Are you running into challenges with your board of directors? Do you wonder how to recruit engaged and active leaders?

Over the last few years, we’ve done a lot of work with boards at state equality groups. Often, we find that the challenges boards are having go back to the recruitment process.

So we’ve been looking at models of what works well in state groups and the broader nonprofit community.

Here are thirteen things we’ve found that make a huge difference:

1. Have a Job Description

You wouldn’t hire an employee without figuring out what the job is and what skills and experience you need, right? But all too often we don’t do this when we’re “hiring” board members. Having clear expectations about what it means to serve will help you and your board candidates figure out if it’s a good match before you vote them onto your board. Share the job description with every candidate before you get a commitment from them.

2. Identify Strengths and Gaps

Which skills, expertise, connections, and perspectives do you have on your board and which are missing? Who’s about to roll off the board? It’s always good to have a sense of what your continuing board looks like compared to what you want it to look like before you start looking at any specific board candidates.

3. Don’t Do an Open Call

Seriously, just don’t. Here’s what happens when you email your list asking for board members: a handful of random people who don’t have the skills you want apply. You have to reject them, and it’s awkward and alienates someone you could have engaged in another way. (Or, worse, you put them on your board.) Everyone else on your list thinks you look desperate.

The superstars that you want on your board aren’t going to respond to a mass email; they need to be wooed. It takes time but is more than worth the effort.

4. Start Broad

It can be tempting to recruit by trying to find the one magical person that will bring the skills and diversity you want to the board, so you rack your brain for who might possibly fit that mold. This is not the way to recruitment success. Instead, engage the whole board and staff in generating a list of all of the people who have demonstrated a real commitment to your work: your major donors, the person who shows up at every single event you do in that one city, your repeat volunteers, the person who hosted a house party or was a table captain at your gala, etc. Don’t judge them one by one, just put them all on the list and then narrow from there to find the right mix of people.

5. Bring on a Class

In May, Bob brings a candidate for the board to consider. Sure he’s another gay, white guy from your largest city, but Bob says he’s amazing, and you don’t have anyone else in mind, so you vote him on. In July, Jane says her college roommate would be perfect. In September, Juan has someone he loves. You vote them on too, because you wouldn’t want to offend them.

When you trickle in board members as you find them, several problems arise. First, every vote becomes a judgment on that one person (and the board member who brought them to your attention). This is a surefire way to end up with new board members who look a lot like your old board members. Second, when board members come on one at a time, they almost never get a good orientation; they’re just thrown in the mix. Third, if you’re trying to change the culture of a board, say, to get board members to start taking the give/get policy seriously, bringing folks in one at a time will just draw them into your existing habits.

Instead, have one time each year when you vote a slate onto the board. Then, the question shifts from “Is Jane’s college roommate an acceptable board member?” to “What are the right six people in our pool of 20 potential candidates to take the organization to the next level?” You get to bring them in together, do one great orientation for everybody, and see them starting to live up to the expectations you’ve set (even if maybe not everyone on the old board was meeting the expectations).

6. Flirt Before You Propose

Your best friend mentions they’ve found someone with skills you need who'd also add diversity to your board. They’re not on your mailing list, but they sound great! You invite them to lunch, and two weeks later they’re voted on your board. Only then do you find out that they only show up to every third meeting, and when they do, it’s to complain that they don’t like your signature program.

Take the time to get to know candidates before you bring up board service. Ask them to take on a specific task, like being a table captain, coming to a strategy meeting on something they have expertise in, or serving on a committee. This gives them a chance to get to know your organization and see if they like you enough to make a two or three year board commitment, and it lets you get to know if they’re the kind of talented, passionate, and reliable person you want to work with on an ongoing basis.

7. Research Them

Ask around about the folks you’re considering bringing on. You want to find out if they’re reliable folks who will come through for you, and if there’s any baggage they might bring with them. Some organizations do criminal background checks and others don’t, but there’s no reason you can’t at least Google their name along with “arrested,” “scandal,” and “crisis.”

8. Avoid “Onlies”

Have you ever been in a group and been the only LGBT person there? Have you found yourself suddenly being expected to speak for the entire community? Don’t put folks on your board in that position. Whether it’s people of color, trans folks, straight allies, or whatever, try your best to be sure you have more than one person. It will give them a much better experience with your group, and it will give your group a much better range of perspectives.

9. Be Wary of Self-selectors

If someone really, really, really wants to be on your board and keeps pushing you to add them, even though you’ve never raised the idea with them, chances are they have an agenda. And that agenda is not your agenda. Be careful and dig deeper to find out what’s really going on. If they do have potential, put them through the same process as everyone else.

10. Wait for the Right People

Struggling to fill all your open seats? It’s better to have a small board of committed, hard-working people than a big board with a bunch of warm bodies who boost the numbers but don’t deliver. The warm bodies not only aren’t doing anything themselves, they’re dragging down morale and creating resentment from the folks who are doing the work.

11. Be Honest

Are you being audited by the IRS? Sued by a former employee? Facing the loss of your largest grant? No one should find out about big problems after they’ve signed on to be legally responsible for your organization. Be up-front about your challenges (unless you’re legally bound to confidentiality, of course) and how you’re handling them before you elect someone to the board.

12. Don’t Make a Deal

Never, ever tell a prospective board member that they won’t have to meet an expectation you have of board members. If it’s in the job description, it applies to everyone. No board candidate is so amazing that they should get a pass on your attendance policy, give/get, or other core responsibilities. And if you’re talking to a candidate with board experience, telling them that these things aren’t written in stone is going to make them think less of your organization.

13. Build a Pipeline

So you’ve just voted on a stellar, talented, diverse class of folks to your board. Your recruitment work is done for the next nine months, right? Wrong. Now’s a great time to think about who else is in the mix but maybe wasn’t quite ready for the board. Make a plan for how you’re going to engage them over the course of the year so that when you sit down to look at potential candidates next year you’re going to have a bigger, stronger pool to draw from. If you’re struggling on a particular kind of diversity, chances are that the board isn’t the only place in the organization that isn’t as diverse as you want. Look at how you can engage diverse communities in your programs year-round, and next year you’ll have some great folks in the mix who don’t look like everyone else on your board.

Stronger boards mean stronger organizations. While not every group can do all of these things right away, we can all take steps to make our boards better.

At Equality Federation, our State Leadership Project team is here to help state equality groups build their boards. Contact me or Fran Hutchins, and we’ll be glad to work with you.