NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR
governance
n e w recruiting p ro c e s s helps c h ai r identify
record n u m b e r of qualified recruits
Editor’s Note: Gene Siciliano, consultant, board
member, NBA panelist and author of Finance for
Nonfinancial Managers, 2nd Edition (McGraw-Hill,
2014), was recently inspired to share lessons he learned
as chair of a nominating committee that identified the
largest number of qualified board candidates in the or-
ganization’s 60-year history, building upon a recruiting
process developed only three years ago.
There are two management responsibilities in
the nonprofit world that most everyone agrees are
of paramount importance—fundraising and board
recruiting. They’re so important, in fact, that we
want the best people available to do them, as long
as it’s not us.
Much has already been written about fundraising,
but as for sound recruiting, not so much.
In my 20+ years of board service, I’ve seen some
really effective recruiting and some pretty mediocre
recruiting. Not surprisingly, mediocre recruiting most
often produces mediocre boards. And you can only
do so much with board member development and
training, board/staff communication, commitment
of time and treasure, and all the other board-building
tools we have available.
I’m not saying that poor recruiting practices always
produce ineffective board members—sometimes one
gifted recruiter can be successful in spite of the lack
of sound process, and sometimes we just get lucky.
And by the same token, while the recommenda-
tions in this article are not guaranteed to be a recipe
for consistent success, I do promise they will deliver
more consistency over time than luck or the labor of
a gifted individual.
First, let’s review some of the more common meth-
ods of recruiting that don’t typically attract strong
board members:
• The CEO/executive director asks significant
donors to join the board in order to keep the donors’
money flowing in.
• A board member asks good friends to join the
board because he/she likes them personally.
• A board member resigns or gets to term limits
and is asked to propose his/herreplacement.
6 © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved
NOVEMBER 2014
• The board falls below its bylaw-driven minimum
size and a crash program is launched to fill seats be-
fore the next critical meeting.
• The CEO tells the board that everyone should
be on the lookout forcandidates.
These methods don’t work consistently because
they each have a large element of chance involved:
A good donor may or may not make a good board
member; the board member’s friend may be great at
something but may not bring to the board the talent
it really needs; and a crash program to keep board
seats filled is unlikely to focus on needed skills so
much as willingness, which is rarely helpful in bring-
ing strong talent to a board. Finally, when everyone
is responsible, no one is accountable.
So what does work, consistently, year in and year
out? Here’s what I’ve found:
• Objective board member evaluation. A formal
governance process where the skills and talents the
board needs are identified through an objective board
member evaluation and matched against the skills
and talents on the board is best accomplished by a
governance committee, whose role is evaluating and
improving overall board performance.
• A committee. Formed annually and designated as
the nominating committee, this group is tasked with
a primary focus: to find candidates within the com-
munity who fulfill the identified skills and talents. This
committee should be clear about the board’s needs
and ideally include both board members and com-
munity leaders who have deep and respected contact
lists that can be accessed forcandidates.
• An interview process. When the committee in-
terviews proposed candidates, it is much more likely
to decipher candidates' interest, the way their talents
can be best used, their connection to the mission,
their ability to fulfill all the responsibilities expected
of board members, etc.
• A timely committee recommendation. A
formal and objective recommendation from the
committee to the governing board, whose respon-
(See g O V E r n a n C E on p a g e 7)
DOI: 10.1002/nba
NOVEMBER 2014
M a r K E T i n g (co ntinued from p a g e 5 )
blog took off by highlighting alumni success stories.
“It’s about people connecting with people,” Sat-
terfield said, “and individuals give partially because
of the institution and partly because they like the
mission. If nonprofits create a personality through
one voice on a blog, they would get more volunteers
and a heck of a lot more money.”
• Mix up the media. Blogs don’t always need to be
in text format. Today’s technology makes it easy to
upload video of an event, dinner, picnic, celebration
or speech. Add brief introductory content to set the
scene and post the video for constituents to enjoy.
• Generate content that’s fun to read, watch and
engage in. Sometimes nonprofits forget to have fun
and begin to take themselves too seriously, Satterfield
said. Yes, there will be times when it’s appropriate to
be serious, but keep in mind that blogs are written to
create regular readership, and for that, you want your
content to be optimistic and celebratory in nature.
“If you host an annual event that has 50 volunteers,
take a picture of everybody and list every single per-
son’s name on a blog post,” Satterfield said. “People
will look for their names and share content about
themselves with their friends and family. It’s the easi-
est way to spread the word.”
• Show off your world. It can be powerful for con-
stituents to see changes in an organization, capital
improvements, and, in some instances, that things
haven’t changed. For instance, one prep school
in Florida shot a short video of its buildings and
grounds. “It was outstandingly effective and got
passed along through the alumni association,” Sat-
terfield said. “So many people had left the school
twenty, thirty and thirty-five years ago that it was fun
g O V E r n a n C E (co ntinued from p a g e 6 )
sibility is to elect new board members, is most ef-
fective when it is built around a concerted annual
effort in advance of an annual election of board
members, typically beginning at the midpoint of
the board year.
While many organizations function effectively
despite the lack of a sound recruiting process, the
challenge to build and maintain consistent high-
quality board membership requires more. It requires
a proven process based on best practices. That’s how
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1002/nba
NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR
for them to see how their donations were applied,”
he said. The school was also smart to strategically
schedule and release the online tour right before
launching a capital campaign, he said.
• Profile individual members. Profiles increase
engagement because everyone that reads one then
feels that they’d like to be profiled, Satterfield said.
“The blog is the perfect format to celebrate success
individually and collectively. You’ll find volunteerism
and donations will go up, and that’s really what lead-
ership is held accountable for.”
While the brave new world of social-media plat-
forms and blogging can seem overwhelming, Satter-
field said, in fact, creating a blog can be quite simple.
“If it’s heartfelt, enthusiastic, compassionate and
all about that one representative voice, it’snot hard to
do…,” Satterfield said. “It’s really an opportunity for
the leader to share his philosophy. If it’s authentically
written, it accomplishes its mission and then—with a
phenomenal amount of promotion to your constitu-
ency and through social media—you’ll find it grows
organically without any investment.”
for more information
Mark Satterfield is the founder a n d C E O of Gentle Rain
Marketing I n c . a n d author of the new boo k The O n e Week
Marketing Plan:The Set It & Forget It A p p r o a c h for Quickly
Growing Your Business (BenBella Books). He is also the
author of eight previous books,i ncl ud i ng the best-selling
Unique Sales Stories: How to G e t More Referrals,Differenti-
ate Yourself From the Comp etiti on & C l o s e More Sales
Through the Power of Stories.To learn more a b o u t Mark
Satterfield or Gentle Rain Marketing, or to a c c e s s free
helpful tips a n d strategies for businesses a n d nonprofits,
g o to http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com. ■
strong boards build strong organizations that achieve
mission objectives, year in and year out.
for more information
G e n e Siciliano is a business m a n a g e m e n t consultant
b a s e d in Los Angeles. His firm, widely known a s Your C F O
for Rent®,assists privately owned co m pa n i e s a n d nonprofit
organizations in developing soun d business practices to
support mission objectives. He is also a mem b er of NBA’s
Advisory Panel.He c a n b e r e a c h e d at http://www.CFOfor-
Rent.com or via email at Gene@CFOforRent.com. ■
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