Board Retreat Cheat Sheet

Board retreats are a fantastic way to create meaningful engagement between staff and board, board member to board member and to solidify the commitment your board has to your nonprofit organization. Unfortunately, sometimes after a retreat, board members go back to status quo and that’s not ideal. Typically, a board retreat is put together with the hopes that board members will be re-energized, re-connected and renewed in their zeal to help lift an organization to a higher level of success.

Here's a list of things I’ve found to be helpful in creating a retreat that will have a positive, lasting impact on your organization and the people you count on for its success:

• Decide what challenges you want to work through at the retreat and what outcomes/goals/deliverables you’ll be working toward.

• Make it a full-day or 2-day retreat. Eight solid hours if it’s only one day, six hours each day for 2-days.

• The best times of year for 2-day retreats to get the highest level of attendance (approximately): September 15-November 10 or February 20 – May 10.

• Take a poll of your board regarding the schedule of the retreat – give them no more than five options. Schedule the retreat for whichever days you’ll have at least 75% attendance.

• Remind board members that this training will be educational but should also be fun/enjoyable. Not everyone will be able to make it – schedules are hard – but pay attention to why they decline. Have a conversation with the ones who decline in a way that shows a lack of commitment. It won’t be fun, but it might just be a relief to both of you if they’re able to acknowledge they just don’t want to be involved any longer.

• Set your retreat location off-site! It’s right there in the name: retreat. Make it a mini vacation. It’s so much more enjoyable to gather somewhere you don’t normally get to go.

• Add team-building activities into the retreat. It’s amazing how much you’ll learn about each other as people, which creates a much greater sense of connection and cohesion in the organization, when you have a couple of hours of “let’s just be humans” among the several hours of board training.

• Select a facilitator to conduct the retreat. It’s amazing how much more sinks in when it’s not the same-old-person giving information to your board. (Kind of like parenting! You can give your kids the best advice every single day, but when someone “cool” says it, suddenly it’s the best idea ever!)

• Research facilitators and make sure you select someone who idealizes the level of energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge you want for your retreat. AND make sure that person has the skills to facilitate a full-day or 2-day retreat – it’s not always easy keeping people engaged that long.

• Build breaks, snacks and meals into the retreat. Nothing says ‘nap time’ like a group of people who haven’t moved or fed their brains in three+ hours.

• Funding: it’s ok to ask board members to pay for their lunch, but I advise against asking them to pay-their-way for the full retreat. It’s best to have the organization pay for everything so that you get the highest attendance possible. Check with local, regional, state and even national organizations and associations for grants that fund organizational development. Ask venues if they give nonprofit discounts. Create sponsorships for the retreat and see if community businesses will support you – perhaps even your board members’ employers will chip in.

If your retreat is a smashing success – and I hope it is! – you’ll likely find that you have board members who are even more willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work on organizational functions. AND you’ll likely find they want to make the retreat an annual happening. When done properly, retreats help you gain buy-in from board members and elevates their level of engagement and enthusiasm, which spills over into new board members who will look forward to their first retreat.