It’s easy to get to the end of a year on your nonprofit board and realize that you haven’t taken care of essential tasks for your organization. An easy way to keep tabs on all of the tasks of a board of directors is to create a board calendar that you refer to as you develop each board meeting agenda. This will systematize your work and make it much simpler to check off the tasks.
Here is a starting list for your board calendar of tasks and events to include. The document itself should be reviewed and updated annually.
- Board meeting dates
- Review the organization’s 990 filing
- Review and approve the annual budget
- Evaluate executive director
- Board self-evaluation
- Review and update conflicts of interest
- Plan an annual audit (if needed)
- Board member recruitment
- Elections for members and officers
- Major organizational events
- Reviews of all board policies for accuracy and thoroughness
- Strategic planning review
- Board retreat
- Risk Management – Review risk areas, and insurance coverage,
- Fundraising/Networking – Review board’s role in fundraising and developing key contacts for the organization.
- Board and Committees – Review the board’s composition and committees. Make changes as appropriate. Discuss board training/development needs.
- Program / mission review
- Succession planning review
Here are two calendar templates that are helpful to get started:
Detailed sample board calendar from Stanford Legal Services. (See their other documents here.)