Do You Need Board Members?

At a community training session, a development director shared her organization’s challenges finding board members. They had tried to the nonprofit board bank. They had interviewed several people. The mission of the organization was difficult...helping children who had been sex offenders. I asked about her mailing list--about their list of people who had a passion for their cause with whom they communicated regularly. None existed.

At this point, our conversation was interrupted. What I wanted to tell her, I share here: Great Board members are an end product not a starting one.

To find board members for a difficult cause or even popular causes:

1. Figure out who in the community cares about your mission.

2. Find and connect with as many of these people as possible.

3. Nurture them and ask them for their help--as donors, task force and committee members.

4. In this crowd of supporters, you will find your board members.