I try to convey the importance of recruiting board members wisely by pointing out this very important logic:

-   the primary, principal role of the board of directors of a nonprofit organization is to govern;
-   of the four components of governance the most important is to be strategic;
-   the first initiative under being strategic is to recruit board members to meet the strategic needs of the nonprofit organization.

Of course, that is just the first step in board member recruitment. There is also the need to educate, measure the commitment to the mission by the potential board member, share the expectations the board will have of him or her, determine what his or her expectations are and how you can meet those expectations – and then if she comes on board, there is the need to orient the new board member and put into place a strategy for retention of your board members – especially the good ones.

It is a lot of work to set up the strategy and the process of recruiting good board members (which is why I get a little irritated when I hear a board chair say they just met someone at a dinner party and they thought he was nice and would make a good board member).

However, the effort that is required to get good strong board members who can contribute, although at the outset can be very labor intensive, it is nonetheless a task that can spell the difference between a good board and a great board. And great boards can elevate a nonprofit organization to heights that it never thought possible. But, unless you are extremely lucky that great board is not just going to happen – you have to work to develop it.

This six-month engagement will take the board of directors (as a whole) on a journey from self-assessment to something that hopefully will be close to self actualization (i.e., becoming everything that the board is capable of becoming). The process and deliverables will include (among other components) the following:

• A Board Assessment, this would include
   ˗ Strengths and weaknesses of the board of directors
   ˗ Identification of the strategic needs of the nonprofit
   ˗ Development of a board grid that would identify gaps between the nonprofit’s strategic needs and the skill sets and experiences of the existing board members
   ˗ Developing a profile of the board recruits that the nonprofit should seek

• Translating the organization’s strategic plan and programmatic activities into a working message that would be used to educate the potential board members

• Developing the marketing material for potential new board members

• Creation of a Board Development Committee that would be charged with identifying potential board members and establishing an interview process for potential recruits

• Development of an effective orientation process for new board members

• Development of board member retention strategies (meeting board member expectations by identifying how they want to contribute)

• Development of a board member agreement

• Development of the various tools needed to make the recruitment process effective (that would include the contribution of my own set of tools that I have developed for board member recruitment and that would be modified to me the particular organization’s needs)

• The preparation of a written strategic plan for board member recruitment that would serve as the blueprint to the nonprofit’s future recruitment efforts

• Establish goals and objectives for the board recruitment process

Once again, this is an intensive process but one that bears really good fruit. It is not an easy process and at the outset it is labor intensive – but in reality it is an investment in the future of the organization.

It was once suggested to me that their simply not enough good board members out there – I disagree! There are good board members all over the place – you just need to spend the time looking for them and then cultivating them. They are out there!