and your team are definitely capable of doing these things yourself.
But you don’t need to, especially as your schedule fills up in anticipation of Q4.
So, consider this a permission slip to ask your board for help this fall. They’d probably love to get more involved — and you deserve the break!
See you in two weeks,
Catrina
P.S. If your board isn’t able to take things off your plate this fall, I definitely can! Reply to this email and let’s chat about what that might look like.
