Board Management
User Guide
Everything you need to know about using the Board Management course platform, from creating your account and navigating modules to tracking progress and downloading your toolkits.
1. About the Course
Improve a document you already have: As well as generating documents, you can upload one you already wrote and have AI improve it. Open the AI Automations page and use the "Improve an existing document with AI" card: pick a file (Word, text, or a text-based PDF), and AI returns a cleaner version plus a summary of what changed, with your original kept.
The Board Management is a self-paced, comprehensive training program covering the most critical areas of nonprofit compliance and management. Developed by A Step Ahead Media, DBA All In One Nonprofit, the course is designed for executive directors, board members, and nonprofit staff who need practical, actionable knowledge, not just theory.
Who Is This Course For?
- Executive Directors: Strengthen compliance knowledge, reduce legal and regulatory risk, and lead a more resilient organization.
- Board Members: Understand fiduciary duties, governance responsibilities, and your role in oversight.
- Finance Staff: Master Form 990 reporting, budgeting, and financial controls.
- Program Managers: Learn evaluation frameworks, HR basics, and risk management.
- Development Staff: Understand fundraising regulations, multi-state registration, and donor stewardship.
There are no deadlines or live sessions. Work through modules in any order, on your schedule. Your progress is automatically saved, close the app and pick up exactly where you left off.
2. Getting Started
Access to the course requires a free account. The registration process takes about one minute.
Creating Your Free Account
The sign-in screen appears automatically when you open the app. Click the Sign in button.
On the sign-in page, type your email address and click "Email me a sign-in link." We send you a one-click link, with no password to create or remember. Prefer Google? Use the "Sign in with Google" option instead.
Click the link in your email (or finish the Google prompt). You're signed in immediately and taken to the course dashboard.
The same sign-in works across every All In One Nonprofit app. If you sign in with an email on your organization's own domain, you join your organization automatically and share access with teammates; people on a personal email join with an invite code from the My Organization page.
Signing In to an Existing Account
Use the Sign In tab (the default view when you open the app). Enter the email and password you used when you registered.
You'll be taken directly to your dashboard with all your previous progress intact.
Your data is saved to your account as you work, so it is backed up and available when you sign in on another computer or browser. The app runs in your browser for speed and syncs to your account in the background; if you have made changes on two devices, a short prompt asks which copy to keep, and clearing your browser data is safe because your account copy restores when you sign back in.
Signing Out
Click your name or the account menu in the top-right corner of the app header and select Sign Out. Your progress is saved automatically before you're signed out.
3. Course Structure
The Board Management is organized into modules, each covering a critical area of nonprofit operations. Every module follows the same structure, making it easy to know what to expect.
The Modules
Lessons, Quizzes & Activities
Each module contains exactly 7 lessons. Every lesson includes:
| Component | Description | Per Lesson | Per Module |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📖 Reading Lesson | A concise written lesson covering the key concepts, with practical examples and takeaways | ~12 min read | about 1.5 hours |
| Hands-On Activity | A practical exercise applying the lesson to your own organization using the module's Excel toolkit | 1 activity | 7 activities |
| “ Self-Assessment Quiz | 3 multiple-choice questions testing comprehension, with full explanations for every answer | 3 questions | 21 questions |
After submitting the quiz you'll see your score and which questions you missed. If you missed any, a Reveal Correct Answers button shows the correct choices and full explanations, so you can check your own thinking first, then learn from anything you got wrong.
✨ AI Automations
The app includes AI automations that draft board governance documents for you from the data already in your board tools. You review and edit everything before it is used. Open the AI Automations tab in the app to use them.
They cover meeting minutes and agendas, action-item extraction, board packets, term-renewal and appreciation letters, new-member welcome and onboarding, a succession plan drafter, board composition and engagement analysis, a governance self-assessment, a conflict-of-interest prompt, an annual governance calendar, a recruitment program, and a smart board directory updater.
Every automation lets you copy, download as Word or text, print, or email the result.
See the AI Automations guide for what each one does, what to enter, and what you get back.
Predictions
The Predictions page sits in the sidebar directly under the Dashboard, next to AI Automations. It reads the roster, attendance, and term data you already keep here and surfaces two things worth watching: which board members may be drifting, and which seats are coming up for renewal. The page and its scores are free for everyone.
Attendance risk, per member
For each active board member, the page scores attendance risk from two factors you can see in plain view: their share of meetings attended across the meetings you have logged, and their recent trend (whether attendance is holding steady or slipping). A member who has missed the last few meetings reads differently from one with a single old absence, and the score shows you why.
The term cliff
The page also lists the seats coming up for renewal, pulled from each member's term-end date, split into three groups: terms already overdue for action, terms due within 90 days, and terms due within a year. It is the at-a-glance view that keeps a small board from being surprised by several seats turning over at once.
Transparent, not a black box
Every score is computed in your browser from your own board data. There is no hidden model and no comparison to other organizations. You can see exactly which meetings and term dates produced each result, which makes it easy to explain to the board.
These scores describe patterns in the data you have logged, not certainties about any individual. Treat attendance risk as a prompt for a supportive check-in, never as a verdict on a board member, and treat the term cliff as a planning aid, not a deadline the app enforces.
Turn it into an action plan
The Predictions page includes one AI button, the Board Health Brief, that turns the scores into a short, prescriptive plan for the board chair: who to check in with and a tactful way to do it, and which seats to start recruiting or renewing now versus later. See the AI Automations guide for details.
Founding Board: First 90 Days
The Founding Board page (in the sidebar, directly under the Dashboard) is a saved, step-by-step checklist for a brand-new board standing up its governance from zero. It walks a founding board through the first three months in order, so nothing important gets skipped while the organization is being built. An established, operating board can simply skip it.
The ten ordered steps
The checklist lays out the founding work in the sequence it should happen: learn the board's role (Course Module 1), seat your founding directors on the roster, elect officers, assemble your bylaws and the board handbook, adopt the bylaws and core policies by resolution, collect conflict-of-interest disclosures, hold your first meeting and record the minutes, form your committees, set your annual governance calendar, and plan the board and Executive Director relationship.
Saved progress, with a link to each tool
Each step has a checkbox and your progress is saved in your browser, so you can work through it over several sessions and always pick up where you left off. Every step links straight to the tool that does the work (the Course, the roster, Officers, Board Resolutions, and so on), so the checklist is both a plan and a launch pad rather than just a to-do list.
Annual Governance Tracking
Four governance routines repeat every year, and Board Management now tracks each one so nothing slips: conflict-of-interest disclosures, the Executive Director evaluation, the board self-evaluation, and board training. The Dashboard shows an Annual Governance strip with the current status of all four at a glance, and they feed your organization health score on the Copilot dashboard. The Executive Director evaluation has its own full page and its own section below.
Conflict of Interest
If you are a private foundation, the standard advice changes. A conflict-of-interest policy written for a public charity is built on disclose, recuse, and manage. For a private foundation, self-dealing between the foundation and a disqualified person is prohibited outright under Internal Revenue Code section 4941, and disclosure does not cure it, even when the transaction would benefit the foundation. Set your IRS classification on the My Organization page so the platform uses the right rule, and have counsel review any transaction involving a director, officer, substantial contributor, or their family.
The Conflict of Interest page (in the Board group of the sidebar) lists every active director for a disclosure year you set, and lets you mark who has submitted their annual disclosure and who is still pending. Where a director discloses a potential conflict, check the box and record a short note for your file. The summary shows how many of your directors have submitted, so you can chase the stragglers before your next meeting.
Collect signatures electronically. Next to any pending director, click Send for signature to email them their conflict-of-interest disclosure with a private link. They review it and sign by typing or drawing their signature, no account needed. You can either type the disclosure text or upload a PDF for them to sign (Word upload is not yet supported). The moment they sign, the finished signed PDF (the original document plus an appended signature page with their name, signature, date, consent, and an ESIGN/UETA audit line) is filed automatically into your Document Library, that director is marked submitted here automatically, and the result flows into your organization health score, so you do not have to chase a paper form or update the tracker by hand. You can resend the link to anyone still pending, or mark a disclosure submitted manually if it came in another way. Sending requires you to be signed in to your All In One Nonprofit account.
History, export, and board packets. Each director shows a small year history strip once you have tracked more than one disclosure year, so you can see at a glance who has filed in prior years. Click Export status report to turn the year's status (who submitted, who is pending, any conflicts noted) into a document you can copy, save to your Document Library, print, or email. And whenever you build a board packet (the Pre-Meeting Board Packet Brief or the Board Report Compiler), a short Governance and Compliance Status section is added automatically, summarizing conflict-of-interest disclosures, the board self-evaluation, and training completion, so your board always sees where governance stands.
Board self-evaluation
A healthy board reviews its own performance once a year. The Dashboard strip carries a simple Board self-evaluation status for the current year with a one-click way to mark it done (and undo). It is a lightweight attestation, not a form to fill in, so it stays out of your way while still reminding you the review is due.
Run the full anonymous round. When your board wants more than an attestation, the Board Self-Assessment (the link sits in this app's sidebar, or go to the Board Self-Assessment page) runs a real assessment: the owner or an admin opens a round and every board member receives a personal link by email, no account and no password needed. Each person rates the same eight areas from 1 to 5 with a sentence of comment, answers save as they type, ratings combine anonymously, comments appear without names, and results show only once at least three people have submitted, because on a small board an average of one is not anonymous. The combined picture puts facts beside perceptions where the platform has them, recorded attendance beside how prepared the board believes it is, and each weak area comes with one suggested next step. A printable version for working on paper comes from the Print or save as PDF button at the top of the assessment page. When the round is done, mark the year's self-evaluation complete on the Dashboard strip as before.
Board training
The Board Training page gives you a board-admin roll-up of who has completed their required training this year, with an optional note of which course or session each director finished. Directors can work through the in-app Course Modules (fiduciary duty, governance, compliance) or any external training; you record completion here so you have one clean view of where the board stands.
Credentials
The Credentials page (in the Board group of the sidebar) is a read-only view of the credentials and CEUs logged for your people in the HR Management app, matched to your board roster by name or email. Use it to see at a glance which directors hold current governance training, certifications, or professional licenses, with anything expiring within 60 days flagged in amber and anything past due in red. A "Show board members only" toggle filters to just your board, and every record links back to the HR app to add or edit (that is where credentials are entered, so there is one source of truth). Log a board member in the HR app by name if they are not on your staff roster.
Missing disclosures, a skipped self-evaluation, and incomplete training each lower your Governance score on the Copilot dashboard and appear in its issue list with a link straight back to the page that fixes them. Keeping these three current is one of the simplest ways to keep your governance health green.
Monitor strategic goals
Beyond the annual routines, your board can monitor the organization's strategic goals in the Strategic Progress tracker, reachable from the Strategic Progress link in this app's sidebar. It joins the Executive Director's strategic plan and goals with the Impact and Outcomes metrics that measure them, so the board sees live status, dated updates, and which goals are on track or falling behind.
Executive Director Evaluation
Evaluating the executive director is one of the board's core duties, and the ED Evaluation page (in the Board group of the sidebar) gives the board a complete, documented way to do it every year. It protects the ED as much as the organization: clear goals, honest feedback, and a compensation decision that is written down. The IRS Form 990 (Part VI) asks how executive compensation was determined, and a documented annual review with comparability data is the standard answer.
The process, step by step
The page walks the chair through seven steps, each with a checkbox so the board can see progress at a glance: put the review on the calendar (usually a month or two before budget season), pull last year's board-approved goals, gather each director's input privately, ask the ED for their self-evaluation, discuss the summary in executive session, review and document compensation with comparability data, and record the outcome in the minutes.
Collect notes from anyone, all year
The Board input and year-round notes section is where the raw material lives. Add as many entries as you need, one per contributor: paste a director's emailed input, type up what came out of a one-on-one, or upload a notes document (.docx, .pdf, or .txt), like the running file a chair keeps through the year. Each entry is tagged with the contributor's name and date, and everything stays saved with that year's evaluation.
When the input is in, click Compile notes into the worksheet (AI). The AI reads every contributor's notes and drafts content for the five worksheet sections, synthesizing themes rather than quoting individuals, noting where contributors disagreed, and using only what the notes actually say. You get a review window first: edit each drafted section, untick anything you do not want, and choose whether to add to what is already in the worksheet or only fill empty fields. Nothing touches the worksheet until you apply it.
The worksheet and the AI drafter
A saved worksheet holds the review's substance: the goals and criteria, strengths and accomplishments, areas for growth, goals for the coming year, and the compensation decision with the process used. Everything autosaves as you type. When the notes are in, Draft evaluation summary (AI) turns them into a professional evaluation summary (it uses only what you wrote, never invents accomplishments or criticisms), and Build evaluation record assembles a plain formatted record. Both open in the standard export window, so you can copy, print, email, save to Word, or file it in the Document Library.
Both halves of the loop
The Executive Director app carries the other half: an ED Self-Evaluation worksheet and a self-evaluation narrative drafter. Ask your ED to complete it there and share it before the executive session, so the review compares two prepared perspectives. When the review is done, mark the year complete; the status shows in the Dashboard's Annual Governance strip alongside conflict-of-interest disclosures, the board self-evaluation, and training.
Continuity Plan
Most organizations run on one or two people who hold everything in their heads: the bank login, the building keys, the funder relationship, the payroll routine. If that person were suddenly unavailable, the board would be the one left to keep the doors open. The Continuity Plan page (in the Board group of the sidebar) is where the board writes down, ahead of time, what it would need to know.
Four inventories
The page has a card for each: Accounts and logins (bank, payroll, payment processor, email and domain, website, insurance and government portals), Keys, vehicles and equipment, Relationships that depend on one person (funders, major donors, vendors, the auditor, the attorney, the bank contact), and Recurring duties (payroll, filings, reports, the things that cannot slip). Each row records what it is, who holds it today, a backup person, and where it lives. For accounts, "where it lives" means the password manager, the safe, or the sealed envelope. The plan never stores a password itself, only where the credential can be found.
The people picker at the top of the page pulls names from your board roster, your officers, the HR employee directory, and the positions recorded on My Organization, so you can assign holders and backups without retyping anyone.
The first 30 days
Below the inventories is a short worksheet: who is told first and who takes charge on day one, who can sign checks, what spending authority applies during the transition, who speaks for the organization, who leads staff and volunteers, and which funders need to hear from you. Click Draft the 30-day plan (AI) and the app writes a day-one, first-week, first-month plan from what you have recorded, with a bracketed placeholder wherever something is still missing. Review it, then choose to replace or add to the plan text already on the page. See the AI Automations Guide for how the drafter works.
Build the document and review it yearly
Build the continuity plan document assembles everything into one document on your letterhead, with the usual Copy, Word, Text, Print, Email and Save to Library actions. Set the Next review date at the top of the page (it defaults to one year out) and that date appears on your Organization Calendar as a "Continuity plan review" item, so the plan gets revisited instead of forgotten. The Dashboard's Annual Governance strip shows the plan's status, and an unstarted or overdue plan shows as a low-severity item in your governance health check.
Decisions, Votes & the Board Channel
Your board can now decide between meetings and keep a clean record of every decision. Paired tools live here: Decisions & Votes (asynchronous voting) and the Board Channel (a private board-only chat). Both are limited to people on your Board of Directors roster (administrators included), so sensitive board business stays off personal email and group texts.
Decisions & Votes (async voting)
Open the Decisions & Votes page (in the Board group of the sidebar) and start a motion. Choose the kind: a consent action (an actual decision made without a meeting, which passes only on a unanimous vote of the full board) or an advisory poll (which passes on a simple majority or two-thirds, your choice). Set a quorum and an optional closing date.
Board members vote for, against, or abstain in whichever way is easiest: a one-click link emailed to them, the Board votes card in the member portal, or right here in the app. All In One Nonprofit tallies the votes, checks quorum, and computes the outcome for you, and anyone who has not voted gets a weekly reminder. A motion can also auto-close at its deadline.
When you close a motion, make it part of the permanent record: file a Board Decision Record into the Document Library (retained and governance-tagged), append the decision into a meeting's minutes, or build a full Board Decisions report. The Copilot dashboard even flags any closed decision you have not yet recorded. This is the practical answer to "we need a board vote but cannot get everyone in a room."
Board Channel (private board-only chat)
The Board Channel is a real-time chat room limited to your board roster, with live presence (who is here now) and full attributed history you can scroll back through. It works inside Board Management and from the member portal, so directors who only use the magic-link portal can join too.
When a conversation leads somewhere, save it to the record: lift a single message or the whole transcript straight into a retained Document Library record. Together with Decisions & Votes, this completes the loop: discuss in the channel, decide in a vote, record in the minutes and the Library.
Who can join, and chat pushes. Access to the Board Channel is your Board of Directors roster: directors on the roster can join, and the organization owner and admins always retain access. Board chat messages can also trigger a push notification for people who opted in to Board chat notifications in the Notification Permissions grid on the My Organization page at allinonenonprofit.com/team. A push only goes to someone who is not already in the chat, never to the sender, and is throttled so an active conversation does not flood anyone's phone.
Note: voting and the channel are gated to the Board of Directors roster, so make sure each director is on the roster (administrators bypass the check). This Decisions & Votes tool is asynchronous voting designed for between meetings. For capturing votes live during a meeting, use the Live Motion Tracker below.
Live Motion Tracker
The Motion Tracker captures formal motions and votes live, during a meeting, right on the meeting record. It sits on the Meetings page: open any meeting and you will find a Motions & votes section between the attendance grid and the meeting actions. This is the in-room counterpart to Decisions & Votes above: the same board, two different moments. Decisions & Votes is for deciding between meetings from the member portal; the Motion Tracker is for recording what the board does in the room while the meeting is happening.
Record a motion
Click Add motion and fill in the four basics: the motion title (what is being moved), who made it, who seconded it, and the pass threshold (simple majority or two-thirds). You can record as many motions as a meeting needs, and add a short note to each.
Vote, member by member
Below each motion is a vote grid built from your board roster, with one row per member. Mark each member For, Against, Abstain, or Recuse as the vote is called. A live tally updates as you go, so you can read the count out loud while you record it.
Quorum and the result chip
The tracker runs a quorum check off your roster (quorum is a majority of the board) and shows a result chip that reads Passed, Did not pass, or No quorum. For votes counted toward the threshold, abstentions and recusals are treated as not counting for or against, so the chip reflects the standard you set. The chip updates the moment the votes change, which makes it easy to confirm an outcome before moving on.
Write motions into the minutes
When the meeting's motions are recorded, click Write motions into the minutes to drop a clean, formatted motion record (each motion, its mover and seconder, the tally, and the result) straight into that meeting's minutes field. That record then feeds the AI Minutes Drafter, so when you generate minutes the formal motions and votes are already captured for you rather than retyped.
Use the Motion Tracker to capture votes live in the room on the meeting record. Use Decisions & Votes when the board needs to act between meetings and members vote on their own time. Both keep a clean, quorum-checked record.
Board Resolutions Sign-Off
The Board Resolutions page (in the Board group of the sidebar) lets you draft a formal resolution, send it to your directors for electronic sign-off, and keep a full audit trail of who signed, when, and from where. It is the clean, defensible way to adopt a resolution when you need every director's signature on the record.
Draft the resolution
Start a new resolution and set its number, date, and title. The resolution text is prefilled with a standard WHEREAS / NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED template, so you can edit the recitals and the operative clause rather than starting from a blank page.
⛪ Churches: the annual housing allowance resolution
If your organization type is set to Church or faith based on the My Organization page, the Resolutions page shows a teal band for the annual housing allowance designation. A minister’s housing allowance only works if the board designates it in advance, by official action, before the payments it covers (Treasury Regulation 1.107-1(b)); it can never be applied retroactively, so a designation missed in December costs the pastor money that cannot be recovered. Click Prefill the designation resolution and the composer fills with the formal Section 107 language, with the effective-date rule baked in; replace the bracketed names and figures, confirm the amount against the Clergy Compensation worksheet in the HR Management app, then send it for sign-off like any other resolution. Adopt it before 1 January every year; the Compliance Tracker carries the annual deadline so it is never missed. Have your CPA or tax counsel confirm the figures.
Pick your signers and send
Choose signers from your board roster, and add any off-roster signers (for example an outside officer or counsel) by name and email. Send it for sign-off and each director receives a private signing link. They review the resolution and sign by typing or drawing their name behind a consent checkbox, with no account required. Sending requires you to be signed in to your All In One Nonprofit account.
Track every signature
The screen shows per-signer status (Signed or Pending) with the date and time and the IP address each director signed from, and a running "X of Y signed" count. From here you can:
- Remind the directors who are still pending.
- Void a resolution that should no longer be signed.
- Download the adopted signed PDF once it is complete.
- Pull a Completion report, the full audit trail of every signer, date, and IP address, which you can copy, print, email, or save as Word.
Filed automatically when adopted
When the last director signs, the resolution is adopted and the signed PDF is filed automatically into your Document Library, so the adopted resolution lives with the rest of your governance records.
These are typed or drawn electronic signatures with a timestamp and IP audit trail, suitable for board resolutions and recordkeeping. They are not cryptographically binding e-signatures. For documents that require that level of assurance, use a dedicated e-signature provider.
✨ The Compiler Role: Board Packets and the Annual Budget
Two AI Automations in this app, the Board Report Compiler and the Annual Budget Compiler, are built around a "compiler": the one person who pulls everyone else's submissions into a single board document. Typically the board secretary compiles the monthly board packet and the treasurer compiles the annual budget, though in a small organization both jobs often land on the Executive Director. Committee chairs submit to your sign-in email from the Committees app, and everything addressed to you collects automatically.
The monthly packet loop (secretary)
- Load submissions: in the Board Report Compiler, click Load submitted reports to see every committee report addressed to your sign-in email. You can also paste reports in by hand.
- Compile: tick the reports you want and compile them into one consolidated board packet, with an executive summary, a per-committee section, every decision the board is being asked to make, and watch items.
- Remind missing committees: keep a small roster of committees and chair emails. After loading, the app shows who has not submitted, and one click nudges them all.
The annual budget loop (treasurer)
- Kickoff: announce the budget cycle and ask committee chairs to submit line-item budget requests from the Committees app.
- Collect requests: in the Annual Budget Compiler, click Load submitted budget requests. Per-committee totals are computed by the app from the submitted line items, never by the AI.
- Add projected revenue: list expected revenue sources so the compiled draft includes a surplus-or-gap analysis.
- Compile: assemble everything into one consolidated draft annual budget, with category subtotals and committee totals computed by code.
- Draft the adoption resolution: the compiled budget includes a draft board resolution so the board can vote to adopt it at the next meeting.
Money out: the approval matrix
Adopting the budget is the board's first authorization of every dollar in it, but a budget line is permission to plan, not permission to pay. Each actual payment still needs a sign-off, and the Spending & Invoice Approval Policy automation drafts the threshold model that decides whose:
- Tier 1 (small, budgeted): up to your first threshold (default $500), one officer besides the Treasurer signs off.
- Tier 2 (medium): up to your second threshold (default $2,500), the Finance Committee chair approves.
- Board resolution: anything over tier 2, plus new contracts and anything multi-year, goes to the full board, regardless of amount.
- Unbudgeted items step up one tier: a $300 invoice that is in the budget needs an officer; the same $300 with no budget line needs the Finance Committee, because the board never pre-authorized it.
Two universal rules apply at every tier and are written into every drafted policy: no one approves their own reimbursement, and no one approves a payment to a related party.
The same card includes the Invoice Approval Log: log each invoice as it arrives (date, vendor, amount, budget line, budgeted or not) and the app computes the required approval tier for you. Record who approved it and when it was paid, filter by status, and export the whole log as CSV: the log is the audit trail an auditor or 990 preparer wants to see.
The Reminder Schedule
The compiler cards end with 📅 Reminder Schedule panels so you never have to remember when to run them:
- Packet reminder: set the day of the month your packet closes (1–28) and how many days of warning you want (default 5). You get an email each month, in time to load submissions and nudge missing committees.
- Budget kickoff reminder: set the month and day you kick off the budget cycle, plus a fiscal label such as "FY 2027". You get an email on that date each year.
- Year-end summary season: an annual nudge (default January 10) when it is time to assemble the development report, donor statements, and the annual report.
- Form 990 review: an annual nudge for the board's pre-filing 990 review. Set it about six weeks before your filing deadline; calendar-year organizations file by May 15.
Reminders are opt-in, go to your sign-in email, and arrive automatically; change or remove them in the same panel any time.
5. Tracking Your Progress
How Lesson Status Works
You control each lesson's status, there are no scores or percentages to chase:
- Not started: The lesson appears normally in the list with its number.
- Complete: Click Mark as Complete on the Quiz tab and the lesson's card shows a full progress bar with a "done" note and a Review button.
- Incomplete / revisit: Click Mark as Incomplete to flag a lesson you want to return to; its card shows a half-full progress bar with an "incomplete" note and a Resume button.
Finding Your Place Again
The dashboard shows a Resume where you left off card that links straight to your next unfinished lesson, and the welcome banner notes how many modules you've completed. Inside any module, each lesson card's progress bar and Open / Resume / Review label make it easy to see what's done and what's left.
Is My Progress Saved Automatically?
Yes. Your lesson status, notes, and activity responses are saved to your account as you go, there's no Save button to remember (though Notes has one for peace of mind). As long as you're signed in to the same account on the same device and browser, your work will be there when you return.
Your data is saved to your account, so clearing your browser's cache, cookies, or site data is safe: your account copy restores the next time you sign in. The app keeps a working copy in your browser for speed and syncs it to your account in the background.
6. Your Excel Toolkits
Each module comes with a professionally built Excel toolkit that you use during the hands-on activities and keep for ongoing use in your organization. These are practical, working tools, not just templates.
| Module | Toolkit | What's Inside |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Form 990 Compliance Tracker | Filing checklist, schedule navigator, board review log, deadline tracker |
| 2 | Board Governance Toolkit | Board matrix, meeting templates, policy checklist, recruitment tracker |
| 3 | Fundraising Compliance Toolkit | Gift acceptance log, acknowledgment templates, campaign compliance checklist |
| 4 | Multi-State Registration Tracker | State-by-state filing tracker, exemption log, renewal calendar |
| 5 | Volunteer Management Toolkit | Volunteer agreement templates, hour tracking, background check log |
| 6 | HR & Employment Compliance Toolkit | Classification worksheet, onboarding checklist, policy index, FLSA calculator |
| 7 | Financial Management Toolkit | Budget template, cash flow tracker, internal controls checklist, audit prep |
| 8 | Advanced Revenue Toolkit | UBIT analysis worksheet, earned income model, social enterprise planner |
| 9 | Risk Management Toolkit | Risk register, insurance inventory, crisis communication plan template |
| 10 | Marketing & Communications Toolkit | Brand guide worksheet, content calendar, Google Ad Grants tracker |
| 11 | Program Evaluation Toolkit | Logic model template, evaluation plan, outcomes tracker, impact report template |
| 12 | Strategic Planning & Sustainability Toolkit | SWOT template, strategic plan, funding diversification planner, succession checklist |
Open any module and look for the Module Toolkit box below the lesson cards. Where a downloadable file is available, click Download Toolkit (Excel) to save that module's .xlsx file, it's yours to fill in and keep for ongoing use in your organization. If a toolkit won't download, contact [email protected].
7. Glossary
The course includes a built-in Board & Governance Glossary: a quick reference to the key terms used throughout the lessons and in nonprofit governance generally.
- Where to find it: On the dashboard, click the 📖 Board & Governance Glossary button just above the Course Modules grid.
- What's inside: Around 30 plain-English definitions, listed alphabetically, covering terms such as 501(c)(3), bylaws, the three fiduciary duties (care, loyalty, and obedience), quorum, Form 990, conflict of interest, D&O insurance, restricted funds, and operating reserve.
- Getting back: Use the Back to Overview button at the top of the glossary to return to your modules.
8. Administrator Guide
The administrator account ([email protected]) has access to an Admin Panel with tools for managing students, monitoring progress, and exporting data.
The features in this section are only available to the administrator account. Student accounts do not see the Admin Panel.
Accessing the Admin Panel
When signed in as the administrator, an Administrator Portal card appears near the top of the dashboard. Click Open Admin Panel to access the full panel, or click any of the quick stats.
Admin Panel Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Student Overview | View all registered students, name, email, organization, and join date. |
| Progress Monitoring | See each student's completion status at a glance. Identify who's actively progressing and who may need a nudge. |
| User Detail | Click any student row to see their detailed module-by-module progress breakdown. |
| Export CSV | Click the ⬇ Export CSV button to download a spreadsheet of all student data, names, emails, organizations, join dates, and progress. Use this for reporting or outreach. |
| Summary Stats | At-a-glance cards showing total users, student count, active modules, and total lessons. |
Managing Student Accounts
- Students self-register: There is no manual account creation process. Students create their own free accounts from the sign-in screen.
- No password resets: If a student forgets their password, they will need to create a new account. Advise them to use the same email so their organization information is preserved.
- Progress follows the account: Progress is saved to each person's account, so when they sign in on another computer their progress is there. The app keeps a working copy in the browser for speed and syncs it to the account in the background.
9. FAQ & Troubleshooting
| Question / Issue | Answer |
|---|---|
| I closed the app and lost my place. How do I get back? | Sign in again with your one-click email link (or Google). Your progress is saved automatically, you'll be returned to the dashboard showing exactly where you left off. Click the module you were in and continue with the next incomplete lesson. |
| I answered a quiz question wrong. Does that hurt my progress? | No. The quiz is a self-assessment, not a graded exam, and it's optional. You mark each lesson complete yourself on the Quiz tab. If you miss questions, click Reveal Correct Answers to see the right choices and full explanations. |
| Can I revisit a lesson after completing it? | Yes, open any lesson at any time to review the content. To flag a lesson to come back to, click Mark as Incomplete on the Quiz tab; its card shows a half-full progress bar and a Resume button so it's easy to find. |
| My progress disappeared after I cleared my browser history. | Clearing browser data (cache, cookies, site data) also clears local storage, which is where your account and progress are saved. This data cannot be recovered. Going forward, avoid clearing site data for the device you use for this course, or use a dedicated browser profile. |
| Can I access the course on my phone? | Yes. The app works on phones, tablets, and desktops, the layout adapts to your screen size. A larger screen is still more comfortable for longer reading and note-taking. |
| I created an account but it says my email or password is wrong. | Passwords are case-sensitive and must be at least 8 characters. Try re-entering carefully. If you're still unable to sign in, create a new account with the same email address, you can use a slightly different password. |
| How do I get my Excel toolkits? | Open the module and click Download Toolkit (Excel) in the Module Toolkit box below the lesson cards. If a toolkit won't download, email [email protected]. |
| My dashboard shows 0% even though I've done lessons before. | This usually means you're signed in to a different account (different email), or you're using a different browser or device than the one where your progress was saved. Try signing out and back in with the exact email you originally used. |
Administrator Access
The sign-in screen has an Administrator Access link below the Sign In button. Use it to sign in as Administrator with just a password, no email needed. This is a per-browser admin role; the password is stored only on the current computer.
- First time: Click Administrator Access. You'll see a "First-time setup" prompt with two password fields, enter a password (6+ characters) and confirm it. Click Create Admin Password.
- Subsequent times: Click Administrator Access, enter that same password, and click Enter Admin Panel.
- Once signed in as Administrator, you'll land on the dashboard with full admin privileges, including the Admin page in the sidebar (visibility into all users and activity stored in this browser).
- Click Back to regular sign-in at the bottom of the admin panel to return to the normal sign-in screen.
Note: the admin password is unique to each browser. If you set it up at home and then visit the app on a work computer, you'll see the first-time-setup prompt again. To grant admin access on a new machine, register a regular user account or set up a fresh admin password there.
↑ Back to topContact & Support
This Board Management course is part of All In One Nonprofit, a growing library of self-service tools and learning content for nonprofit organizations. We are nonprofit board members ourselves, building the tools we wished existed when we started.
Looking for help beyond the platform? See our Helpful Resources page for vetted external resources on legal and tax filing, funder research, governance training, insurance, technology discounts, and more.
From our Learn library: 7 board-role mistakes and the biggest board mistake founders make.
Part of your All In One Nonprofit plan
Board Management comes with both All In One Nonprofit plans, AIO Essentials and AIO Complete, along with its AI automations. See pricing →. Other governance apps you get with it:
- Committees, charters for every standing committee
- Risk Management & Insurance Audit, insurance audit, risk register, and crisis plan
- Name Change, legally change your nonprofit's name
- Impact & Outcomes, outcomes tracking and funder-ready reporting
- Membership, member roster, levels & dues, renewals, and win-backs
Related All In One Nonprofit tools
- Document Retention & Security Policy Generator, produces governance policies referenced in the board onboarding curriculum
- Nonprofit HR Management Policy Generator, Whistleblower Policy and other HR-adjacent governance documents
- Risk Management & Insurance Audit, Risk Committee Charter supports the broader governance oversight framework taught in this course
- IRS Forms Assistant, the Board Review Process tool documents Form 990 Part VI Q11 board review
- See all apps & pricing
Questions, suggestions, bug reports
We read every message and incorporate feedback into the tools. Reach us through the contact form on allinonenonprofit.com.
Important disclaimers
This course is educational content covering widely-accepted nonprofit governance practice. It is not legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. State nonprofit corporation law, IRS regulations, and accreditor requirements may impose additional or different obligations. Consult a qualified nonprofit attorney for advice specific to your organization's circumstances.
Document branding, signatures & snippets
Your organization identity, branding (letterhead, footer, and signature), language, and connections are all set once on the My Organization page and carry across every app. You can even customize your organization's language there, renaming platform terms like donation or donor to the words your organization uses. Here is what these cover:
Your organization can save more than one signature on My Organization (for example the executive director and the board chair), each with a name and title and one marked as the Default. Every Word export in this app offers a Signature pull-down listing them, with the Default preselected, plus No signature; the signer's name and title print under the signature image.
- Letterhead and footer: add your organization's letterhead image and a footer (address, contact details, EIN) that appear on your Word and PDF exports.
- Signature: save a default closing (for example, "Sincerely,"), your name, your title, and an optional signature image, added at the sign-off on letters.
- Stats & Snippets: save reusable blocks of text you use often (your mission statement, boilerplate, a standard call to action) and copy any of them into a document you are drafting.
Set these up once and apply them to your exports.
Working with your organization
All In One Nonprofit works as a shared organization. From My Organization you can set up your organization and see who has joined, and everyone is recognized across every app once they sign in. Anyone who signs in with an email address on your organization's own domain (for example [email protected]) joins automatically; people using a personal address such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook join with the invite code or email invitation you send them. Signing in is passwordless: enter your email at the member portal, app.allinonenonprofit.com, and we email you a one-click sign-in link (signing in with Google also works). New to the platform? The Platform Workflows shows what to do first, by role. For step-by-step walkthroughs of real situations, see the Workflow Scenarios. Deeper in-app collaboration arrives with your subscription as we roll it out, so you can set up your organization now and grow into it.
See the whole platform
Want to see how this fits the rest of All In One Nonprofit? The Complete Platform Guide walks through every app, with screenshots.
Open the Complete Platform Guide →