Free · Certificate included
Board Recruitment
Find and recruit board members who add the skills your nonprofit needs.
What you’ll learn
- Identify the skills and perspectives your board lacks with a board matrix
- Build a year-round recruitment pipeline instead of a last-minute scramble
- Source, cultivate, and vet strong board candidates
- Make the ask, set clear expectations, and onboard new members well
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Create a free account →Course outline
- 1
Why recruitment is a year-round job
Most boards recruit the same way: a term expires, a seat opens, and someone says "who do we know?" at the next meeting.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 2
The board matrix: see your gaps
You can't recruit for what you can't see.
7 min Quiz Interactive - 3
Diversity, equity & inclusion on the board
Recruiting for skills alone produces a board that thinks alike.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 4
The recruitment pipeline & cultivating prospects
Once the matrix tells you who you need, the pipeline is how you find and warm them up.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 5
The prospectus & setting expectations
The single biggest source of board dysfunction is unclear expectations.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 6
Interviewing & vetting candidates
A board seat carries real fiduciary and legal responsibility, so the final step before nomination is a genuine two-way interview and a basic vetting process.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 7
Onboarding new board members
Recruitment doesn't end at the election. A new member who is welcomed and oriented well becomes a contributor in months; one handed a binder and left to "figure it…
5 min Quiz Interactive - 8
The governance committee, terms & rotation
All of this — the matrix, the pipeline, the prospectus, the onboarding — needs an owner.
5 min Quiz Interactive
Sources & further reading
- BoardSource — Board Composition and Recruitment (Fundamental Topics of Nonprofit Board Service)
- BoardSource — Leading with Intent: Reviewing the State of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Nonprofit Boards
- BoardSource — Terms and Term Limits
- National Council of Nonprofits — Diversity on Nonprofit Boards
- The Bridgespan Group — Recruiting and Keeping GOOD Board Members
- BoardSource — Structuring Board Committees
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