How to Find Great Nonprofit Board Members

Ideas to Help With Nonprofit Board Recruitment

Oct 11, 2009

Fill Board Room With Effective Board Members, 4seasons

An organization looking for new people to join its nonprofit board of directors should consider people who are already engaged in the organization or community.

As a nonprofit grows and changes, it is important to recruit new board members. Many nonprofits, in fact, have term limits for board members to ensure the board benefits from new perspectives, styles, strengths and energy.

Determine Needed Skill Sets Before Recruiting Board Members

Avoid the temptation to recruit board members based solely on their interest in the organization. Having passionate and committed board members is essential, but nonprofits should also consider the skill sets the board members will be able to contribute.

Skills to consider include:

Fundraising. Keep in mind that all board members should be able and willing to be active fundraisers for the organization. It is helpful to have at least one board member with significant nonprofit fundraising experience who can spearhead fundraising efforts.
Financial
Marketing/Public relations
Human Resources
Legal
Strategy/Planning
Expertise in nonprofit’s programs
Technology

Consider the Diversity of the Nonprofit Board

Nonprofits can fall into the trap of recruiting board members from the same pool time and again. This can lead to a lack of diverse thinking, which can hurt the organization’s ability to creatively solve problems, develop effective programs and positively relate to its constituency.

While diversity is often defined narrowly as a “racial and ethnic mix, which is certainly part of it … diversity of thought, background and experience is just as important,” writes Rebecca Gardyn in the December 11, 2003 article “Building Board Diveristy” in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Finding Potential Nonprofit Board Members That Meet the Criteria

It’s a good idea to seek board candidates from several different sources:

Consider current volunteers who have demonstrated their commitment and leadership. This should include volunteers serving on committees.
Financial donors making significant gifts and/or giving over a long period of time are demonstrating their commitment to the organization.
Check with current and past board members for recommendations. Board members often sit on several boards at one time and may be serving with someone on another board who could be a good fit.
Look at other organizations in the community with well-performing boards and reach out to the leaders of those organizations for suggestions.
Let organization stakeholders know there is a need for new board members. Some organizations require that an organization’s beneficiaries be represented on the board, for example, so recruitment would need to be targeted to that group. Talk also to political allies, media representatives and other stakeholders to seek recommendations.

Once the organization has generated a list of candidates, they can be matched against the list of skill sets and diversity goals generated earlier in the board recruitment process. With a short list of candidates, board representatives can begin to gauge the interest of potential board members.

The copyright of the article How to Find Great Nonprofit Board Members in Non-Profit Governance is owned by Molly Schar. Permission to republish How to Find Great Nonprofit Board Members in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.