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Executive Tools and Resources > Boards of Directors: Recruitment & Development
Executive Tools and Resources
Topic: Boards of Directors:
Recruitment and Development
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From C-One's Resource Center:
Thinking Tool: Board of Directors
By Center On Nonprofit Effectiveness (C-One),
Powered by Hands On Miami
How well is your nonprofit board (or advisory group) functioning?
Here are some things to consider... |
Download Check List |
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Article:
Recruiting a Dream Team
Contributed by Jane Gilbert
If you’re experiencing challenges with building a dedicated and diverse board team focused on results, the good news is: You’re not alone! The bad news: There’s no quick or easy fix.
So What’s Your Role?
As Executive Director, your role is one of facilitator, providing your board with the tools, resources, and reminders it needs to lead the board development process. While we (as nonprofit executives) can not command the process, we must take responsibility for the quality of our boards |
Download Article |
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Featured Resource:
C-One Board Match
C-One connects business leaders with nonprofits
"Our new board member turned out to be a perfect match...
...She has energized our board."
Felicia Adler, Chief Executive Officer,
Family Counseling Services of Greater Miami
Step One » Register with the Board Match Pool
Step Two » Make Contact & Connect
- Board Match Receptions: Meet with CEOs and board members from local nonprofits. Check the C-One events calendar for upcoming events.
- Site Visits: Contact nonprofits in the pool to schedule a visit. Special tours or meet-up events are announced by email.
- Corporate Services: Match your executives with boards. Sponsor a Board Match event. Customize board leadership training for your staff. Contact C-One at 305-646-7015.
- Board Training: "Effective Board Leadership Training" is offered twice annually by C-One, Hands On Miami, and United Way of Miami-Dade. Other trainings scheduled throughout the year. Customized trainings available.
- Board Resources: Visit C-One's management Resource Library.
Another Board Matching service is provided by the Arts and Business Council of Miami |
Learn more about Board Match |
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Ideas from Your Peers:
Contributed by Linda Schotthoefer and Anna Perlmutter, C-One
Common problems:
"I inherited a board made up of friends of the founder that were never asked to do anything."
"Our board has powerful and connected people, but they’re so busy that I have a hard time getting them to show up or do the work.
"Every time our nominating committee meets to discuss potential board candidates the same highly visible and over committed individuals’ names come up."
"My board and I are committed to building a diverse board, but we have a hard time recruiting and engaging younger and minority candidates."
Success Stories:
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Assessing board composition and functioning...
“An early task of the new committee was to interview trustees individually in order to understand individual satisfaction and overall board performance. Our initial assessments resulted in a strong commitment to change in board composition and functioning.” John Bussel... John led a restructuring of the Barry Board of Trustees in 2005 that included a 50% downsizing of the Board.
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Engaging new executives...
“We use our programming to connect with new business executives. They start as one-time judges of student business plans. We know some will become much more interested in our organization and possibly our board.”
Alice Horn... Alice and the local KidVentures board joined forces with NFTE in 2006.
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Keeping board members engaged...
“We rarely have a problem recruiting high quality board members. Our positive brand recognition helps, and our existing board members have invested a lot of time to ensure that each meeting is engaging, retreats are fun, and the expectations of every board members are high.”
Lydia Muniz, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBMG) of Miami. Lydia’s board was recognized by the national BBBS organization as the 2006 Top Performing Board. |
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Ideas from Your Peers:
South Florida leaders talk about what works and what doesn’t in recruiting and orienting new Board Members.
Contributed by Linda Schotthoefer and Anna Perlmutter, C-One
Center On Nonprofit Effectiveness, powered by Hands On Miami, asked South Florida CEOs to share their tips for ensuring successful board recruitment.
We asked: How do you make decisions about who to recruit for the board? How do existing board members participate? What other tips or practices are important? Many local leaders provided input. |
Read Article |
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Recommended Reading:
What Business Execs Don’t Know – but Should –
About Nonprofits
By Les Silverman and Lynn Taliento
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review
Business executives may not appreciate the unique and complex challenges facing nonprofits. Nonprofit CEOs can help board members from the business sector understand that playing a nonprofit leadership role can be different. Alternative skill sets, approaches and knowledge may be needed to be effective. In their Stanford Social Innovation Review’s article entitled “What Business Execs Don’t Know – but Should –About Nonprofits,” authors Les Silverman and Lynn Taliento share insights from their interviews with business executives that have played roles in both nonprofits and for-profits... |
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Recommended Reading:
Avoiding the Pitfalls [in Recruiting Board Members]
Edited by Carol E. Weisman.
Excerpted from Secrets of Successful Boards: The Best from the Nonprofit Pros, by Carol E. Weisman, 1998, F.E. Robbins & Sons.
Source: Energize Inc.
"Deal making. If you wake up one morning feeling like Monty Hall, go back to bed. The boardroom is no place to play "Let’s Make a Deal." So, what happens when you find this high profile person you really want, somebody like, well…Paul Newman. He says yes to your board, but then he says he can’t come to any of your meetings. What do you do? …" |
Read Article |
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Recommended Reading:
The Board’s Evolving Role: From Management to Governance
By: Sam Pettway, BoardWalk Consulting, Inc.
"As nonprofits, foundations and other tax-exempt organizations develop, the role of the board and its individual members changes. At one extreme, the start-up, the board may do everything from licking envelopes to setting strategy. In truly mature organizations, the board may be so removed from the day-to-day work as to feel disconnected from the organization’s principal mission…"
Includes sample Board Responsibilities & Criteria Template. |
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Stepping Up: A Board’s Challenge in Leadership Transition
by Tim Wolfred, Nonprofit Quarterly, Summer 2005.
Source: CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
"When the executive director steps down, the board has to step up and take charge in ways that may be new to it. In consulting with over one hundred nonprofits in transition, we’ve seen that nothing has greater impact on the outcome than a board’s leadership skills in exploiting the moment of leadership turnover for its myriad opportunities…" |
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Guidelines for Recruiting New Board Members
By Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC
Source: Free Management Library
"When you set out to recruit new members, the most important consideration is know what kind of skills are currently needed by the board. Consider the nature of issues and goals currently faced by the organization…"
Includes a Sample Board Recruitment Grid and Sample Board Application Form. |
Read Article |
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Article Excerpt:
The Board Building Cycle: Nine steps to Finding, Recruiting, and Engaging Nonprofit Boardmembers
by Sandra Hughes, Berit Lakey, and Marla Jobowick, BoardSource
"Identify...Cultivate...Recruit...Orient...Engage...
Educate...Rotate...Evaluate...Celebrate!..." |
View Excerpt |
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From C-One’s Library:
Below are just a few of the titles found in C-One’s Resource Center and Library, which house a comprehensive collection of resources, materials, literature, and other "self-help" tools and information all accessible for free by appointment. To make an appointment, contact Ileana Collazo at Ileana@c-one-miami.org .
Transforming Board Structure: Strategies for Committees and Task Forces
by Marla Bobowick, Sandra Hughes, and Berit Lakey, BoardSource
This 6-part series includes samples of committee job descriptions, an overview of common committees and task forces, and tips for setting up the appropriate sub-structure for your board. Other guides in the series focus on the governance, executive, finance, and resource development committees.
Understanding Nonprofit Financial Statements
by Steven Berger, CPA BoardSource
This revised edition includes key accounting terms and concepts, important benchmarking ratios, and sample nonprofit financial statements with explanations.
Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards
by Richard T. Ingram, BoardSource
This BoardSource best-seller explores the 10 core areas of board responsibility, including the board’s role in determining mission and purpose, ensuring effective planning, and participating in fundraising. Information can be used as a reference for drafting job descriptions, considering board performance, and orienting board members on their responsibilities.
Self-Assessment for Nonprofit Boards (survey)
by BoardSource
This survey tool helps nonprofit boards determine how well they are carrying out their responsibilities and identifies areas that need improvement. Assessment is excellent preparation for a board retreat and a valuable resource for your board consultant.
The Board Building Cycle: Nine steps to Finding, Recruiting, and Engaging Nonprofit Boardmembers
(guide and templates)
by Sandra Hughes, Berit Lakey, and Marla Jobowick, BoardSource
This guide features nine steps of a board development process. It includes tips on motivating people to join, conducting an orientation, and tasks for the board’s governance committee. Included are suggestions for involving former members as advisors and removing difficult or ineffective members. Worksheets available.
Board Recruitment & Orientation: A Step-by-Step, Common Sense Guide. A Basic Training Workbork Series
by Hildy Gottlieb, www.help4nonprofits.org
Has sample board recruitment notice, prospect application, and interview questions.
Diversity: Who Should Sit at Your Table?
Board Member Special Edition (BoardSource 2003)
Explore what diversity means when it comes to board composition. Diversity: Who Should Sit At Your Table?, a Special Edition of Board Member® magazine, shows nonprofits how to recruit and retain a diverse board — and how to make it work for the overall effectiveness of the board. Offering a broad range of perspectives on the meaning of diversity and on new ways to achieve it on nonprofit boards, this special edition also contains interviews with nationally recognized experts and leaders from Girl Scouts-USA, United Way of America, and American Red Cross who reveal
Governance Committee
By: Berit M. Lakey Ph.D., Sandra R. Hughes Ph.D., Outi Flynn
Governance Committee discusses this group's challenging responsibility in overseeing the performance of the board and managing compliance to the organization's mission. Discover how this committee can help all boards — new or seasoned — live up to their highest potential, keeping board members energized and engaged in maintaining value and control.
Building Better Boards: A Blueprint for Effective Governance
By: David Nadler, Beverly Behan, Mark Nadler, Jay W. Lorsch
Building Better Boards is a practical and provocative blueprint for helping CEOs and boards create real value by striking the right balance between contention and collaboration. It's an approach to corporate governance that goes far beyond minimum compliance with legal requirements; this is about enabling the board, for the first time, to perform as a team in a way that significantly improves the quality of management's decisions without interfering with management's prerogatives.
Board Composition: Recruiting Balanced Boards
By: BoardSource
This half-hour presentation features Berit Lakey, BoardSource Consultant, and Jacqueline Ebanks, Vice President for Agency Services, United Way of New York City, on building a board that brings together individuals who can contribute significantly to your organization's future. Learn how your organization can recruit and retain good board members — with the skills, perspectives, backgrounds, and resources that fit your needs. The follow-up question and answer sessions are not available on the audio version. |
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