3 Steps To Take If You Want To Join A Nonprofit Board

What’s one skill or strength you think would make someone a great addition to a nonprofit board? Share your thoughts and let us know how you’d like to make an impact in the comments!

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I've joined Career Advice in sharing some ways that serving on a non-profit board has helped my career, so I thought that it was only fitting to move onto some strategies for getting yourself onto a board.

As a bit of background, I was asked to join the national board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network after working as a pro-bono fundraising advisor to the National Director for more than six months. At no point during that time had I given any thought to the possibility of getting onto the board. But I did it! And now, I want to help you advance your nonprofit career by joining the board for an organization that moves you.

Here are three steps that you can take today to join a nonprofit board:

1. Identify your strengths and key skill sets 

When most nonprofit boards are engaged in recruiting new members, they tend to do so with specific skills and/or perspectives that are needed. By taking the time to identify your own strengths and skill sets, you can be ready to respond to organizations seeking someone like you.

One exercise that I found helpful in this regard was putting pen to paper. Take a look at your resume or past job descriptions and jot down any words that appear a couple of times. For example, if your background is in marketing or communications, and you've held a number of jobs where you were in charge of your employer's email marketing efforts, then you'll probably want to highlight the following skills: email marketing, Salesforce, list management, copywriting, data analytics, etc.

2. Determine the type of organizations with which you want to be affiliated

After you have a solid grasp of your strengths and skill sets, you should give some serious thought to the types of organizations you want to support as a board member. Just as you would do during a job search, I reccomend you create a targeted employer list. One key question that may help this process could be “What groups do you currently give money or volunteer for?”

Remember that as a board member, you have fiduciary (read: financial) and legal responsibility for the organization as one of its leaders. As I tell people who want to get into fundraising (which is also an important responsibility of board members), you should focus on organizations where you have a passion for the mission and work, as you will be expected to give your time, talent, and treasure to this organization. This passion will be needed to keep you going through committee meetings, interviews for senior leaders, fundraising events, and the many other things you’ll be doing as a board member.

3. Put yourself out there, and keep your eyes and ears open

Now that you know your strengths and the kinds of organizations you want to serve, it’s time to put yourself out there! Here are a few ways to explore potential board opportunities.

• Reach out directly. If there are specific organizations whose board you would be interested in joining, you should introduce yourself to the executive leadership or a current board member to share your interest; who knows, you may be reaching out as they are looking to expand their board. If they aren’t, then try volunteering with the organization outside of board capacity. Volunteering is a great way to learn more about the organization, get to know the staff, and be the first to know about potential opportunities.
• Let your network know. Whether or not you have specific groups in mind, you should take some advice from former Silicon Valley CEO Heidi Roizen: “Don’t believe you don’t have to work at it; you have to make it easy for people to connect the dots.” After deciding that she wanted to pursue a seat on a corporate board, she sent 150 emails to people in her network—some of whom were on the boards of companies that funded her tech venture, other corporate executives, recruiters, and friends—to share her interest. While her experience focuses on corporate boards, the key is to make it easy for people to find you. Get started by letting people know you want a board position whenever you can.
• Look online. Take full advantage of sites like Idealist that regularly have postings for prospective board members. You can also search for interesting organizations via our global directory of nonprofits and social-impact organizations—the sky's the limit!
• Be open to alternatives. If you aren’t ready for a formal board position or one just simply isn’t available, consider junior boards. And, as I stated earlier, it’s never too early or too late to get involved with an organization you care about. Offer to volunteer or take on pro-bono projects, as I did with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.