The ideal board: Beyond adding 'one or two heavy hitters'.

• Author: Kaiser, Michael M.
• Position: NONPROFIT BOARDS - Column

Too many boards are homogeneous groups of friends. Boards tend to be the least diverse when the nominating committee is composed of members of the same social set. It is natural that such a group will know and like the same kinds of people. As we attempt to broaden the base of those who care about our work, however, we need to build larger and more diverse boards. We need boards that have the power to attract funding from a broad spectrum of the community, the state, the nation, and perhaps even the world. We need boards that have the ability to chart a strategy, with senior staff, that will address the many changes our world will certainly experience. We need boards who can serve as ambassadors in a larger, more complicated realm.

For this reason, I recommend that arts organizations stop thinking incrementally about new board members; instead, they should plan for the "ideal board." Most boards add members one by one, as places become vacant or as financial needs dictate. Under this strategy, the structure and the culture of the board does not change--a new face or two is merely added each year. Unfortunately, this approach does not quickly move the board to a new level of potency; it only allows the board to evolve, slowly, over a long period of time. My approach allows the nominating committee and board leadership to recast the board in a new way to address future institutional problems and requirements.

The ideal board is a mix of people who are most likely to be helpful in the future. It is a description of the diverse skills and backgrounds we want on our board: diversity by expertise, by geography, by industry, by race, and by giving level. The list of skill sets we may want on our board depends on the strengths of our staff and the plans for the organization. An organization planning a new building, for example, may well want people with real estate development or construction expertise on its board. And if we hope to take advantage of online broadcasting, we must have the media and technology knowledge to do so effectively.

If we are serving a broad region, we will want a board that reflects that geography. If we are only a local organization, a local board may be satisfactory. But as many organizations will be attempting to serve larger regions, it will be essential to build boards that reflect this new scope. If we reside in a city with several key industry groups, we will want to make sure that we have representation from all of...