Skip to content

The Board Member’s Yearbook

Welcome to the Board Member's Yearbook, your handy resource guide for a year of service on a nonprofit board of directors. The Yearbook offers suggestions, ideas, and links to resources to help you lead a nonprofit organization in your role as a board member. It envisions that you will explore the information periodically throughout one year of services, giving you suggestions for a focus during each quarter of the year. Of course, you may choose to use the information and resources at any point during your service, so explore the site at will.

Board Member 1-Year Plan

The Board Member’s Yearbook is organized in different sections including a year-long plan for being the best Board Member you can be:

  • Giving Back: The Role of a Nonprofit Board Member
  • Above and Beyond: Life as a Board Chair

Giving Back: The Role of a Nonprofit Board Member

Serving on a nonprofit board of directors is serious business. The board is the governing body of an organization which is intended to provide a benefit to the community. Because of this community service attribute, board members are stewards of the mission of the organization on behalf of the community. The board is the ultimate authority for managing the assets and strategy of the organization.

When you agreed to join a nonprofit board of directors, you undertook an oath of loyalty, duty and care as a trustee of the organization. Your board’s Chair has the chief responsibility for assuring that the board as a whole operates consistent with that oath.

Above and Beyond: Life as a Board Chair

You have been chosen to serve as Chair of the board for at least one year. What should you do to prepare for this year? What should you expect to do during your year? What should you expect of your relationship with the organization’s chief executive?

Click here to learn about the five steps that will help you prepare for a year of service.