The Pandemic's Impact on Nonprofit Boards

There are around 1.3 million nonprofit organizations currently operating in the United States. These nonprofits require volunteers, board members and donors to help support their tireless efforts. While many nonprofits are used to dealing with various challenges and limited resources, no one could’ve expected the quick shift to the virtual setting everyone experienced last year.

Since 2018, we’ve surveyed board members and nonprofit staff members from large, small, local and national boards to better understand board engagement or the degree to which individuals on a nonprofit board prepare, participate and complete tasks between meetings. Board engagement is the single most important health measure of a nonprofit board of directors and directly impacts the organization’s effectiveness and resiliency.

While the pandemic spurred significant change across industries, we wanted to use our annual board engagement survey to see how the switch to a virtual setting affected nonprofits and board members.

The Benefits of a Virtual Board Meeting

Although in-person meetings offer many benefits, the pandemic brought to light a virtual setting’s opportunities. In our findings, the number of survey respondents reporting high meeting attendance increased by 10% from our 2019 Board Engagement Survey. Respondents brought up three key areas as to why this was the case.

Cancelled events: Whether professional or personal, many events were cancelled due to the pandemic. The open availability gave board members more time and opportunity to join meetings that took place virtually rather than in-person.

Limited travel: To accommodate board members’ busy schedules, many nonprofit organizations would host a day-long meeting. This approach often requires board members to travel and rearrange schedules, sometimes making it tougher for members to attend. Now in a virtual setting, board members can easily log in to meetings from the comfort of their home.

Increased motivation: As more Americans lost their jobs, pressure mounted on nonprofits that rely on donations and volunteers to survive. This additional stress increased board member motivation to provide strategic assistance and heighten engagement.

With more flexibility in schedules, board members met more frequently. Before the pandemic, 30% of survey respondents met once a quarter. During the pandemic, this number dropped to 17% as board members met more often to discuss ongoing changes and challenges. The increase in meetings led to a decrease in meeting duration as they conducted pressing business faster with briefer sessions.

Board Member Fundraising

In both the 2019 and 2020 Board Engagement Survey, fundraising was listed as one of the weakest areas of board engagement. This is interesting as 92% of respondents expect board members to participate in revenue generation or fundraising activities. To increase fundraising efforts and participation, members shared in their survey responses they need a specific task from leadership. For nonprofits, it’s important to educate board members during orientation and through ongoing training on fundraising tactics, their personal fundraising goals and fundraising best practices.

However, fundraising tactics and best practices had to change in 2020. It’s very common for boards to host in-person events or galas to raise funds. From our findings, we learned 62% changed their organization’s fundraising methods to accommodate the new virtual setting. With in-person events no longer an option, nonprofits had to find different ways to get board members to participate in fundraising efforts. Some ideas organizations use include:

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns and programs
Virtual and online events, auctions and donor activities
Personal donations or corporate donations made in the board member’s name
Online and social sharing of fundraising campaigns
Assistance with research and execution of grant applications

Last year definitely presented significant challenges for fundraising, but 54% of respondents reported they were either on track to meet fundraising goals or even exceeding them. Organizations that worked with their board members to strategize virtual fundraising opportunities saw success by using technology to bring people together and cultivate relationships through donor appreciation efforts.

Making the Most of a Virtual Board

As vaccines roll out, many organizations are thinking through their plans to head back into the office. Some are choosing to stay fully remote while others are taking a hybrid approach. While the pandemic has brought about many challenges, 50% of survey respondents said they felt more passionate and engaged about the importance of their work on a board or for a nonprofit. The virtual setting allows board members to participate in their duties more than ever before.

On the flip side, it also brought its challenges around collaboration and losing engagement due to Zoom fatigue and other distractions. However, implementing different virtual tools and software like an online board management and meetings platform helped organizations make the most of the virtual setting.

While 2020 presented challenges we have not previously experienced, it also opened our eyes to the opportunities that arise from a virtual setting. As hybrid settings increase, nonprofit organizations have found new ways to engage its board members, leading to better results and more involved members.

Jeb Banner, Boardable

Jeb Banner, CEO and Co-Founder, Boardable

Jeb Banner is CEO and co-founder of Boardable, a board management software company serving nonprofits around the world. Previously the CEO of SmallBox, a creative agency he co-founded in 2006, Jeb is also the founder of Musical Family Tree, a nonprofit dedicated to spreading Indiana music, and co-founder and past chair of The Speak Easy, an entrepreneurial co-working nonprofit located in Indianapolis, IN. Along the way Jeb has co-founded or invested in a number of other Indianapolis-based businesses. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife Jenny and their three lovely daughters. In his spare time, Jeb collects vinyl records, records music, and cooks as much as possible.