One of the most important attributes board members possess is their ability to fulfill six primary roles, while leading the organization by example. Those six roles are: governance, advocacy, charitable giving, seeking gifts from others, recruitment, and participating in committee work. When determining the metrics for a desired member, it makes sense to seek people who have the ability and motivation to perform those six roles with exceptional aptitude.
Generally, board recruitment involves the following steps:
Step 1: A current board member (let’s call this board member AJ) scouts a prospective colleague (who we will call BH) through connections at a community activity or through their professional networks.
Step 2: AJ will approach BH informally to assess interest or willingness to serve
Step 3: AJ will then pose the idea of trusteeship (i.e., board membership) as an honor reflecting the BH’s stature in the community and recognized leadership.
Step 4: If there is any hope of success, a more formal process ensues which may result in BH being elected to trusteeship.
What follows the process above, is often some attempt to share expectations and performance standards for board members that usually don’t line up with what was said during recruitment (all is fair in love, war, and volunteer recruitment). As a result, when BH learns that there are different responsibilities and expectations needed of them than originally discussed, BH will likely repeat this classic response, “You mean I have to raise money?” It is not as unusual as most people believe, to have new board members become former board members very quickly, particularly in today’s environment where board accountability is lacking. More often than not, what could have been a relationship full of potential and promise quickly degenerates into a mess of unrealized expectations and acrimony.
In my view, this is analogous to seeing a person on the street and proposing marriage after you’ve told them how attractive they is to you. Not only is it bad relationship building to focus on flattery and pressure to obtain results, it is also this same approach that will result in the loss of all opportunity for mutual satisfaction and respect. In all cases, a superficial approach in business or in romantic relationships will not produce positive results.
In my experience, the people in most communities consider many of their nonprofits to be important, prestigious organizations that are crucial to their community’s vitality and quality of live. Being a leader in this organization’s innermost circle, as membership on a board certainly is, offers stature and an opportunity to make a significant contribution that will benefit everyone. In short, trusteeship is something worth working for – worth earning – and deserves that level of commitment for those who are the ultimate stakeholders of the organization.
I suggest you consider assessing those who have made gifts and successfully completed volunteer service on a foundation or organization committee. Look for the people who have demonstrated their ability, motivation, and commitment with respect to each of the five responsibilities of trusteeship other than governance. It is from that pool of individuals that you can draw the select few who can offer your organization the most in terms of dedication, involvement, and enthusiasm.
When discussing this approach with a friend who runs a major nonprofit social services organization, he was skeptical. He said that using this approach would mean that only people who are willing to endure the hard work of volunteering would make the cut as candidates for board membership. He didn’t want to lose the opportunity to associate a person of substantial wealth or great influence with his organization as a board member to a system that just wouldn’t be attractive. My friend’s worries do not say much for his faith in his organization as a desirable opportunity to serve the community. It also portrays a lack of faith in the current process he uses to identify, recruit, orient, and motivate board members.
Board recruitment isn’t fishing, where you use bait to fool an unwitting organism into submitting to your control so you can use that organism for our own purposes. It should be a rational, systematic process of growth and development leading to the select few who willing take on a journey that may lead them to the opportunity of leadership in the service of an object of their commitment.
Your ultimate stakeholders should be at the top of their game when they get to the top of your organization. When someone becomes part of the leadership coterie of a significant community service and involved in the crucial work that your organization does, it provides an inward and upward pathway for dedicated individuals to become exceptional leaders on a grander scale. Giving people the opportunity to be involved and develop a commitment before they are invited to the board is the most strategic and effective way to build a great board.
In fact, if there is one essential qualification for board membership, it isn’t affluence or influence – although both are very close seconds – it is a developed and solid commitment to your organization. I hope you will be selective in extending the most important leadership position in that organization to those who want to be successful in their roles.
