Build a Board Survey for Directors and Owners
Build a board survey that rates each governance area, keeps director answers anonymous, and saves results to a database you own.
Build a board survey for 14 nonprofit directors that rates six governance areas and stores no names beside the scores.
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What Emergent Builds Into a Board Survey
Emergent builds the survey and the table behind it, and a follow-up prompt changes either one before the next round.
Questions grouped by governance area
Name the areas your board wants to rate, such as fundraising and strategy. Emergent drafts a section for each, with rating and comment questions, and you edit any of them by prompt.
Scores kept apart from names
The survey tracks who has answered so reminders stop, but saves each score without a name. The chair sees totals per area and every comment, never one director's ratings.
Every answer in a database you own
Each response is a row in a database you own, tagged with the year and the area rated. Put this year's fundraising score beside last year's before the governance committee meets.
Reminders until the deadline
Directors who have not answered get an email reminder 3 days before the deadline, and the board secretary gets a Slack list of who is still out. Anyone finished gets no more emails.
One question per screen on a phone
Directors answer one question per screen on a phone, between meetings or on a train. Owners in a condo survey get the same flow, and Emergent puts no cap on how many answer.
Your domain and your code
Host the survey on your own domain, included in Emergent and billed in credits. On paid plans, export the full code to your GitHub repository and run the survey again next year.
How Four Boards Run Their Surveys
Fundraising rated strong by 4 of 13 directors
Larkspur Food Bank sends its board self-assessment to all 14 directors each January, and no names are stored beside the scores. Of the 14, 13 answered. On mission, 12 of 13 rated the board strong. On fundraising, only 4 of 13 did, and the governance committee put fundraising first on the retreat agenda.
window.awbMockup = { selfAssessment: "Build a yearly self-assessment for my food bank's board of 14 directors. Group the questions into areas such as mission, strategy, and fundraising, each rated on a 5-point scale with a comment box. Store scores without names, show how many directors rated each area strong, and flag the lowest area for the governance committee.", meetingReview: "After every board meeting, send my 9 directors 3 short questions, including whether the packet arrived in time to read. When 3 or more say it came too late, email the board chair with the count. Keep each meeting's answers in one table so I can compare meetings across the year.", condoOwners: "My condo board needs $144,000 for a new roof. Build a survey for our 120 unit owners asking how they want to pay: 2 installments of $600, one payment of $1,200, a loan added to monthly dues, or more details first. Accept one answer per unit, checked against our owner roster, and show the count and share for each option.", skillsMatrix: "Two seats open on my health clinic's board. Build a skills matrix where each of our 11 directors rates their own experience in 6 areas, including finance, legal, and technology. Show how many directors have each skill and highlight any area where nobody does, so the nominating committee can recruit for it." };
Chair emailed when 3 directors call the packet late
Ostrander Library Foundation sends 3 questions to its 9 directors after every board meeting. When 3 or more say the packet arrived too late to read, the chair gets an email. After the May meeting, 5 of 9 said it. The chair moved the packet date to 7 days before each meeting.
120 units asked how to pay for a $144,000 roof
Cobble Quay's condo board needs $144,000 for a new roof and asks owners how to pay. The survey takes one answer per unit, checked against the owner roster, and 87 of 120 units answered. Of those, 58 chose 2 installments of $600 over a single $1,200 payment. The board took that plan to the owners' meeting.
Technology, the skill none of 11 directors has
Two seats open on the Wrenfield Community Health board in March. First, all 11 directors rate their own experience in 6 areas. The matrix shows 6 directors with finance experience and only 1 with legal. Technology shows 0, and the nominating committee wrote it into the brief for both open seats.
How to Run a Board Survey
Seven steps to run a board survey that directors answer frankly and that ends with a short list of agreed changes.
Pick one scope per round: the whole board, or each director on their own. BoardSource recommends that boards assess their overall performance every two years, and a yearly round suits a board tracking one change. Put the scope in your prompt, and Emergent drafts the survey around it.
Before launch, name the one person who reads raw comments, such as the governance chair, and agree that everyone else sees only the summary. Put that promise in the invitation in one sentence. Then check the build keeps it before a single director answers.
Rate what the board itself controls, like strategy, financial oversight, fundraising, and recruiting new directors. Give each area three or four statements. Cap the survey near 20 statements, so a director can finish it in one sitting instead of saving it for a weekend.
Use the same 5-point agree scale for every statement, so areas compare within the survey and across years. Under each section, ask one open question: what would raise this score? A score shows where the board is weak, and the comment says what to change.
Before the invite goes out, have two governance committee members answer with their real views. Check that their scores land in the table without names and that each comment sits under the area it belongs to. Fix any statement either of them misread.
Give directors 2 weeks to answer and close the survey at least a month before the retreat. The committee needs that month to read every comment and draft the agenda. Send the link from the board chair, a name every director already knows.
Show the full board each area's share and the comments, grouped by theme, with no names. Agree on 3 changes at most, give each one an owner, and rate the same areas next round to see whether the scores moved.
Why Build Your Board Survey on Emergent?
A board survey holds frank answers about the board itself. On Emergent they sit in tables you control, and a prompt changes any question.
|
SurveyMonkey | Microsoft Forms | SurveyHero | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Survey, logic, and response database, as code you own | Survey builder with templates, including employee engagement | Surveys, quizzes, and polls with response summaries | Survey builder with templates, including employee satisfaction |
| Pricing model | Credits, no response caps or per-response fees | Per-user team plans with a seat minimum, billed annually | Free with a Microsoft account; included in Microsoft work and school subscriptions | Free plan, then per-account plans with unlimited responses |
| Where responses live | A database table you own, plus any integration | SurveyMonkey account | Microsoft Forms, with export to Excel | SurveyHero account, EU data centers |
| Code ownership | Full code export to GitHub on paid plans | None | None | None |
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