Solid nonprofit boards filled with engaged, committed superstars, who are also effective in all of their roles — including fundraising — don’t “just happen.”
In actuality, finding (and keeping) the right people is the process of answering one simple question:
“What’s in it for me?”
After all, I don’t need to tell you how busy your board members are between their careers, family, and other areas of their personal lives. Add the time and financial commitment of serving on a nonprofit board, and you have one very full schedule!
Just as your board’s job is to see to the overall direction and financial health of your organization, your job is to make serving as easy as possible and to insure that your board’s members are getting something beyond just feeling great because they’re making a difference.
So how can you recruit great board members…? Benefits!
Benefits are the Key to Superstar Board Members
No, I’m not talking about paying your board or giving them health insurance. In fact, the benefits of serving on a nonprofit board are almost entirely intangible. They’re also very real…
Networking
If you currently have business or other community leaders among your board members, the opportunity to meet and work with these people is an obvious selling point.
Fun
Nonprofit board service gives individuals the chance to meet people with whom they already have something in common — a passion for your mission. People have forged long-term friendships after getting to know one another on boards they serve on!
Be sure to make your board meetings fun and engaging, so board members will want to come back month after month, and year after year.
Professional Development
Serving on a nonprofit board gives people the chance to strengthen current skills and try out new ones. Going on fundraising ask meetings, for example, is also excellent training for making sales or presentations. Other professional development opportunities include event planning, financial responsibility, and leadership.
Sense of Accomplishment
Your board members make a powerful difference. Hungry children are fed, forests and rivers are cleaned up and protected, sick people are cared for and healed, and animals are given loving homes — all because your nonprofit board members do their work and give their time and money.
Make Board Benefits Clear and Meaningful
How do you make these benefits clear to prospective board members, and how do you insure that your members receive these benefits?
Here are two strategies you can put in place right now:
- As you create your new board packet, be sure to include the names of your current members (networking and social) a list of the various volunteer opportunities (professional development), and to highlight the direct effect that your board has on your mission (sense of accomplishment).
- Schedule up to fifteen minutes’ worth of social time at the beginning or end of each board meeting. Encourage members to socialize during and in-between meetings. And schedule at least one yearly board appreciation event to give them a chance to relax and enjoy each other’s company.
Create a Recruitment (or Nominating) Committee
You also want to identify what type of board members you’re looking for — not just any warm bodies.
Consider what types of people you’re seeking. You may want to include some of the following criteria and characteristics:
- Community leaders
- Professionals (lawyers, accountants, financial experts, doctors, teachers, social workers etc.)
- Corporate leaders (CEO’s and senior VP’s)
- Diversity (race, age, gender, geography, sexual orientation, etc.)
- Philanthropists
- Fundraisers
It’s the job of the full board to help recruit new board members. However, this committee will be responsible for filling open seats on your board in a strategic and thoughtful way.
This Week’s Task
This week, evaluate how well you’re doing in terms of recruiting new board members.
- Do you have a formal recruitment process?
- Written job descriptions?
- Do people want to serve on your board (are there clear benefits)?
Note what’s working and what areas where you’d like to improve.
What are you doing well regarding your recruitment process? What still needs work? Share your comments and questions below.
This post is part of my Year of the Fundraising Board series. Check out the entire series to learn how to create a stronger, smarter, and super motivated nonprofit board.
Hello, I have started a NPO to help individual, their families, and loved ones who have been impacted by a spinal cord injury and/or disorder. Our mission is to help them cope with this tragic life changing event.by peer mentoring and providing them with resources.
I know realize that all of our board members have their own busy life, but some of our board members are not engaged and I need to recruit some new board members. You described three items which is below, but how does a small newly NPO create the process you suggested? I know which areas our organization needs improvements. I know that I am over thinking it and making it harder then what t needs to be.
Do you have a formal recruitment process?
Written job descriptions?
Do people want to serve on your board (are there clear benefits)?
Thank you,
I realize it can be overwhelming to get started. Pick one thing – create a nominating committee (or if you only have a few board members – make it the entire board) to be responsible for creating a process for recruitment and developing job descriptions – in the next 3 months.
Can you walk me through the process once a prospective Board Member is identified? It is obviously different if the prospective member is already familiar with the mission versus someone who is not but whose professional expertise makes them an attractive candidate.
Yes, I do a post on that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you want to reach out and find out if they are interested, and then ask for a resume. If you’re not desperate for board members, you want to ask them to join a committee, before putting them on the board.
I have found that recruiting volunteers for committees is easier than recruiting as board members. The challenge is to have a structure establsihed for the committees or find a volunteer or borrow some one elses job descriptions etc.
In my 30 years of working in the corporate and NFP worlds I have found that 1) people need to put their ego’s aside and find smart people 2) Provide the who, what, where of the position 3) repsect the investment that a volunteer is making in your cause/organization. 4) Send a written thank you note every year to the volunteers.
DON”t treat them as a threat or step child. I volunteered for a board a few months ago. However I always want to attend a committee meeting and board meeting before making the final committment. I hear through a friend that the group had a picnic. I asked the current president WHY the volunteers and prospective board members were NOT invited. She had no answer. I never went back.