What Does Your Board Recruitment Process Say About Your Organization?

This post is prompted by an email sent to me by my colleague Linda Norris, the inquiring mind behind The Uncataloged Museum. The email included a link to a Craig's List listing from a nonprofit in search of board members. The listing states, in part:

Board Members will commit to meeting once every 2 months. They will be involved in decision making and guiding the direction of the organization. They will assist in fund raising events by establishing committees to plan particular events and initiatives.

Please respond by email with a little bit about yourself, where you live, and what interests you about [name of organization]. To learn more, visit [organization's website address].
Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Compensation: Volunteer Work
This is a part-time job.
This is at a non-profit organization.

Actually, that's pretty much the entire listing.

It got me to thinking that despite the listing's brevity, it speaks volumes about the culture of this organization. Indeed, this is a relatively new nonprofit founded and led by a visionary Gen Y woman. In fact, she named her nonprofit after herself -- which should give you a good idea that she is the singular driving force of her small organization. Her vision for her work takes a very pragmatic, get-it-done, grassrootsy approach. The Craig's List approach to board member recruitment fits the age and style of the founder and the nonprofit work she's doing, as well as the energy-level of a new organization.

Contrast her example with some of the stuff I've been writing about on this blog, such as talent matrices and recruitment planning....stuff I believe is about consciously designing leadership for the long haul. Sounds pretty rigid when compared to our Craig's Lister.

What does your board recruitment process say about your organization?

Photo: pod meeting by Esthr

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