QENO Executive Director Roundtable-August 27, 2009
Topic: Board Expansion and Member Selection
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Step One: Preparation
Step Two: The Process of Identifying, Cultivating and Recruiting Prospects
Step Three: Orientation, involvement and on-going training
Guidelines only-adapt to our individual needs.
Making progress is what’s important, not perfection. Ultimately each of us has to start where we are, working with what
we’ve got, and we do what we have to do to move an organize from Monday to Tuesday doing the best we can with
the resources and information we have available to us on any given day.
Development is a term usually associated with fundraising but it also applies to building relationships and cultivating
manpower and leadership over the long haul. It’s a process that takes time—years even and that progress does not
always move forward in a linear fashion.
It is all well and good to be goal oriented but we also have to balance our tendencies to only look off toward some vision
of utopia out on the horizon with the occasional quick glance back over our shoulder to remind ourselves just how far
we come.
Attendee profile Questions for Today’s Discussion:
Full-time Staff of more than 10? 5-10? 1-2?
Board of 5-10, 10-20, 20-30, more than 30?
STEP ONE is Preparation!
Perform even a modest organizational inventory
Mission still valid?
Do current activities and priorities accurately reflect or support that mission?
Financial condition
Program/services status
By-laws on nominations, elections, terms of office and board and committee structure
80/20 Rule applies with contributors, active board members?
Organizational culture: are new people accepted or is it actually a closed club or dreamers’ society? New people bring
new energy, enthusiasm and ideas, and are also likely to change the group’s dynamics!
Three stages of board development – which pertain to you?
1. Working board – no staff, board members do it all
2. Hybrid board: typically small staff to manage day to day and help propel the organization
forward; much hands-on work is still done by board committees
3. Institutional/fundraising board: operations are primarily staff driven, board has primarily a
policy-making/governing/ fundraising role
Working boards, hybrid boards, institutional boards—all different and each requiring different remedies and
make-overs depending. The current stage a particular board is in will have a significant impact on board
candidate identification and recruitment
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Organization’s developmental stage is also like business life cycles, start-up phase, growth, maturing. Therefore,
other questions to ask and answer might include:
Overlapping missions with other “competing” nonprofits?
Strategic direction, goals and objectives ahead – are there any?
If so, are these driving the need for board expansion and influence the selection process?
WHY(!) does your organization believe it needs to expand its board?
WHAT issue or problem is the organization expecting to be solved by the expanding a board or adding
new people?
Organization Structure: Is there an existing and active Nominations Committee or process or do we have to
create them? Is there manpower planning established to identify and develop current board members for key
leadership roles in the future?
After answering some or all of these questions, it is then essential to:
Define need
Create a profile for ideal new board member(s)-roles to be filled
Develop a job description for the potential recruit
Plan for new board orientation and on-going training as part of the preparation.
This is accomplished through an elegant dance between the Exec Dir and Board President and existing Board.
It helps to think about the desired outcome and work backwards to help achieve that. If people are recruited and then
NOT soon engaged effectively or involved at something they enjoy or feel capable and competent they’ll drift away.
STEP TWO: THE PROCESS of Identifying, Cultivating and Recruiting Prospects
Role of the Exec Dir managing the process and managing expectations
New Board Members will not seek us out; they have to be asked. As ED you and at least Board president have to be
absolutely clear who you are looking (profile) and what you expect of them (job description).
A. Develop a preliminary list of prospective candidates you’d like to see involved. Some for immediate recruitment
and some for cultivation for the future.
B. Take an active role in determining who will be on the nominations committee. Don’t leave this to change or to
the person with the most time on his/her hands otherwise you’ll get same old same old.
C. Take an active role in developing the nomination committee meeting agenda to help re-affirm or ensure that
committee members are aware of and agree on:
Board Needs: collective skill set; community stature and influence
New Board Member Profile for your organizational purposes
General characteristics list
Job Description
Purpose – Why that prospect is needed
D. Develop a list of potential candidates (List of what to look for on last page)
Sources? Those closest to the organization already, then work outward in concentric circles to those less
involved, to those community leaders with no known connections. The farther out, the more cultivation
required but this can be important to if broadening the organization is truly desired.
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E. Evaluate and discuss each name on the list: who knows them? What is envisioned they would bring to the
organization? Personality type: ability to work cooperatively or will this or that person be toxic.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
Narrow the candidate pool to a short list
Make assignments as to who will contact each prospect
Review a suggested phone script/sample presentation
Confirm the importance of accurately communicating what the job is
Set a time table for completing contacts
OTHER THOUGHTS:
Try to participate in all recruitment meetings. Avoid recruiting by phone-too easy to say “no”
Don’t try to combine recruitment with orientation. They are separate steps.
Manage (partially at least) expectations of the nominations committee by providing recruitment training for a board
nominations committee—sample scripts, role plays—and dispel some myths and head off persistent recurring
problems:
In the history of nonprofit board recruitment there has ever been someone thinking “gee I’d love to join that
board so I can raise money.” Board members get involved because they love the mission/program, and
frequently are disillusioned to discover that their role is primarily to help ensure that the financial wherewithal is
there for that program.
Creating appropriate expectations in the cultivation stages is critical. Recruiters, therefore, need to know the
job description and USE it! If it is expected that a board member will make a contribution at a specific level say
so now. Ditto if they are to help raise money (which they should do).
“That person is wealthy, let’s recruit him/her for our board. Problems solved forever!”
And its evil twin “We’d like to ask you to join our board. Perhaps you are familiar with our organization. You
don’t have to do anything other than just attend some meetings.”
Peers recruit peers “just like me” syndrome.
STEP THREE: Orientation, involvement and on-going training
Live happily ever after!? . . .at your own peril if you have no plan for follow-up orientation, involvement and on-going
training!
AT A MINIMUM provide an Orientation: 30-45 minute overview of the organization, its finances, job description,
committee structure, policies, procedures, strategic plans, board manuals, conflict-of-interest policy, by-laws . . . yawn.
EVEN BETTER, have a way to engage and integrate a new person to capture and harness the initial enthusiasm and
energy: How best to get a new person tapped into the board quickly and in a role appropriate for that person. Assign a
board member to each as a mentor. Ask each new person to select a committee or program or project they wish to help
with.
BETTER STILL, provide for on-going board training: Bestowing someone with the title “board member” is not the same as
providing for systematic and regular training in how to raise money, or how to govern, and what exactly to oversee.
Board meetings therefore need also to include an on-going training component, peer on peer.
Always keep an eye on member staffing & succession planning and development of future leadership.
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What to look for in prospective board members
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A known belief in or passion for the mission
Power and influence, but also those who will, not just who can.
Leaders not followers
Compatible values and standards
Someone who’s presence make our town, your job better and easier
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10.
Particular skill set/expertise you’re looking for
The diversity your board might be in need of (ethnicity, age, gender, income)
top leadership roles already
Those with fierce civic pride
Busy people/successful people
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15.
Ambitious people with strong work ethic
Common sense along with an ability to get along, and maybe a sense of humor for good measure
Enthusiasm-persuader personalities
dependable
Parents are the most ferocious people alive and will do most anything to make sure their kids have it better
16. Means. Peer groups ask others in same peer group.
17. People interested more in giving than getting
Beware of the reluctant prospect. Requests for more and more information are a red flag.
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