How Plastic Free July Delivers Professional Board Governance with a Part-Time Team
The small foundation behind one of the world's largest environmental movements runs its board like a much bigger organisation, without adding headcount or the cost of a board portal.
KEY RESULTS
Eliminated
time-consuming PDF board-pack prep
First ever
run sheet given to the Chair
One click
shell minutes replace a dreaded task
More time
to end plastic waste
Jess Bushby
Office Manager & Executive Assistant
Plastic Free Foundation
Plastic Free Foundation is the small, independent not-for-profit behind Plastic Free July, one of the world's most influential environmental campaigns. What started in 2011 with 40 people has grown into a global movement with more than 174 million participants across 190 countries in 2024. The Foundation runs this global campaign from Perth, Western Australia, with a handful of part-time staff supported by consultants and volunteers.
Size: A handful of part-time staff | Board: 5 directors, meeting every two months | Customer since: November 2025
Proudly Supporting Plastic Free July
boardcycle provides its platform to Plastic Free Foundation on a complimentary basis, supporting the small team behind a global movement to spend less time on board administration and more on ending plastic waste.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Plastic Free Foundation punches far above its weight: a part-time team in Perth stewarding a movement that reaches 190 countries. For Jess Bushby, the Foundation's Office Manager and Executive Assistant, board governance makes up 30 to 40 percent of her role. Before boardcycle, that meant cloning last meeting's Word documents and assembling a combined PDF pack of up to 70 pages, rebuilt in full whenever anything changed late.
Since November 2025, the Foundation has run its board through boardcycle. A single automatically generated agenda now acts as the source of truth, linking directors straight to each paper in the Foundation's secure document storage. The board has a professional run sheet for the first time, shell minutes are generated in one click, and Jess's attention has shifted from formatting documents to getting the content right, and back to the mission.
THE CHALLENGE
"Not entirely professional or well put together..."
Like most small organisations, Plastic Free Foundation ran its board preparation manually: copy the previous meeting's documents, update the details, convert everything to PDF and merge it into one combined pack.
"Sometimes it could end up being 60 or 70 pages long," Jess explains. "And then during the meeting, the directors are asking what page we're up to, and everyone's trying to scroll through the pack."
The process was fragile as well as slow, and quality drifted over time. "Inevitably, the formatting gets changed. If you were to compare it to a year ago, it would look substantially different to what you've currently got. Not entirely professional or well put together, I would say."
60-70 pages
in each combined PDF pack
Every change
meant rebuilding the entire pack
Format drift
from one meeting to the next
Minutes
the task that always got put off
THE SOLUTION
An agenda, a virtual board pack + more
The Foundation now builds each meeting in boardcycle, and everything flows from that single process: the agenda, the shell minutes, and a run sheet for the Chair.
"Now we have the agenda, which is our single source of truth," says Jess. "Because everything's automatically generated, it's just so much cleaner and more consistent. It comes across as much more professional and put together."
"Because everything's automatically generated, it's just so much cleaner and more consistent."
The virtual board pack
Instead of a combined PDF, the Foundation runs what is effectively a virtual board pack. Board papers stay in the organisation's own secure document storage (in the Foundation's case, SharePoint). Jess links each paper in boardcycle, and the generated agenda presents those links as clickable items, so directors click the agenda item under discussion and land directly on the right paper.
It's a simple, effective use of technology the organisation already owns. Documents never leave the Foundation's control, and because the agenda links to each paper rather than embedding it, a late change needs no rebuild at all.
"With the combined PDF, changing one page essentially just meant doing it all again. With this process, you can go in and change it, and the link is the same. It's so much easier."
For a small not-for-profit, the result is board-portal-grade organisation and security without board-portal cost.
Outputs they'd never had before
The Foundation had never produced a run sheet for its Chair before boardcycle. Now one is generated automatically with every meeting. "I like that, and the Chair likes it," Jess says. "One thing that's on the run sheet is the wording for the Acknowledgement of Country at the beginning of our meetings. If our Chair wasn't there one day and someone else had to step in, it would all be there, ready."
The minutes, once the task Jess would put off, now start from a one-click shell. "Now I don't dread it so much. boardcycle generates the shell minutes, and you really just have to go back through your notes and add the important discussion points and decisions."
THE RESULTS
Professional Governance. More Time for the Mission.
"Because I'm the one sending it out, it's a reflection of my work. It's nice seeing that it does look so professional."
"If I'm spending most of my time trying to fit things on one page, I'm spending less time making sure the information is actually correct."
"They were all really positive about it after we presented them with the first boardcycle papers. They all said they found it very clear and a positive change."
"Short of saying 'do my job for me', I couldn't think of a feature that it doesn't do that I need it to do."
Governance that frees up the mission
For a part-time team running a global campaign, every hour spent on board administration is an hour not spent on the mission. "It's really important that I can do that work efficiently," Jess says, "to free me up to do all the other things that are waiting for me." More of the Foundation's limited time now goes where it belongs: towards ending global plastic waste.
Worth it for a small NFP?
boardcycle supports Plastic Free Foundation with a complimentary subscription, so we asked Jess directly: would boardcycle, at A$900 per year for CoSec Essentials, be worth it for a small not-for-profit paying its way?
"For a small not-for-profit, if there is budget for something like this, then yes, I would definitely recommend it. boardcycle just makes everything easier for the person who's putting all of this together. And the output looks fantastic."
"boardcycle just makes everything easier for the person who's putting all of this together. And the output looks fantastic."
Ready to streamline your board prep?
Ready to build and manage agendas faster and better? Ready for shell minutes in one click? Ready to focus on what really matters, and let us handle the rest? Then get in touch.
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