Board Development: How Nonprofit Boards Grow Their Own Capacity
What Is Board Development?
Board development is the work a nonprofit board does on itself each year: recruiting the right members, orienting them, keeping them engaged, evaluating how the board performs and preparing its next leaders. A governance or board development committee usually leads it. On a small board, the chair and one or two members can run the whole cycle.
A common trigger for board development is a spring board meeting where two terms end in June and nobody has a name ready. The scramble that follows tends to seat whoever says yes first. The work that decides the outcome, knowing which skills the board lacks and who might bring them, should have started the summer before.
Run as a yearly cycle, nonprofit board development fits on one page, and a small volunteer board can manage it without staff or software.
Key Takeaways
- Board development is a yearly cycle of five stages: recruit, orient, engage, evaluate and renew. Recruiting is only the first.
- On a small board, the chair and one or two members can run the cycle in four meetings a year.
- Recruit from a skills matrix, and put expectations in writing before anyone is asked to serve.
- A one-page plan with one goal, one owner and one date for each stage is enough for a year.
- The executive director supplies names and information. The board makes the asks, and it evaluates its own performance as well as the executive director’s.
What Are the Stages of Board Development?
Board development runs in five stages that repeat every year: recruit members with the skills the board lacks, orient them, engage every member in real work, evaluate the board’s performance, and renew its leadership. What the board learns in one stage sets up the next.
- Recruit. Compare the board’s skills with the next three years’ needs and recruit for the gaps.
- Orient. Give new members the history, finances, bylaws and written expectations in their first month.
- Engage. Every member holds a committee seat or a named task.
- Evaluate. Ask how the board is doing as a board, with a short self-assessment.
- Renew. Decide who chairs next and which seats will open, then start recruiting again.
Recruiting is the stage boards notice. BoardSource’s recommended board practices call it “a continuous and deliberate activity of the full board” and give a governance committee the lead on “recruitment, ongoing board development, leadership development, board and board member assessment, and board education.”
What Does a Board Development Committee Do?
A board development committee, often called the governance committee, runs the board’s work on itself. It keeps the skills matrix current, screens candidates, plans orientation, organizes the board’s self-assessment and proposes the next slate of officers. The full board votes on what the committee recommends.
A small board can skip the standing committee. The board chair and one or two members meet four times a year: January to set the plan, spring to recruit, summer to plan orientation, and fall to run the self-assessment and discuss officers.
For the executive director, board development often becomes unpaid staff work, because the executive director knows which seats are empty and who might serve. Agree on the split early: the executive director supplies names and information, and the board makes the asks and the decisions. In CNPC’s view, a board’s duty of care includes making sure the executive director has the resources to succeed. Coaching is one option, and our article explains why boards fund coaching for the executive director.
How Do You Recruit the Right Board Members?
Recruit from a skills matrix first and from names second. List the skills, experience and community connections the board needs for the next three years, mark which members bring each one, and recruit for the empty rows. Put expectations in writing before anyone is asked: meetings, committee work, giving and term length.
BoardSource advises the same order and places recruiting with the board, with the chief executive playing an important role.
One failure CNPC coaches see is the resume board member, who joins for the prestige and the resume line, then does not engage with the mission or the governance work. Before the invitation, ask the candidate why this organization, why now and what they want to have done by the end of their first year.
Vague answers to all three are a reason to wait.
Recruiting fills the seat. Orientation and real work in the first year decide whether the new member is still contributing in year two.
How Do You Orient and Engage New Members?
Orient new board members in their first month and give each one real work by their third meeting. A small nonprofit needs only the basics: walk new members through how the organization works, hand them a written job description, make roles and responsibilities clear, and get them to the next board meeting.
In small organizations, CNPC coaches find those basics are enough. For the full process, including a 90-day arc, see our guide to nonprofit board member onboarding.
A member with no assignment has little reason to read the board packet. If that has already happened, our piece on getting quiet board members back into the work covers meeting design and real assignments.
How Does a Board Develop Its Own Skills?
A board builds its own skills through learning on its calendar: ten minutes of education at each meeting, a yearly retreat on one hard topic, a board buddy for each new member and, for some boards, coaching. Training covers what a board must know. Coaching works on how members lead together.
Most boards lean on reading. BoardSource reports from its Leading with Intent research that 69 percent of organizations use written resources to educate board members, while trainings, seminars and webinars are far less common. Skills used in the room, such as questioning a budget, come from practice.
A board buddy, an experienced member, explains the board’s processes and policies. A coach helps a member answer why they joined and how their purpose connects to the organization’s. CNPC coaches draw that line between the two roles: every new member needs a buddy, and only some need a coach.
CNPC runs no board-development program or board training. For a board that wants to work on how it leads as a group, there is executive team coaching. Our coaches donate their time, which is why six sessions cost $500, $700 or $1,100 by operating budget. Our guide to nonprofit board leadership training compares coaching with training. Before a vote, read the questions boards ask before paying for coaching.
What Goes in a Board Development Plan?
A board development plan fits on one page: one goal for each stage of the cycle, the action that reaches it, one owner and a date. The committee drafts it in January, the full board approves it, and the committee checks it at every meeting.
The sample below is for a fictional nine-member board on a January-to-December year.
| Stage | Goal for the year | Action | Owner | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recruit | Fill two seats with finance and community skills | Update the skills matrix, list six candidates, meet each one | Committee chair | Matrix by February, vote in May |
| Orient | New members ready for their first meeting | 90-minute orientation with the board chair and executive director, buddy assigned | Board chair | Within 30 days of the vote |
| Engage | Every member holds a committee seat or named task | One-to-one conversation between the chair and each member | Board chair | By September |
| Evaluate | The board reviews its own performance | Short self-assessment survey, results discussed at the fall meeting | Committee | October to November |
| Renew | Next chair and vice chair identified | Committee talks with candidates and brings a slate | Committee | December, for a January vote |
To turn the sample into your own nonprofit board development plan template, copy the columns and replace the goals. Five goals is enough for one year, and anything more goes on next year’s plan.
How Do You Know Board Development Is Working?
Board development is working when the seats you planned to fill are filled with the skills you planned for, new members hold real assignments within their first year, attendance holds steady and self-assessment results improve between rounds. BoardSource recommends a formal self-assessment every two years.
On a small board, the record can sit on the plan itself. Beside each goal, the committee notes the date it was met or the reason it slipped, and the next January plan starts from that record.
A second signal is the board’s relationship with the executive director. In the strongest partnerships CNPC coaches see, the chair and executive director meet on a set cadence, usually monthly and outside board meetings, and the board evaluates its own performance as well as the executive director’s. A board that reviews only the executive director has skipped the evaluate stage.
Where Should a Board Start This Week?
Start with 30 minutes and two people. The board chair and one other member list the seats that open in the next twelve months and fill in a skills matrix for the members who will stay. The empty rows tell you who to look for, and they become the first goal in your board development plan.
The executive director’s development runs alongside the board’s. Our volunteer coaches donate their time, which is why six sessions of executive coaching for an executive director cost $300, $400 or $600 depending on the operating budget. CNPC serves nonprofit leaders only: 501(c)(3) nonprofits, government agencies and analogous organizations outside the United States. Apply Now to be matched with a coach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is board development the same as fundraising development?
They share a word. In most nonprofits, development means fundraising, and a development committee raises money. Board development is the board’s work on its own membership, skills and leadership. If one committee handles both, tie recruitment to the skills matrix so seats are filled for more than giving.
How often should a board review its development plan?
The committee checks it at each meeting, four times a year on a small board. The full board approves it in January and hears a progress report twice a year.
Who leads board development on a small board?
The board chair, or a committee of two or three members if the board has one, with the executive director supplying names and information.
How many new board members should we recruit each year?
Count the terms that end next year and any empty seats, then check the skills matrix for gaps. With staggered three-year terms, about a third of seats come up each year. BoardSource notes that the most common term limits are two consecutive three-year terms.
Work on How Your Board Leads Together
Volunteer coaches donate their time, so six sessions of executive team coaching cost $500, $700 or $1,100 by operating budget, for board leaders and the executive director.
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