Leyna on Nonprofit Leadership

Last week I attended a panel discussion on board governance at CompassPoint’s annual nonprofit conference. Speaking about interviewing prospective board members, Destiny Arts Center board President Erica Webber said: “We screen for character first.”

It turns out that she meant “we screen for fit with our mission, values and culture”. Not quite the same as character, but a really good idea. So what else should you be looking for in evaluating a perspective board member?

Many of us have enthusiastically voted on a new board member based on her profession and connections — a lawyer! a banker! an heiress! — only to discover that our new colleague doesn’t play well with others. I advise you to throw out the crayon box theory of board recruitment (one red, one blue, one lawyer, one techie…) and focus instead on what it takes to be an effective board member.

Screen for successful past participation in consensus-based groups. Look for skill as a listener. Search for the dual abilities of questioning the status quo and maintaining solidarity outside the board room. Seek out deep commitment to and passion for your mission. A pauper who has missionary zeal for your work is often a better fundraiser than the millionaire who only wants to write her own check (unless it is an awfully big check….)

When you bring on a new board member, you also get their contacts, networks, Faceboook “friends”, etc. Be sure that you are recruiting for divergent streams of contacts, rather than bringing on people whose outside lives mirror those of other board members. Board members should be constantly expanding your circle of admirers, not circulating your story to the same pool.

Recruiting new board members is high-level search.  Think of it as “hiring” members of an elite group that, collectively, are legally responsible for holding the organization in trust for the people you serve. Therefore, you should spend at least as much time screening and reference-checking potential board members as you do on hiring line staff, right?

Next blog: How do you find great board candidates?