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Part one of my October series for leaders and stakeholders at non-profits and associations.
A pattern I keep noticing: when a board asks for better reporting, the organization quietly starts shopping.
A dashboard. A new CRM. The reporting module someone saw at a conference. The request sounds technical, so the answer tends to become technical too.
I understand the instinct. I’m just not sure it answers what the board asked.
Let me paint a picture you might recognize.
The board meeting is ten days away. The Executive Director is pulling numbers from three spreadsheets and a funder portal. A program manager is recounting last quarter’s attendance because the totals don’t match what went to the funder. Finance reconciles one more time, while someone in communications polishes the impact summary without knowing whether the figures underneath it are final.
The package goes out late Thursday night.
At the meeting, a director asks why the number of people served is lower than the figure in the annual report. The room isn’t quite sure which one is right, and twenty minutes go to the number instead of the decision it was meant to support.
Every person in that room was doing good work. The package was rebuilt by hand, from scratch, one more time, which is what tends to happen when a process lives in people rather than in a system.
What your board is asking for
When board members ask for better reporting, they’re usually asking two things: can we trust what we’re looking at, and what do we need to decide?
That’s a request for confidence. And confidence comes from knowing where every number comes from, who stands behind it, and that it means the same thing this quarter as it did last quarter.
Now, I can hear some of you already.
“Deanne, our systems really are outdated.”
That’s fair, and sometimes it’s true. I’ve worked with organizations running programs on tools that stopped serving them years ago.
Here’s what I’ve learned, though. A new tool on top of an unclear process tends to give you the same inconsistency, only faster and at greater cost. If three people define “client served” three different ways today, a shiny new platform will faithfully store all three versions.
The tool question matters. It’s rarely the first one.
Organize. Start with what the board needs to see.
Not everything you track. Only the handful of measures that connect to your strategic priorities and your funder commitments.
Then give each one a clear definition, written down, so it means the same thing in every program. Give it an owner, the person who stands behind its accuracy. And give it a home, one place it lives, so the week before the meeting isn’t spent reconciling versions.
It isn’t glamorous work. It’s where most of the confidence gets built.
Optimize. Walk through how the package comes together today.
Start at the first data pull and follow it all the way to the final PDF. Every handoff, every number typed in twice, every table reformatted for a different audience.
Most leaders I work with are surprised by what they find. The same figure entered in three places. A summary rewritten for every funder. And very often, one person who holds the whole picture.
That’s where I’d bring in what I call the walk-out-the-door test: If a key person stepped away tomorrow, how much of how your business runs would leave with them? Ask it about your board package, and you’ll likely know right away where to start.
Once the steps are visible, the fixes become practical. Build your core figures once, then reuse them for the board, your funders, and your annual report. Document how the package comes together, so it no longer depends on one person’s memory.
Profit. Yes, even in a non-profit.
“Profit” can sound out of place in this sector. The way I think about it, the return is capacity.
It’s hours given back to frontline staff who were pulled into reporting. It’s credibility with funders, because what you send them matches what your board approved. That capacity goes straight back into your mission.
Picture the next board week.
The numbers come from one place on Monday. Program leads confirm them instead of recounting them. Communications writes the impact story knowing the figures won’t move underneath it. The package goes out with a few days to spare.
And at the meeting, the conversation starts where it was always meant to: with what comes next.
That’s what I mean when I say processes empower people. A clear reporting process isn’t more bureaucracy. It’s your team getting their time back, and your board getting what they were asking for all along.
A few questions to sit with before your next board package:
- Do any of our core numbers change between drafts?
- Could someone other than our usual person put the package together?
- Do the figures we send funders match what we show the board?
- At our last meeting, how much time went to questioning numbers instead of making decisions?
If a couple of those gave you pause, the system underneath your tools is likely where the work is. And that work can happen in manageable pieces, without replacing everything you have.
I’ll leave you with one more:
If your board could trust every number in the next package without a single follow-up question, what would you spend that meeting talking about instead?
If this sounds familiar, I’d welcome a conversation. Our team can set one up at info@kaosgroup.com.
Next week: “Standardize Once, Report Everywhere.”
What happens when three funders want three different reports, and why the answer starts before you hire a developer.
The gap between where you are and where you want to be is rarely about effort. It’s about having the right systems and the right support to get there.
If continuous improvement feels like a priority but nobody owns it yet, that’s a great place to start a conversation.
Recover time. Recapture revenue. Build systems that scale.
About KAOS Group
There comes a point in every growing organization where operations can’t quite keep up with ambition. Work gets done – but not always consistently. Knowledge lives in people rather than systems. And growth starts to feel harder than it should because everything still runs through the same handful of people.
That’s the work we do at KAOS Group.
Through our Organize. Optimize. Profit. methodology, we work with owners, leaders, and stakeholders to build the behind-the-scenes systems that let businesses scale, sell, or run without depending on any one person.
This is where you come in.
The best working relationships start with a real conversation. Let’s connect over a complimentary 25-minute call – get to know each other and explore whether working together makes sense.
No agenda. Simply a conversation.
The most valuable businesses run, grow, and sell on the strength of their systems — not the memory of their people.
Deanne Kelleher, Founder and Principal of KAOS Group, builds and implements the behind-the-scenes systems that turn operational complexity into scalable, transferable operations – recovering time, recapturing revenue, and freeing businesses to grow, scale, or sell on their own terms.
Organize. Optimize. Profit.