Building Effective Boards: 10 Steps to Selecting Effective Board Members

By tapping into the science of organizational psychology, nonprofit boards and their organization’s staff can work together to select, onboard and retain engaged, impactful board members.

This post focuses on how to select board members that align with your organization’s goals, contribute to a collaborative environment, and help move your organization forward.*

Finding board members is hard. Exiting (or ignoring) board members that aren’t working out can be excruciating. 

It's easy to get excited when a willing candidate for an open board position is identified. But, much like employee selection, there are important steps you can take to increase the likelihood that the individual will meet your expectations over the long term. The payout is worth it when you put the work in up front before appointing new board members. Following are ten steps for selecting successful members for your board: 

1. Align on a list of competencies (i.e. “what good looks like”) with your key stakeholders. Think about your best board members, past or current: What behaviors did they exhibit? What knowledge, skills, and abilities did they bring, and how did they help move the organization forward? Some universal competencies for effective board members might include collaborative, communicates effectively, instills trust, adapts to change, manages conflict, strong interpersonal skills, finance knowledge, project management, and strength of network. There will be more specific competencies based on the mission of your organization as well as which position is being filled. As part of your selection process, compare each prospective board member to those key competencies. Evidence of these wanted competencies in your prospective board members are your “green flags”. Observing detractors from this list may be "yellow" or "red" flags. Pay attention to these.

2. What are the essential functions of your board members? What are the key responsibilities and actions of their role? Examples might include board meeting preparation and attendance, leading a committee, fundraising, review and oversight of financials, strategic planning, and/or participating in the organization’s community programs.

3. What are the expectations / expected outcomes of an effective board member for your organization - and how will you communicate these up front? Is there a fundraising goal per person? What’s the average time commitment for the activities and outcomes you require of your board members? How available do you expect board members to be for impromptu questions from the staff or other board members? Share these up front during the selection process. Remember to include behavioral expectations (you may already have a Code of Conduct that can be customized for your board members, reflecting your organization's culture and people philosophy). Utilize your lead staff role, your board president, and any other key stakeholders to draft and refine your lists of board member competencies, essential functions, and expectations. These are all key resources for successful selection.

4. Keep a shared recruitment list of prospective board members from business publications and other community sources. Solely relying on who else your current/past board members know may greatly limit the potential of your board. Keep an eye out for candidates that may already have a connection to your mission, a skill set your current board is in need of, an under-tapped network, and candidates from underrepresented groups that could expand your board's perspective and approach to problem-solving. 

5. Paint a detailed, realistic picture for board candidates. When meeting with prospective board members, provide a document detailing board member essential functions and expectations -- along with information about the organization. While there will always be an element of selling in the recruitment process (especially in volunteer roles), you’ll be doing the board and organization a big favor by laying out a detailed, realistic picture of the role and current challenges in addition to the rewards and other good stuff. 

6. Conduct structured interviews. Use predetermined questions for the ED /CEO, board president, and/or other board members (who don’t know the candidate - we're seeking objectivity here) to individually interview the candidates one-on-one. We can talk another day about how ineffective group interviews can be. Use the lists of competencies, essential functions, and expectations - as well as looking for areas where they’ve aligned with the tenets of the organization’s mission and values - as a checklist and split up areas to cover. Get together when all interviews have been completed to compare notes and compare each candidate against the criteria (it's easier to fall into unintended bias when you compare candidate to candidate, so try to structure your debrief by comparing each candidate to the criteria). Look for green, yellow, and red flags. 

7. Consider the person’s past experience on other boards and talk with anyone that may act as an objective, relevant reference (such as the ED or board president at the time the prospective member served there)

8. Once a candidate is approved for board membership, announce and celebrate. Publicize your new board members in the press, on your website and in newsletters. Be sure to celebrate at their first board meeting. Consider having the ED / CEO and Board President individually reach out to express their gratitude and excitement as soon after acceptance of the offer as possible.

9. Onboard. Identify a board member “buddy” to ensure the new member feels engaged, informed, and has a point of contact they're comfortable with. Provide a board member information packet or online resource that includes a board member job description, board resources, and information on the organization, the board’s activities / strategic plan for the year, fundraising and committee information, volunteer programs — whatever they’ll directly and indirectly be involved in is a key priority, but any and all information to acquaint them with the organization is relative and important. Invite them to visit different committee meetings, set up coffee meetings or Zoom chats with staff and volunteer leaders, and ensure they have access to a calendar of events for the organization (the board president may want to individually invite new board members to upcoming events). 

10. Check in. Have the board president set up a time 30-60 days into the new member’s term to do a check-in and see what questions, ideas or concerns they may wish to discuss.

Finding a solid board member can sometimes feel like finding a needle in a haystack. However, anything an organization can do to objectively assess and proactively promote success for their new board members will help create a positive, productive environment for everyone involved -- while helping the organization maximize progress toward its goals. 

*Special thanks to these visionary leaders of the nonprofit community: Sallie Hussey , Megan O'Roark , Angie Adams , Lydia Werner Gong , and Cami Statler for their insight and wisdom in preparation for this article series. 

Kellie Conn, SPHR is a partner in the People and Culture Leadership Group.