Executive Director Reports

One of the most enduring features of non-profit board meetings is the executive director’s or CEO’s report. There are few resources that offer good practice recommendations. Aside from the consideration of level of detail, few boards and EDs together give much consideration to what subject matter should be included.

So, I have some of my own suggestions, informed by my board experience and from two other sources, about the content of such reports. Despite the model that I suggest here, nothing beats a board-ED discussion of key content areas and even a little experimentation with actual board reports.

My experience is with reading and hearing executive director (ED) reports at monthly board meetings. This has been on boards that meet about 10 times a year. Boards that meet quarterly, where that is also the frequency of the report, probably require a more extensive report but not necessarily different items.

Most boards and EDs I know subscribe to the idea of a one to three-page written executive director’s report. Most agree that the information ought to be provided in point form. Most also support the practice of having the ED verbally offer a few highlights and ask for questions rather that reviewing the report in detail. This is all good.

Joan Garry is a U.S. consultant has written on this subject in her 2020 post How To Write a Good Board Report. It is here. Her view, and it is one I agree with, is that the board report should NOT be an activity report, a summary of “here is what I did last month”. More on this in a bit.

Six Headings

So, I will start with proposing a report with six headings worth consideration, not all of which would be part of every report. This is my main takeaway for readers. I will attach a template that can be downloaded.

My six headings are:

1. Significant Issues
2. Matters requiring board approval
3. Progress on strategic goals
4. Compliance update
5. Organizational dashboard.
6. Board Information

Following a look at each heading I will briefly discuss:

• Why an monthly ED “activity report” has little value
• Whether the EDs report should be “approved” rather than “accepted” by the board?
• Should the board financial report be considered part of the executive director’s report?
• Should the report be a stand alone agenda item or primarily a source of information for other agenda items?
• Should the ED read or even summarize her/his report?
• Role of the report in the evaluation of the executive director.

Two publications have been of particular help in writing on this topic. The first, already mentioned, is the piece by Joan Garry. The other is Dionne Falconer’s 2016 Executive Director Report Guide, published by the Ontario Organizational Development Program (OODP). It can be found here.  Both of these also provide a report template one can use.

The board report

1. Significant Issues

It is a good idea to start with an overview or update on a significant current issue or trend. It should be something that will, or could, impact the organization now or in the future. It might be something that has been in the media or something the Executive Director (ED) has been seeing unfold. The board needs to alerted even it there is no imminent decision to be made or action to be taken. It may be a new issue for the board or one the board needs to revisit from a previous board meeting. Perhaps there is some new information.

There are always things that are significant to the executive director. But here I am suggesting matters that could, or will, impact the organization’s ability to do its work. It seems to me that there are two categories of “significant issues”

• Internal
• External

An internal issue of significance could be the departure of a key staff person. An external issue could be a change in funding arrangements or new legislation. The current Covid 19 pandemic has elements of both.  A significant “issue” might be a positive or negative development. an opportunity or threat.

From month-to-month there may not be any “significant” issues from the ED’s perspective. Do not create some.

An ED may decide to keep the heading and underneath write “none” every month.  From a board perspective, when there are no significant issues to confront there is time for more routine but important governance work.

One challenge here is to avoid this being just another “ED talking to the board” part of the meeting. The ED should consider having some questions in mind, something other than asking the board “what do you think?” Here are some ideas:

• In what ways might this affect our organization’s future?
• What action might we need to take?
• How might it affect our clients or other organizations doing similar work?

On any significant issue an ED ought to know if his/her board can be of any help. And if so, the ED might include a question such as:

• Does anyone have any contacts that I should speak to get some advice about this?
• Does anyone on the board have any knowledge or expertise about this?

Unfortunately it is unusual for an ED to share something with his/her board where advice is not invited, at least implicitly. A significant issue may be an opportunity for the ED to turn the board’s attention to the big picture. And maybe the issue introduced in the Board report today will a future stand-alone agenda item in the months ahead.

If there IS a significant issue, then it is clear what ED’s verbal report will be all about.

2. Matters requiring board approval

Sometimes the executive director may want board approval for items not already on the meeting agenda. If the organization has a good set of operational polices in place, an approved budget, and a common understanding of what decisions the ED is empowered to make, such a section will not frequently be used.

I had a hard time thinking of examples. Three might be:

• A modification to an existing operational policy (where a full policy review is not warranted)
• Recognition for a staff member’s accomplishment
• Decision on the date for the AGM, a key fundraising event or an open house.

What I am suggesting here is that this section be for small decision matters, especially where little or no board discussion is required. Again, not every ED report will contain these.

3. Compliance update

Every non-profit must insure that it is operating in compliance with external requirements. These are outlined in detail in two earlier posts: Law 101 for Boards and Law 102 for Boards that I wrote in June 2020. It is valuable to have a list of these in the ED report and to update the board regularly on their status. Typically they include:

• Annual incorporation filing (Date due/Last submitted)
• Annual charity filing (T3010 in Canada) (date due/last submitted)
• Payroll deductions – Remittances submitted to Canada Revenue Agency (monthly)
• Provincial employment standards compliance report (Last Review/Next Review)
• Insurance coverage review (Last Review/Next Review)
• Human Rights/Occupational Health and Safety Review (Last Report/Next Review)

So, create a bit of a table of items with room for a check mark, a date for submission or a more detailed board report. Some items will be fine with a biennial review. This is as much about keeping the board aware of these requirements as it is about ED accountability.

Many non-profits have licensing requirements too. If, for example, yours operates in a sector that provides support for vulnerable clients you will likely have some significant ones.

• Conditions of Licensing or Government Subsidy (Last Report/Next Review)

4. Progress on goals/strategic plan implementation

In my opinion this item should be at the heart of every executive director’s report. Even if the organization does not have a current formal plan in effect, it ought to have 4 or 5 goals it is pursuing.

Ideally one or more organizational goals are regular agenda items themselves. The board report is an update on implementation. This means they do not have to be considered, or verbally reported on, at the ED report point of the meeting.

Deliberation about goals are the stuff of board meeting planning, the work of the ED and Board Chair together in helping keep the board focused on the big picture and the longer term. It is unlikely there will be news on every goal every month and indeed, work on some goals will be far off. If there is a yearly operational plan flowing from a five-year strategic plan, then progress on the operational plan becomes the source of the ED’s report under this heading.

Also, if there are action items flowing from a recent ED evaluation, areas for improvement, the ED could also report on these “goals” in this section.

5. Organizational performance dashboard

The idea of a dashboard of a few key statistics about organizational performance is an idea I like. One could write a whole post on this topic but I will provide a couple of links to resources on the topic in the notes at the end.^[1]Some highly recommended resources on performance dashboards include, from TechSoup U.S.A – The Three Types of Nonprofit Dashboards and How to Build Each One (2019) (here), from the Nonprofit … Continue reading) Whether it is in part of the ED’s report or a stand alone information sheet is up to each governing group.

6. Items of Information

Again this is a section that need not have content in each and every monthly report. Quoting the OODP resource on this piece:

Any other issues which the ED wants to bring to the Board’s attention for information and are unlikely to require discussion. This may include visitors to the organization, conferences & professional development, community issues and events or significant meetings that involved the Executive Director. 

Joan Garry’s points out that if the executive director, or another staff person, has attended a conference, the board’s interest is what was learned that can benefit the organization, not that fact that someone was away or that it had a cost. On the other hand, if conference participation were part of implementing a professional development plan, a possible organizational goal, it would be reported above.

Why a monthly activity report has little value

Turning to some report content overall I will start by repeating my assertion that knowing what the executive director has done over the past month is not important to good governance. What is important is what the organization has done and, to go one step further, what it has accomplished.

I realize that executive directors want their boards to know what work they have done. And boards want to know about things that seem to them to be concrete. Too bad. Go online and read something like “how ego is the enemy of leadership or “check your ego and prioritize the organization”.^[2]There is lots written on the ego’s role in leadership including these two pieces; Ego is the Enemy of Good Leadership (2018) by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter in the Harvard Business … Continue reading

Limiting their understanding to things that are always in the  “management space” is not a good place for boards wanting to appreciate their organization. An occasional view of the front lines is recommended.

Approval or acceptance of report

The executive director’s report, like any report to the board, should be “accepted” not “approved”. ED reports are an accounting of activities or accomplishments in the past. Boards should not be in the position of approving what has already taken place nor should executive directors ask for approval after the fact. Acceptance of the report implies instead that the work that has been undertaken is consistent with the direction everyone has agreed to.

Boards should reserve their “approvals” to a key things like hiring or firing the ED, the appointment of a new board member, new or improved policies, a new budget, an extraordinary expenditure, organizational plans and public policy advocacy stances. Approving agendas and minutes is the boilerplate work associated with all boards.

Executive director’s report and the financial report

Board business meetings typically include the financial report as a standard agenda item. Generally this report is prepared by the executive director, or completed under his/her direction, and presented by the executive director or perhaps the treasurer.

I am of the opinion that financial report need not be an agenda item every month, certainly not if an organization’s financial picture is stable. But that is a different topic.

The financial report, frequently an update on year-to-date budget numbers, is best treated separate from the ED Report. A financial report might, in some months, be accompanied by a fundraising report, again as a separate agenda item.

This being said there may be money-related items in the regular executive director’s report.  This could include, among “information” items, the receipt of a long awaited grant, news of an unsuccessful but hoped for grant, or news of a significant donation or new benefactor.

Board report as an agenda item?

If board meeting agendas are built around organizational strategies or goals, the executive director’s report should contain information that is relevant to each of agenda items and its content is better introduced throughout the meeting not at one point.

I would go so far even to suggest that the report, a written one, ought to be accepted as part of the consent agenda and then its content employed in the more strategic board deliberations.^[3]If you are interested in the idea of a more strategic board agenda, the National Council of Nonprofit in the U.S.  offers this example

Should the ED read or summarize the report?

Executive directors ought to be careful not to fall into the trap of reading or summarizing their report at each board meeting. Having some clarity around the content of the report certainly helps decide what matters to highlight if one is summarizing and what matters need not be mentioned. Time taken at meetings reviewing the past is time taken away from looking at the future.

For ideas on presenting the report I would direct the reader to a great 2017 piece by Robert B. Acton on the BoardSource Blog entitled Board Members Zoning Out? Stop Reading the CEO Report, You can find it here.

Role of board report in ED evaluation

The monthly board report need not be a piece of time consuming work destined for the recycling bin or trash.  I would make a case that the accumulated reports be one of the documentary data sources boards use to evaluate their executive directors and that executive directors ask that they be included in the evaluation.

The board report can be evidence of the executive director’s

• Accomplishment of, and focus on, organizational goals
• Keeping the board well informed (board-ED communication)
• Helping the board do its job especially in staying out of operational details

Obviously the board report has little role here if it is primarily an activity report or a mechanism for the detailed management of the chief executive’s time rather than for oversight and direction of the whole organization.

First steps to remaking your report

A one-page Board Report Template based on the 6 headings suggested above can be found here. (It is an MS Word document). Help yourself!

I hope some of the ideas here will find their way into your executive director’ or CEO’s board report.

If you are the executive director and want to make changes you could experiment with your next report and ask what the board thinks of it. You could also give your board chair a copy of the template and discuss remaking the report, or at least experimenting with it, at your next one-on-one meeting. I am a fan of giving your board a “remade” report and getting feedback rather talking about the changes in the abstract. I realize you may not have the time to prepare two versions.

If you are the board chair consider bringing the matter up at your next one-on-one with your ED. What does each of you think? You might decide to bring the subject up at the next board meeting or try a new one on them. What have you got to loose?

If you are another board member consider send the template and a link to this post to the ED asking if this is a matter he/she might wants to raise with the board?  If the response you get is no, then drop it. You have sown the seed. Good for you.