How to write strong charters to set your committees up for success

Committees are the backbone of a thriving nonprofit. They break down the daunting workload, ensuring specialized attention to critical areas like fundraising, governance and community outreach. Yet, without a clear charter, even the best-intentioned committees can flounder in ambiguity and inefficiency. Setting up a charter isn’t just a good practice — it’s a lifeline. It provides structure, defines roles and aligns every committee member with your mission.

Boards create standing committees for major issues such as finance, auditing, executive hiring, and member nominations. Ad hoc committees are formed when an issue comes up that requires further study or research but are not intended to be permanent.

According to the American Hospital Association, “Effective committees can significantly improve the board’s overall effectiveness by allowing the full board to expeditiously review and approve committee work, opening up more time at full board meetings for substantive discussion on large and future-oriented issues.”

Once the committee is formed, whether standing or ad hoc, the board needs to make sure the committee understands its role, stays on track and fulfills its purpose. A committee charter outlines the committee’s structure, purpose and goals.

What should go into a committee charter

A good charter will give clear directions and expectations to committee members. Here are some tips to help you write the committee’s charter.

Purpose or mission statement

This section can be a simple statement of purpose or a more formal statement. A mission statement should reflect the work that the committee needs to do. It can also be a longer narrative that includes the committee’s purpose, primary goals and objectives. The purpose statement can also describe the functions and responsibilities of the committee.

Committee type and purpose

This section should state whether the committee is a standing committee or a special committee. As mentioned above, standing committees meet regularly for a specified purpose. Other examples of standing committees are governance committees and compliance committees.

Special or ad hoc committees are formed to serve for a limited amount of time with a designated and short-term purpose in mind. An example of an ad hoc committee is one formed to review school boundary changes or zoning regulation adjustments.

Membership makeup

The charter should define the size and composition of who should serve on the committee. Generally, at least one board member should serve on each committee. Depending upon the purpose of the committee, the membership may also consider including an advisory board member.

The membership section should state whether the committee is open to interested non-members or the public.

Committees generally consist of five to seven members, but a committee can be as small as two people.

The membership section should also state which members of the committee receive voting privileges.

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Chairperson

It’s important that the committee has a chairperson who will lead the work. When writing the charter, board members should designate the chairperson or outline how the committee will select the chair. The committee chair can be voted on by the full board, voted on by the committee, or appointed by the board chair. These rules should not conflict with the organization’s bylaws. Don’t forget to include the term of the chairperson, which is typically for a period of one year.

In most cases, the committee should designate a co-chair or vice chair in case the committee chair can’t be present. This is especially important for standing committees that meet all year long.

Activities, duties, and responsibilities

This section spells out the expectations, responsibilities and goals of the committee. For example, a standing fundraising committee may be charged with identifying a certain number of new donors. The technology committee could be formed to make recommendations on new software for the organization.

Delegation of authority

Every charter should have a section that details the kinds of decisions that the committee can make without formal approval from the board. For example, it may state that the governance committee may send a packet out to potential board member recruits or give the fundraising committee a budget to carry out their duties.

Standard committee procedures

The frequency of meetings should be outlined in this section of the charter. For example, a charter may state that the fundraising committee will meet from May through August for the annual September fundraiser.

The charter should state a deadline for the work to be completed, including when committee members will be presenting to the full board. Boards may also want to include verbiage regarding how committee members are expected to interact with the full board or other committees. For example, the charter may state the deadline for the committee to submit a request to the finance committee for an increase in the committee’s budget for the coming year.

Formalities

Charters should be approved by the board and signed and dated by the board chair.

“Effective committees can significantly improve the board’s overall effectiveness by allowing the full board to expeditiously review and approve committee work, opening up more time at full board meetings for substantive discussion on large and future-oriented issues.” – American Hospital Association

Use templates for efficiency

Each time a board forms a committee, it needs to write and approve a charter. While some of the charter will be written specifically for the committee, much of the language is boilerplate. Using a template for committee charters saves time. Board members and administrator don’t have to start from scratch each time the board forms a committee. While the template outlines the basics of the committee structure, it can be customized to the purpose of each new committee.

Storing electronic copies of charters and charter templates can help the board work more efficiently. Board members can access, review, and update existing committee charters and use the templates as a basis for new committee charters.

Board management systems such as BoardEffect allow boards to create charter templates and store committee charters. Committee members can get access to workrooms with information that is specific to their work. Find out how BoardEffect can help with committee charters and request a demo today.