If your board is recruiting new members, you may be wondering: Who would make a good candidate? How will new members fit in with existing members? How can I bring in new blood while also preserving and strengthening my institution’s identity?
On her blog Generous Matters, Rebekah Burch Basinger addressed board recruitment a couple of years ago in three blog posts. Although these are not new, they're worth bring up again.
In “Wile E. Coyote and board recruitment strategies,” Basinger refers to an article by Robert Fabricant arguing that creative solutions emerge through collaboration, relationship-building, and cultivating various perspectives.
In “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the fairest board of all?” Basinger highlights Francie Ostrower’s research project, Nonprofit governance in the United States: findings on performance and accountability from the First National Representative study. This project features over 5,000 nonprofit boards in the United States and reveals information such as demographics and recruitment strategies.
Finally, in “Three reasons not to invite former board members back,” Basinger offers opinions on why boards should reconsider the standard practice of inviting back former members after a one-year break and instead think about bringing on new members.
These posts offer interesting insights from Basinger herself and link to resources that you can use while considering new board members.
You can read her original posts here, here, and here. You can also explore the rest of Basinger’s blog at Generous Matters.
