Nominating committee charts your nonprofit's future

• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.31098

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

View this newsletter online at wileyonlinelibrary.com • DOI: 10.1002/ban

Editor: Jeff Stratton

Supplement

Nominating committee charts your

nonprot’s future

The board committee charged with nominations

determines the fate of your nonprofit.

The committee is the key to your nonprofit’s

success, because the people selected for board

service will influence every key decision for years

ahead.

Often, this is the nominating committee. Today,

however, many boards use a Governance Commit-

tee to identify, recruit and nominate new board

members.

Whatever the committee’s name, its function

is so important that it must be a standing board

committee—one that works all year to recruit tal-

ented board members.

Who should serve on

the nominating committee?

The committee should include veteran board

members, those most familiar with the organiza-

tion and its needs. In addition, include the ex-

ecutive director on the committee. Her contacts

in the community will be useful in finding new

members. Also, she will be working closely with

future board members and should have a voice in

the process.

Annual plan for the nominating committee

Months 1-2: Review the organization’s mission

and strategic plan. You need to know where you

are going to make sound decisions about what the

board’s composition should be. With an under-

standing of the organization’s plan, you can con-

centrate your recruiting efforts on finding board

members who can fill specific roles in achieving

your plan. As you consider these issues and begin

to identify names, update the board on your work

and ask the full board to feed you names of poten-

tial members.

Months 3-5: Assess each board member.

Evaluate each current board member in terms

of their participation and contributions in areas

like meeting attendance and fundraising in-

volvement. Then, the nominating committee can

make recommendations to the board chair about

members who need encouragement to improve or

resign.

Months 6-7: Examine the board’s composition.

Analyze the makeup of your current board and an-

ticipate which current members may retire. Use a

demographics matrix to identify the skill gaps your

board needs filled.

Months 8-9: Gather names for new members.

Report to the full board which members’ terms

are expiring this year. Ask the full board for more

names to add to your list of prospects. Encourage

productive members to consider another term on

the board.

Months 10-11: Recruit needed talent. Ask po-

tential new members to consider board service.

Screen them to determine mutual interest and

then report finalists to the full board. The full

board selects new members. After this, review the

bylaws for qualifications of board officers. Es-

tablish a slate of officers from the current board

roster and report it to the full board.

The board elects its new officers. ■

May 2020 Vol. 36, No. 9