Executive director report to board template

The report described in The board packet, what goes in, in what order, and how long each part gets. One page, in a fixed order, written so a board member can act on the first third of it. No email required.

What is in it

The order is the template. Change the measures, keep the sequence.

Section one is decisions requested. Three rows, each with what the board is being asked to decide, whether you want a vote or a direction, and the date you need it by. It sits at the top because the point of the report is to produce a decision, and a decision found on page three gets deferred.

Section two is the status header. Five rows, one each for cash, revenue, programs, people, and compliance. Each row takes red, amber, or green and one sentence of why. Compliance is on the list because the board carries it and rarely hears about it until an auditor asks. The whole block reads in fifteen seconds.

Section three is the dashboard. Five columns: the measure, this period, the same period last year, the target, and the variance. Six rows come filled in as labels: months of cash on hand, revenue year to date, expenses year to date, people served, open positions, and board giving participation. Replace any of them. Comparison against both last year and target is what turns a number into a question.

Section four is the narrative, and it is three boxes. What changed since the last meeting. What I am worried about. What I need from the board that is not a vote. The third box is the one that earns the report its page, and it is the hardest to fill after a few years in the job.

The file is a Word document that opens in Google Docs without reformatting. It fits on one side of letter paper when the boxes are filled at a normal length. If your packet also carries a separate dashboard page, delete section three from this file rather than running the numbers twice.

How to use it

1. Fill section one before you write anything else. If it is empty, ask the chair whether this meeting needs a report or a briefing.
2. Have the finance lead populate the dashboard row values. You write the sentences. Splitting it the other way produces a finance report with a cover note.
3. Set the status lights before the narrative, not after. Writing the paragraphs first makes every light amber.
4. Keep the narrative boxes to a short paragraph each. If one runs long, it is a decision memo, and it belongs on its own packet page.
5. Send it inside the packet seven days ahead, never separately and never on the day.
6. Keep the last four. Read them in a row before the annual evaluation conversation with the chair.

Rebuild the dashboard rows once a year, when the budget is approved, and leave them alone in between. A measure that changes every quarter cannot show a trend.

When not to use it

Do not use it if the board has asked for a narrative report and you have not yet had the conversation about why the order is changing. Send the new format once with the old one behind it, and ask at the meeting which they want next time.

Do not use the status lights if nobody will ever set one to red. A header that is permanently green is worse than no header, because it tells the board the system is working.

Do not use it as a staff report. Program and committee updates belong on the consent agenda, not in the executive director’s page. If you are compiling team updates into this file, the consent agenda is the fix.