Best Practices for Nonprofit Board Recruitment

Over the years, our staff has worked with a variety of nonprofit boards. Whether it is in the Executive Director/CEO role or as a board member ourselves, these efforts have allowed us to compile best practices for board recruitment and development. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be exploring both of these, starting with board recruitment. After all, if you don’t bring in the right board members, development will be all the more difficult.  

Some of these best practices often seem obvious, but so often they are forgotten. The board plays the primary role in establishing the policy and strategy for the organization. The Executive Director (CEO) serves at the pleasure of the board, not the other way around. All too often that is forgotten. The Executive Director should be focused on operating the organization, and unless you have a working board, the board should not be focused on the day-to-day.

Board Recruitment is a tricky practice, a balancing act, a headache, and yet incredibly fulfilling when done right. The first step in any process is assessing your current board members and board policies.  Why board policies you might ask?  Simple, there are several policies that are incredibly important to board recruitment: term limits, board requirements, and time requirements for board meetings/committees (just to name a few). If your board does not have term limits in place, it should. Too often, especially in small nonprofits, a disengaged board develops after many board members’ terms exceed ten or more years. In some extreme cases, we have seen board members who have been with the organization for 30+ years.  Identification of board requirements is also critical because you don’t want those members joining onto something for which they cannot provide the time or financial support that you require/expect. Requirements will ensure your organization is recruiting individuals that properly fit the organization. 

After assessing your board policies, it is time to take a look at your current board members, their backgrounds, experience, and interests. At this point, we recommend that our clients put together an excel spreadsheet assessing their current board members, attached here is a copy of one we begin with when working with a client. Make sure to open it up and follow along, so you can use it for your own organization. There are certain sections that are generally applicable to any nonprofit organization. Some organizations may wish to add a section or two to the sheet, so it will fit the specific needs of their organization. Now open up the spreadsheet and fill in the “who” section for all of your board members, and check the boxes for each section across the spreadsheet. At this point, you may choose to tally up where you stand for each of these. This assessment should tell you whether you have an overreliance on certain backgrounds, show if you are underrepresented with diversity, or have experienced board members (which may help inform you how much board education needs to take place).  

As you assess your current board of directors you can now begin to identify opportunities that exist for bringing the right experience into your organization. For example, if you have only one attorney on your board and their term expires in the next year, you can easily assume you have a need to target another attorney, or if you run through your assessment and find that you have a board full of people capable of writing checks but unwilling to ask for others support, you have an opportunity to identify potential board members that can make asks and grow your donor base. After identification of needs, we then encourage board members and staff (especially the Development team) to assist in the process of identification of new potential board members. Our experience tells us that board recruitment is a joint effort between board members and organizational leadership, including everyone in the process ensures that there is a comfort level and support for new targets.

If you don’t immediately understand why we have identified these specific sections, don’t worry. Each section has a purpose and we have a reason for including it in this sheet. Let’s take a look at why we scrutinize each section below. 

Board Experience

Has this person been a member of a board before? More education and effort are required to onboard someone preparing to serve on their first board. While new thoughts can be a breath of fresh air to any organization, understanding the effort that will go into bringing a first-time board member up to speed is critical.  Particularly in organizations that have too many first-time board members, real problems can arise for the Executive Director/Staff trying to educate them. Along these same lines, does your board have prior executive committee experience? Having someone jump in as board president if they have no experience in any leadership role of a board can be daunting and often leads to mistakes. The final consideration on board experience is how much time is left in the term of a board member. Knowing you may have the possibility of a large number of board members retiring from the board at the same time should be identified early on as new board member recruitment is not a one-week or even one-month process. To do it right takes time. 

Understanding this section sets the tone for how much board education and training may be necessary to ensure the success of your board. Underestimating the level of education and the mentoring need of board members can come as a shock for those unprepared and leave an organization reeling.

Donor Capacity

It is critical to know the giving capacity of your board. In some cases, boards have a required giving amount or a required give/get amount (meaning that they need to annually find a certain amount of donations whether they personally give them or they solicit them from their business or friends). Some form of requirement can be a good idea depending on your board, especially if motivating them to assist with development has proven challenging. Setting a standard is a good first step. Does your board have access to the larger donors of your community? Obviously, when growing your fundraising, it is easier to accomplish this with one $100,000 donation than one thousand $100 donations, but many organizations don’t have the connections and access to these big donors. Prioritizing connections and access is one step in the right direction for opening the right doors. Finally, are your board members willing to make introductions and asks?  Oftentimes with larger donors, they may not do this, often noting that they prefer not to ask their friends or colleagues for donations because they know there will be a quid pro quo. Keep these dynamics in mind as you consider the donor capacity of your board members and their network. 

Background

Who is on your board? What put them on your radar? Why did you feel they were a valuable addition to your organization? Do they have a background working on a governance board or a working board? This category assesses the information to these questions, but it also helps your organization ensure that it has the right balance and mixture. Ensuring you have finance/accounting people allows your finance/audit committee to be well-stocked and providing good advice when needed when it comes to investments, budgets, and audits. Similarly, having an attorney or two supplies advice on legal matters, as well as advising on new policies by examining them through the lens of liability. These are insights that can otherwise be costly. Each sub-category has its own value and having a trusted source that already understands your organization to go to when an issue arises is critical. 

Diversity & Inclusion

Having a well-represented board is more critical today than ever before. Bringing in experiences of different races, orientations, and perspectives produces better insights and new ways of thinking.  Diversity of perspectives ensures a more thoughtful approach to any activity, and as such, your organization may also choose to look at age, gender, and other aspects to improve your board. Ensuring that your board has the ability to address any opportunity that may arise is an essential measure and one that a properly diversified board facilitates. Consider the perspectives and experiences a potential board member can bring to the table.

These are simply the four areas we begin with when examining a board, but as noted above, your organization should make additions to ensure that it best fits your nonprofit. Be sure to download the spreadsheet now and feel free to ask us questions.