Several years ago I was hired by the great folks at the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce to help them create their next strategic plan. 

In my assessment conversations with the CEO and board leadership, they shared a persistent and painful problem that they had regarding engaging their board. The board members, as great as they were, just weren’t showing up or following through consistently enough. And the staff didn’t have the bandwidth to effectively engage them. As a result, the fundraising results, events attendance, membership numbers, and board culture were suffering. 

I had seen this same challenge in many other organizations and really wanted to find a solution. 

We decided to implement one simple strategy: to deliberately structure their strategic plan around six committees. Rather than identifying broad “focus areas” like operations and fundraising, we created sections of their plan that correlated to six committees:

• Governance

• Finance and Revenue Generation

• Advocacy

• Events and Programs

• Membership

• Branding and Reputation Management

Committees, in theory, are a great way to build engagement. They provide specific projects and create opportunities to build relationships with other board members. However, committees are famous for their ineffectiveness if they’re not clearly directed or well-managed. The hope was that by building the strategic plan around the committees, the committees would function well and the board members would commit to regular involvement. We have written about committees before and provided tips for running them.

Within each of the six committee areas on the plan, we documented the purpose and responsibilities of the committee and a small set of annual goals that they’d pursue. We identified who would champion (lead) the committee, often relying on a co-champion model to provide stronger support and accountability. The committees worked on specific and measurable goals between board meetings while the staff and I provided support. 

So, what have been the results? Well, recently I facilitated their annual planning meeting and here’s what I experienced and learned:

• A Brand New Board Culture

  When I walked into the meeting room, I felt a joyful culture that they had created. Everyone was engaged and were happy to see their colleagues that they had been working with on their committees. In fact, every single one of their twenty-one board members was in attendance, and that’s for a statewide organization of leaders scattered across the large state of California.  

  As a past board chair said at the beginning of the retreat, “we’ve built trust.”

• More Efficient Board Meetings

  Their board meetings have been cut down to about one-third as long as they used to be since the board members don’t have to discuss everything as a full group. They trust that their colleagues in the committees are doing good work. 

• Greater Fund Development Results

  The organization has tripled its overall revenue, had an eight-fold increase in revenue from corporate memberships, and a doubling of revenue from events. 

• Stronger Membership

  They’ve increased the number of chamber members from around 50 to over 130. 

Given this experience and other, similar experiences with other organizations, I’m convinced that organizing your strategic plan around committees can be a great strategy to build board engagement and get better outcomes and results. 

Here is an example of a plan for a fictitious association that shows how this structure can look. (This plan is captured in Causey, our strategic planning software.) 

We’d love to help you create your strategic plan around this committee-based format. Don't hesitate to reach out to us.