Email is brilliant for quick messages, but it’s rubbish for managing your board. Here’s why it’s time to ditch email for something better.
The Problem with Email-Only Board Management
Board meetings are the most expensive meetings in your organisation – you’ve got skilled trustees giving up their time for free. Yet many UK charities and smaller organisations still rely entirely on email to organise everything. This creates five major headaches:
- Everything becomes a mystery
Good board governance needs transparency. Trustees should know what’s happening, who’s doing what, and where things might go wrong.
With email, important information gets scattered across different message threads. Even the chair struggles to keep track of what’s been decided and what still needs doing. When everything’s buried in different people’s inboxes, it’s nearly impossible to get a clear picture of where you stand.
- Document Chaos
Managing board papers via email is a nightmare. You end up with multiple versions of the same document floating around different inboxes. Which version is the latest? Who’s made what changes? Good luck working that out when the agenda has been forwarded, edited, and re-sent half a dozen times.
Comments and discussions about documents happen in separate email threads, making it impossible to follow the decision-making process later.
- New Trustees Get Lost
When a new trustee joins your board, they need to understand what’s been happening and what processes you follow. If all your board information lives in various people’s email inboxes, getting them up to speed becomes a massive task.
You have to manually forward relevant emails (hoping you don’t miss anything important) and try to explain context that’s spread across months of different conversations. It’s time-consuming and error-prone.
- Absences Cause Chaos
What happens when your chair falls ill the day before a board meeting? Or when your treasurer goes on holiday during budget season?
If all the important information is locked away in someone’s personal email account, the organisation can grind to a halt. There’s no easy way for someone else to step in and see what needs doing.
- Security and Legal Risks
Email creates serious risks for UK organisations. Confidential board papers can easily be sent to the wrong person by mistake. Personal data might not be properly protected, potentially putting you at risk of breaching UK GDPR rules.
Emails can be hacked, and sensitive trustee information could be exposed. For charities handling vulnerable people’s data, this is a significant concern.
What About Cloud Storage?
Some organisations try using Google Drive or Dropbox instead. While this helps with document versions, it doesn’t solve the bigger problems. You still have conversations scattered across email threads, no clear overview of what needs doing, and access becomes complicated when trustees join or leave.
The Solution: Proper Board Management Software
The good news is that board portals are no longer just for big corporations. Modern solutions like Governance360 are designed specifically for UK charities and smaller organisations.
These platforms provide:
- One place for everything: All your board papers, policies, and discussions in a single, secure location
- Easy collaboration: Trustees can comment on documents and see the latest versions without email confusion
- Simple onboarding: New trustees can quickly see past decisions and current priorities
- Risk management tools: Built-in registers that make compliance easier
- GDPR compliance: Proper security and data protection built in
Making the Change
Moving away from email for board management might feel daunting, but the benefits are immediate:
- Meetings run more smoothly when everyone has access to the same information
- Less time wasted chasing missing documents or trying to work out what was decided
- Better governance and compliance
- Easier for busy trustees to stay engaged
The Bottom Line: Try It Risk-Free
Email is perfect for quick messages, but it’s holding your board back. The solution doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
Governance360 offers a completely free trial – no credit card required, no complicated setup. You can have your board portal up and running in minutes, not weeks. Simply visit their website, enter your organisation’s details, and you’re ready to upload your first set of board papers.
What happens once you start using it:
- The email noise disappears overnight – all board conversations happen in one secure place
- Trustees can access everything from their phone, tablet, or computer
- You’ll wonder how you ever managed without the clear overview of tasks and deadlines
- New trustees get up to speed in minutes, not hours
The difference is immediate. Instead of hunting through email threads, everything your board needs is in one organised, secure place. Built specifically for UK organisations like yours, it cuts through the email chaos and lets you focus on governance, not administration.
Ready to see the difference? Set up your free trial at governance360.com – most organisations are up and running within 10 minutes, and you’ll see the value from your very first board meeting.