Nonprofit Board Meeting Minutes Template
This is a sample template for general information. It is not legal advice and may not be suitable for your situation or jurisdiction. Have it reviewed by a qualified professional before use.
Nonprofit board minutes record what the board did: who was present and whether there was a quorum, conflict of interest declarations, the reports, each motion with its vote, and the decisions on programs and finances. The template is free in Word and PDF, with a filled-in example.
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Rather not take notes by hand? Dalm is a Mac app that records the meeting — a call or a room — and drafts the notes from the transcript. Get early access
What nonprofit board minutes include
The template follows the order of the meeting, in ten parts:
- Header — organization; meeting type (regular, special or annual); date, time and place; called to order at and by; chair; secretary.
- Attendance and quorum — board members present and absent; staff and guests; quorum: __ of __ members present, confirmed yes or no.
- Conflict of interest declarations — who declared what, and the abstention that followed.
- Consent agenda / approval of previous minutes.
- Reports — executive director, treasurer or finance, committees: who presented and the key points.
- Motions — the exact wording, moved and seconded by, votes for, against and abstained, and the result.
- Action items — action, responsible, due date.
- Next meeting.
- Adjournment — the time the meeting closed.
- Approval — the secretary’s signature and date, and the date the board approved the minutes.
The quorum, the vote counts and the approval line are blank for the secretary to fill in by hand. What your minutes must contain is set by your bylaws and local requirements — check your bylaws. This page is a template, not legal advice.
Nonprofit board meeting minutes example
Example (fictional). The organization, names and figures are invented. DRAFT — not approved.
| Organization | Riverside Reading Foundation |
| Meeting type | Regular |
| Date, time, place | Thursday, 18:30, community library hall |
| Called to order | 18:35 by the Chair, L. Fedorova |
| Secretary | O. Popov |
Attendance and quorum
| Present | L. Fedorova, O. Popov, I. Morozova, G. Sidorov, V. Kim |
| Absent | D. Novikov, R. Lee |
| Staff | A. Belyaeva, Executive Director |
| Quorum | 5 of 7 present; confirmed |
Conflict of interest. G. Sidorov declared that his company submitted one of the printing quotes; he abstained from the motion on printing.
Reports
| Report | By | Key points |
|---|---|---|
| Executive director | A. Belyaeva | Summer reading program reached 420 children; two new partner schools. |
| Finance | I. Morozova | Report attached; spending within the approved budget. |
Motions
| Motion | Moved / seconded | Vote | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| To approve the minutes of the previous meeting | V. Kim / O. Popov | 5 / 0 / 0 | Carried |
| To select the lowest of the three printing quotes for the spring book fair | I. Morozova / V. Kim | 4 / 0 / 1 (G. Sidorov) | Carried |
Action items
| Action | Responsible | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Sign the printing contract | A. Belyaeva | In two weeks |
| Draft the annual fundraising letter | L. Fedorova | not set |
Next meeting. In four weeks, 18:30.
Adjournment. Adjourned at 20:05.
The foundation, its board and its figures are made up. The quorum and the votes are the example’s, not a rule.
How to fill it in
Nonprofit minutes are read by people who were not in the room — new board members, auditors, a funder — so they record what the board did and the numbers it was given, not the conversation. Five rules come with the template:
- Record what was done, not everything that was said. Motions and results word for word, discussion briefly.
- Quorum from the member list, entered by hand.
- Conflicts of interest are recorded with the member’s abstention on that item.
- Financial figures only as presented; attach the report rather than retyping it.
- Draft until approved by the board at the next meeting.
Nonprofit vs corporate board minutes
| Nonprofit board | Corporate board | |
|---|---|---|
| Reports | Executive director, treasurer, committees — programs and money side by side | Officers and finance; strategy and risk |
| Routine business | Often a consent agenda passed in one vote | Approval of previous minutes item by item |
| Conflicts of interest | Declared and recorded with an abstention; common when members’ organizations are suppliers or partners | Declared and recorded; a director may step out of the item |
The sections for motions, votes, action items and adjournment are the same in both. For a company’s board of directors, use the board meeting minutes template; for an ordinary working meeting, the meeting minutes and meeting notes templates.
Drafting board minutes from a recording
You do not have to type the minutes from your own notes. Dalm is a Mac app that records a meeting — a call or a room — and drafts the notes from the transcript. Your speech is recognised on your Mac, and no audio leaves it; what goes to our servers is the transcript, as text, and a language model writes the draft from that text. The quorum, the vote counts and the approval line in this template are the secretary’s to confirm by hand, and the minutes are the board’s to approve.
What the software drafts from a recording, and where it stops, is on meeting minutes software.
If your board already works in board software, the recording sits alongside it: the board book, who sees which papers and any vote taken online stay there, and the approved minutes go there as a Word or PDF file. Which of the two a small board needs is set out in recorder or board software: which one your board needs.
See plans · For teams
Questions
- What must nonprofit board minutes include?
- In this template: the organization, the type of meeting, the date, time and place, who called it to order, the chair and the secretary; who was present, who was absent and whether there was a quorum; conflict of interest declarations; the consent agenda or the approval of the previous minutes; the reports; each motion in its exact wording with who moved and seconded it, the vote and the result; action items; the next meeting; adjournment; and the secretary's approval line. What your minutes must contain is set by your bylaws and local requirements; this page is a template, not legal advice.
- How do you record a conflict of interest?
- Write who declared it, what it concerns, and what happened: usually the member abstains from the vote on that item, and the minutes say so. In the example, a member whose company submitted one of the printing quotes declared the conflict and abstained from the motion on printing, and the vote is recorded as 4 for, 0 against, 1 abstained with that member's name. Whether a member must also leave the room is for your bylaws and conflict policy to say.
- Who approves the minutes?
- The board, at its next meeting, usually as the first item or as part of the consent agenda. Until then the minutes are a draft, and the example on this page is marked as one. The secretary signs the approved version and records the date of approval on the approval line; whether anyone else has to sign is set by your bylaws.
- What is a consent agenda?
- A group of routine items — the previous minutes, written reports already circulated, standing approvals — passed in one vote without discussion, so the meeting's time goes to the items that need it. Any member can ask for an item to be pulled out of the consent agenda and discussed on its own. The minutes record the consent agenda as one motion with its vote, and list what it contained.
- Is the template free?
- Yes. It downloads as a Word file or a PDF with no sign-up and no e-mail address asked. The file is in English and carries no product name or branding, so you can put your organization's name at the top, add the sections your bylaws call for and delete the ones you never use.