Strategies for Board Recruitment
Lately we’ve been hearing from nonprofit CEO/Executive Directors that board recruitment is getting more difficult, especially when targeting individuals representing the population they served. This blog post first appeared in 2021, and we are revisiting it given all the renewed interest!
From our perspective recruitment stagnation occurs in two ways:
The first manifestation typically occurs with Founding Boards, as well as with boards of nonprofit organizations in the Mature phase of the organizational lifecycle. It occurs when a board convinces itself that it has achieved the ideal composition. The idea of recruiting new members causes concern that new members would never have the same level of commitment as current members and would be the ruin of the organization. Symptoms tend to include a lack of trust and a fear of change. Term limits tend to be ignored, and board-member recruitment discussions become few and far between.
The second manifestation occurs when a board has lost several members and has not developed a strategy to rebuild membership. In this scenario, stagnation manifests itself in an ‘anybody will do’ attitude. This results in a belief that there is something inherently flawed about the organization. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, ultimately stifling board recruitment efforts. Boards in the Decline or Crisis phases of the organizational lifecycle are vulnerable to this manifestation of recruitment stagnation.
Approaches to recruitment:
An effective approach to addressing recruitment stagnation is to address values head on as a basis for effective board recruitment. A board needs to give high priority to such values as mission-focused passion, integrity, and dependability. Recruiting on the basis of these values will annul the board’s fears about new members and open up the possibility of introducing new membership.
The development of a skill’s matrix to guide recruitment efforts is an effective way of identifying the ideal board member. However, these matrices often tend to emphasize hard skills such as accounting, legal, and fundraising - and, sometimes, become so specific that actually finding that person becomes like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Of primary importance in a skill’s matrix is the identification of the values that are needed in new board members to strengthen the team. Perhaps it is better to think of it as a Values and Skills Matrix. Utilizing values in this way will strengthen the board team and help an organization pull out of the damaging influence of recruitment stagnation.
Useful Resources:
Article on The Guide to Having a Board Recruitment Strategy:
https://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/a-guide-to-having-a-board-recruitment-strategy/
For more information on Life-Cycles of an Organization, visit: https://medium.com/@socialtrendspot/where-is-your-organization-in-the-nonprofit-lifecycle-5ecdbac831ce