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Board management system recommendations

Governance

David Partridge Director of Finance and People at Become Posted 3 months ago

Hi,

I'm interested in getting a Board Management System to hold agendas, minutes etc. all in one place. The idea is that it would be easier for our staff team and for Trustees having everything in one place. We might also use it for documenting SLT meetings better.

We already use Office 365 but I'm looking at one of the more specific systems like OnBoard, Board Connect etc. Does anyone have any experience of any of these, either from a staff perspective or from the perspective of being a Trustee somewhere?

Thanks,

David

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chris Dew Staff PANEL

Director of Finance & Resources at Leukaemia UK 3 months ago

Hi David

We've been using BoardCloud for over a year now. Its our first Board Management system, is well priced, and the support and training provided has been exceptional. They were very happy to demo and explain before we committed - would definitely recommend based on our experience.

Board Software for Non-Profits | BoardCloud UK

Best wishes

Chris

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Marcus Ward Staff PANEL

Partner at Peach Consultancy 3 months ago

Hi David

Having undertaken a trawl of board portals last year while as an Interim Governance Manager, Im afraid i have a downer on recommending the idea of board portals for several reasons:

They're bloody expensive for what they are, sometimes in the mid to high £000s, partly because charity portals are often ported over from the commercial sector (and suggested by trustees from the commercial sector) where £ is no object. NB and prices are not uniformly transparent.
The features and analytics vary considerably, e.g. analytics, voting, integration etc

In addition some of my objections are much more pragmatic:

You'll be introducing a new item of software that will need ongoing maintenance plus support and training for both trustees and staff
Remember some trustees will never learn how to use it and will continue to complain!
What you need to do should be easily achievable within your existing office setup, if it isnt, there's usually sortable compromise.
Better to make a list of what trustees would like access to or have problems with, and deliver it through existing resources, where possible. For every example, there will be an existing tool, whether its scheduling, file sharing, minuting or better comms. And just having this discussion, about what trustees need for effective decision making, actually goes to the heart of ensuring Good governance.

Having said all that, here's a starter for 10 list:

Nasdaq Boardvantage https://www.nasdaq.com/solutions/governance/boardvantage

Governance 360 (Board Secure) https://www.governance360.co.uk/

Boardable https://boardable.com/

Future Directors https://www.futuredirectors.com/board-portal

Board Effect https://www.boardeffect.com/en-gb/

Admin Control https://admincontrol.com/

Board Intelligence https://www.boardintelligence.com/book-a-demonstration

OnBoard https://www.onboardmeetings.com/board-portal/pricing/

Best wishes, Marcus

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David Partridge Staff PANEL

Director of Finance and People at Become 3 months ago

Marcus Ward Thanks Marcus, that's really helpful. I agree that we could accomplish much of this with our existing Microsoft 365 subscription, I just wondered if there were better options out there that brought everything together in one neat package. I'll keep doing some digging and thinking.

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David Partridge Staff PANEL

Director of Finance and People at Become 3 months ago

Just as an update on this in case anyone else is looking, I have seen demos from Governance360, Future Directors, and Knowa in the past few days.

All of these three providers offer systems to charities in the £500-£1,000 per annum price range. They were all great and could do the job, with some bits stronger than others in each of them.

We've actually decided to use SharePoint/Teams for now and create a portal in there, but if you want a distinct system then you might want to look at these as they could meet what you need.

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Allie Bennington Staff PANEL

Head of Insight & Impact at caba 3 months ago

Hi David, we use Convene Convene Board Management Software | Board Governance Solutions which is good for out needs

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Hirsch Sharma Staff PANEL

CEO at Boardroom Consultants 3 months ago

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Hi David

I use Google drive. One can share documents etc. It has a huge amount of help.

Best wishes

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CEO TOM CONLEY at NONPROFIT AND CHARITY CONSULTANTS - NFPCCC Staff PANEL

MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO + EXECUTIVE CONSULTANT at NONPROFIT & CHARITY CONSULTANTS (NFPCCC + CCSE) SOCIAL ENTERPRISE NONPROFIT CHARITY 2 months ago

Hirsch Sharma Correct WE USE GOOGLE DRIVE FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING! And with the charity security we implement it's great and we have built comprehensive board meetings minutes etc on google docs which can also then be downloaded as word document or pdf if needed and also you can secure your drive so no one but you choose can download or edit etc.

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William Clemmey Staff PANEL

Chief Officer at Municipal Charities 3 months ago

David

Like Mike below I strongly recommend Google - its free for Charities and easy to access for staff and trustees.

All your Board papers can be stored on there and access granted to either everyone or a selected group

Each Committee has its own folder and you can create as many folders as you like - Finance, Policies etc

All your staff and trustees can have a charity email address ours is @municipal-charities.org.uk

We had some pro bono help setting it up initially

I stongly recomend it - we have used it for 4 years now and in my last charity we used it for 10 years

William Clemmey

https://municipal-charities.org.uk/

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Helen Bligh Staff PANEL

Fundraising and strategy at Connect Reading 3 months ago

We've recently come across Knowa which looks like a great solution. I know they are keen to offer it FOC to nonprofits but not sure how soon they will be ready to go live with this. Definitely worth getting in touch though

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Mike Preston Staff PANEL

Between Roles at Between Roles 3 months ago

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I would recommend Google drive, it has some great futures including e-signature, sharing, template creation, version control and access control.

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