Free Nonprofit Resource: Building the Right Board for Your Organization

Your board, as a collective group, is a powerful tool in helping your organization realize its vision. Start with this in mind and build your organization’s Leadership Volunteer Prospect Plan as a roadmap to getting the right people on your board. Taking the time to do so will help you build a strong board that consistently shows up for your mission.

Developing Your Leadership Volunteer Prospect Plan

Review your organization’s current board. Start with your current board list. If you do not already have a document that records details like race, sex, gender, ethnicity, etc, of your board members, now is a good time to initiate one. Ask the following questions about your current board:

• Who is serving on your board and what are their terms of office?

• Which professions (e.g. legal, real estate, education, accounting, etc) are represented? Which are missing?

• What are the races, sexes, genders, and ethnicities represented on your board? Are they representative in race, sex, gender, ethnicity of the community you serve

• Does your board represent different levels of educational attainment? Leadership volunteers can skew towards higher levels of educational attainment.

• Do you know your board members’ spheres of influence? What other organizations are they connected to, e.g. professional associations, religious groups, other nonprofit organizations?

Next, consider your organization’s next five years. Looking ahead will help ensure that you are building a board for your organization’s future needs and not based on immediate urgency. This helps to build strongly committed board members who will be ready to support your organization for the long term. Ask yourself:

• What upcoming opportunities do you need to be ready to leverage?

• Are there any large fundraising campaigns on the horizon?

• What is the local landscape for our community? Is your community growing in population or economy? Are your demographics changing?

• What is happening nationally or globally that could impact your mission or services?

Then, review your current board again with your organization’s next five years in mind:

• Are your current board members meeting all of your organization’s leadership volunteer needs? Are they consistently engaged? Do they have the right background knowledge and connections to fully support your organization?

  • If so, how can they help you build a succession plan to bring in new board members as they meet their term limits and roll off the board?

  • If not, what are the gaps you need to fill? Can you rank them in priority? Who is on the board that can help you (fill these areas of growth)

Together, these three pieces build your leadership volunteer prospect plan. Once you have a draft of your plan, review it with your board president and your recruitment chair or nominating committee. Ask for their help in making connections for you to people who may be able to bring your identified skills and talents to your organization.

A good board can help support your organization in governance and fundraising. A great board can help truly transform your organization’s impact.

Philanthropic Support Services encourages you to download this free Leadership Volunteer Prospect Plan Worksheet to help you refine your leadership volunteer recruitment process. We offer free, 15 minute consultations for nonprofit professionals and a range of other services.