Start here with our three-month, intimate group coaching experience that leads you step-by-step through revamping your board recruitment and retention practices, attracting a talented and diverse applicant pool, and getting your new board members ready to dive in on day one.
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE FALL 2022 COHORT. CONTACT US IF YOU’D LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT FUTURE COHORTS.
Unfortunately, that (alone) does not qualify you–or anyone else–to be a nonprofit board member.
And yet…that’s the running joke in our sector, right?
That any time we’re frantically searching for a new board member, we cozy up with our contact list and ask, “Let’s see…who do I know who has a pulse?”
You’ve probably had to beg some folks to join with promises of, “It’s not that much work!”
And in response you’ve heard a lot of, “Thanks for thinking of me! But no.”
Or worse: they say yes to joining your board and wind up being disengaged, dysfunctional, or otherwise dissatisfying.
Surely there must be something wrong with us, you wonder.
The good news? There’s nothing wrong with you.
The bad news? There is something wrong with the way we, nonprofits, go about board recruitment.
We hold ourselves back by believing that the best we can hope for in a new board member is someone who regularly attends meetings, volunteers to take on a few simple tasks, and goes along with what all the other board members think and say.
It does not have to be this way.
It should not be this way.
Board members are your organization’s ambassadors and advocates. They share stories about the work you do. They leverage their networks to find the resources your organization needs. They cultivate relationships with your best donors, volunteers, and community partners.
And board members are your Executive Director’s most trusted advisors. They bring their knowledge, experience, skills, background, and attributes to bear on the work of the organization. At a high level, they can support your ED in solving problems, overcoming challenges, and identifying opportunities. Your organization will best serve its community if its work is informed not only by your brilliant staff, but also by the diversity of perspectives represented on your board.
Look, I get it: Finding (and keeping!) new board members feels overwhelming, especially in the context of all the other mission-critical things you must do.
It’s a 3-month coaching program for nonprofit leaders–both board and staff–who are ready to revamp how they “do” board recruitment and retention. If you feel unsure of how to find new members who offer a different perspective from who’s already sitting at the table, this is for you. You’re frustrated by board members who don’t know what’s expected of them, and inadvertently get too far into the weeds or veer into the staff lane. And you’re not always sure how to help new board members feel ready to go on day one.
Develop a clear, easy-to-follow plan for recruiting and retaining a talented board of directors that reflects the community you serve. You’ll feel confident that your nonprofit not only deserves amazing board members, but you can find them and invite them to join your board.
Try new approaches to board recruitment that will ensure you can attract a diverse pool of candidates. This includes openly, broadly, and confidently advertising board positions; eliminating giving requirements; offering multiple ways for community members to apply according to their needs; and more!
Find board members who are passionate, engaged individuals. They’ll have the knowledge, skills, values, and lived experiences to best support the organization in pursuing its mission, achieving its vision, and getting the resources it needs to thrive.
Be clear about your board’s role and how to help potential board members understand what’s expected of them. They’ll be focused on the big picture, and they’ll respect the boundaries between board and staff responsibilities.
Evaluate board candidates effectively and inclusively. And if someone’s not right for the role? You’ll know how to respectfully thank them for their enthusiasm and decline their application.
Warmly welcome new board members, providing them with an inspiring orientation and onboarding process. They’ll be ready to dive in and share their expertise from day one.
9-Step Curriculum designed to revamp your board recruitment practices, attract a talented applicant pool, and orient and support your new board members
Dozens of short, self-paced videos accessible at any time
Worksheets, Processes, and Templates
Online community exclusively for Build a Better Board members to offer peer support and expertise
6 Live Virtual Group Coaching Calls during 12-week Program
1 One-on-One SOS Coaching Session you can use at anytime during 12-week Program
9-Step Curriculum designed to revamp your board recruitment practices, attract a talented applicant pool, and orient and support your new board members
Dozens of short, self-paced videos accessible at any time
Worksheets, Processes, and Templates
Online community exclusively for Build a Better Board members to offer peer support and expertise
6 Live Virtual Group Coaching Calls during 12-week Program
1 One-on-One SOS Coaching Session you can use at anytime during 12-week Program
The Build a Better Board program is offered on a sliding scale. Consider the financial resources available to your organization, and pay what feels right.
Do you have questions? Could you use home help pitching this program to your board or staff? Hop on my calendar for a 15-minute chat.
By combining a self-paced curriculum with one-on-one coaching and peer support, you’ll be able to create an approach to board recruitment and retention that is unique to your nonprofit organization’s needs and values.
The Build a Better Board curriculum is made up of 9 stages of growth. It will guide you through all the steps you need to revamp your practices, recruit passionate, engaged board members, and retain them for years to come.
Each stage of the curriculum includes short videos with supporting worksheets, templates, and other useful resources. Why start from scratch if you don’t have to, right?
We know a lot about board recruitment and retention. Guess what? You do, too! And so does every other member of the Build a Better Board program. Let’s learn together and teach each other. The online community is the place to ask questions, bounce ideas off one another, and share your wins.
Throughout our 12 weeks together, we’ll have (6) 90-minute group coaching calls. Ask questions, share challenges, and get them answered live. You’re also welcome to submit your work ahead of time to get personalized feedback from Sarah.
Collaborative learning is enriching, but sometimes you just need that individualized attention. Meet 1:1 with Sarah for 60-minutes at any point during the program.
Board recruitment is overwhelming…learning how to do it better should not be!
There’s a lot of new ground to cover here. Instead of leaving you to bushwhack your way through dense information and asking you to make sense of it all, we’ve organized everything into our Success Path (a.k.a. curriculum). Each stage of the curriculum builds on the one before it.
In Stage 1, we challenge the thinking that gets in your way of recruiting board members who are passionate about your mission and reflect the community you serve. What do you tell yourself about what your nonprofit deserves? What ideas do you have about your community’s willingness to step up and help lead your organization? How important do you see the role of your board within the organization? When you think of who can serve on your board, do you have specific ideas about who they are, what they do, or what they have?
In Stage 2, we take a close look at your practices related to board recruitment and onboarding. The fact that many nonprofit boards tend to be homogenous in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, geography, education level, and socioeconomic status doesn’t happen by accident. The ways in which we recruit and retain board members can create (unintentional) barriers, preventing folks from across the spectrum of human experience from accessing and participating in board leadership. At this stage, your main goal is to identify these practices and determine what new practices you can implement to minimize or remove those barriers.
In Stage 3, we’ll create a clear picture of who’s on your board and in the community you serve. Through surveys and interviews, you’re going to learn more about each board member’s knowledge, skills, background, lived experiences, attributes, interests, and more. You’ll use this data to build a board matrix so you can easily see who’s represented on your existing board and who’s missing. At the same time, you’ll gather simple demographic data about your staff, the people you serve, and your community at-large to better understand your community. You’ll compare the two–your board and your community–to see where there is alignment and where there are gaps.
In Stage 4, let’s think about the big picture strategies, challenges, and opportunities that your organization needs support with. Are there any goals or strategies that you are unsure of how to achieve? That require special professional connections? That require significant funding? Given this, what kinds of knowledge, skills, lived experiences, etc. do your future board members need to have in order to best support your mission?
In Stage 5, we’ll get clear on board member roles and responsibilities, and formally document them. That’s right: we’re going to write a board member job description! This will help your current board members know whether or not they’re fulfilling their duties, and it will help prospective board members to know what will be expected of them.
In Stage 6, we bring all of the work we’ve done in the previous stages together to find you the best board members who are right for your organization and mission! You’ll develop a clear, easy-to-follow plan for marketing the position, interviewing and evaluating candidates, and making offers.
Congratulations! You’ve got some awesome folks joining your board. In this stage, we’ll design an onboarding process that is inspiring, fun, and informative. We want your new board members to feel welcome and ready to go on Day 1!
In stage 8, we’ll make sure your new board members continue to feel welcome and well supported. After the honeymoon phase, new board members might start to feel overwhelmed in their roles. They could be unsure how to plug into the work of the board and organization, and you might find them becoming disengaged as a result. You’re going to schedule periodic check-ins with them to answer any questions they have and ensure they have what they need to be successful in their role.
Whew. And bravo! That was a lot of hard work. You’ve completed a round of new board member recruitment and retention. But how do you know if your efforts were successful? In this stage, we’re going to develop a plan for evaluating your efforts and implementing changes, as necessary.
Running a nonprofit is hard, right? You’re asked to wear a lot of hats, juggle a lot of balls, and spin a lot of plates. If that sounds like a circus to you–it is! But a lot less fun.
It’s a dynamic I know very well. I was once the Executive Director of a small but mighty nonprofit in Vermont. As the only staff member, I filled many roles. Relationship-builder. Storyteller, Volunteer coordinator. Motivator. Strategic thinker. Development director. Data entry specialist. Late night email replier. Problem solver. The list goes on.
I LOVED my job. I got to build collaborative relationships with partner organizations, coordinate a network of amazing volunteers, witness the profound generosity of our community, and support my fellow humans through a difficult time in their lives. I was constantly learning new ways to effectively lead people and manage a nonprofit organization. It was a dynamic, fulfilling, and humbling experience.
At the same time, I found myself working far too many hours, googling way too many things at 2:00 a.m., and, ultimately, enduring some major burnout. (Self-doubt? Cynicism? Feeling defeated? Yeah, I had that!)
I didn’t want these things for myself. And I certainly don’t want them for you.
From all of this, Hedgehog + Fox Collaborative was born. I use everything I’ve learned–and continue to learn– to bring out the best you’ve got with board development, strategy, and communications.
In turn, I created the Build a Better Board program to take the guesswork out of board recruitment and retention.
You currently serve as a nonprofit Executive Director, Board President, or Chair of a Nominating & Governance Committee (or equivalent). We want you to be able to take what you’re learning and immediately apply it to your work.
You value diversity, inclusion, and equity across race, ethnicity, age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, and more. This value is essential to shaking up the status quo and building a board that reflects the community you serve. You don’t have to know everything, you just have to have the willingness to learn more and do better.
You have a positive mindset about nonprofit boards in general and appreciate the value a group of passionate, engaged individuals can bring to your organization. Working with a volunteer board is tricky, challenging, and even frustrating at times. This is a safe space to vent, but if you’re completely cynical about board leadership, then we’re not a match.
You’re willing to engage in collaborative learning with other nonprofit leaders. This is a competition-free zone.
The Build a Better Board program is 12 weeks. Our Fall 2022 offering starts September 12 and ends December 8, with a week off November 19-26.text goes here
For Fall 2022, the group coaching sessions are scheduled for September 23, October 6, October 20, November 3, November 17, and December 8 , 12:00-1:30 p.m. on Zoom.
For Fall 2022, you will have access to the Success Path videos and worksheets through December 31, 2023.
You can receive a refund until September 11, 2022. Once the program is live on September 12, 2022, no refunds will be given.
Have a question that’s not answered here? Drop me a note or hop on my calendar for a 15-minute chat.
9-Step Curriculum designed to revamp your board recruitment practices, attract a talented applicant pool, and orient and support your new board members
Dozens of short, self-paced videos accessible at any time
Worksheets, Processes, and Templates
Online community exclusively for Build a Better Board members to offer peer support and expertise
6 Live Virtual Group Coaching Calls during 12-week Program
1 One-on-One SOS Coaching Session you can use at anytime during 12-week Program
9-Step Curriculum designed to revamp your board recruitment practices, attract a talented applicant pool, and orient and support your new board members
Dozens of short, self-paced videos accessible at any time
Worksheets, Processes, and Templates
Online community exclusively for Build a Better Board members to offer peer support and expertise
6 Live Virtual Group Coaching Calls during 12-week Program
1 One-on-One SOS Coaching Session you can use at anytime during 12-week Program
The Build a Better Board program is offered on a sliding scale. Consider the financial resources available to your organization, and pay what feels right.
Do you have questions? Could you use home help pitching this program to your board or staff? Hop on my calendar for a 15-minute chat.
