1. Recruiting the right board
of directors
Gayle L. Gifford, ACFRE, M.S.

2. About Gayle L. Gifford, ACFRE, MS
• Co-President, Cause & Effect Inc.
www.ceffect.com
• Co-researcher Voices of Board Chairs
• Board chair Blackstone Academy Charter School
Find me
• gayle@ceffect.com
• The Butterfly Effect
www.ceffect.com/blog
• Twitter @gaylegifford
• LinkedIn gaylegifford
Available through Amazon

3. Workshop protocols
• This is a taste, not the
whole meal.
• You get what you give.
• What matters is what
happens when you
leave.
• There are no wrong
questions.
• Cell phones silent

4. Case: Urban Debate League
Program:
• Afterschool high school debate teams &
tournaments in 10 Title I schools in four cities.
• Evidence-Based Argumentation (EBA):
Innovative teacher development program
transfers debate skills into the classroom.
Documented learning gains.
Staff
• 10 year Executive Director resigned.
• Program director promoted to Executive
Director.
• Vista
• Teacher coaches paid by their schools.
Funding
• $150,000 budget (with EBA); 50% grants;
50% contributions
• Difficulty renewing EBA contract with school
department.
• Chronic cash flow shortages, tenuous funding
Board
• 12 board members: seven active
• One recent resignation (a former educational
leader)
• Two chronically absent rotating off.
• Three year terms

5. Questions for Today
Who do you need on this board?
Where can you find them?
How do you cultivate, vet and onboard?
How will you keep them?

6. Board Member Hats
• Whole = Governance
• Individual = Volunteer

7. Question 1
Who do you need on this board?

8. Board
Composition
Board members
as capital
investments
Capital is any
enduring asset
capable of producing
additional assets
From:
• Economics: Principles and Practices;
G.E. Clayton, 2008
• Beyond the Balance Sheet, Elizabeth
Castillo
• Governance as Leadership, Taylor,
Ryan, Chait
Human capital
• Intellectual
• Moral
• Creative
• Psychological
Relational capital
• Social
• Political
• Spiritual
Symbolic capital
• Reputational
• Cultural
• Geographic
Financial capital
• Giving

9. A board
of
leaders
Idea generation and innovationEnvisioning
• Foster frame-breaking thinking
Resource connectingSpanning
• Networking, Intelligence gathering
Details, structureOrganizing
• Task oriented, get things done
Team developerSocial
• Humor, caring, conflict mediation

10. The new
board
matrix
Parts
• Contributed knowledge
• Leveraged relationships
• Applied cultural fluency
• Self-management
Whole
• From outside, the synthesis
of the above

11. Matrix
Tool

12. Question 2
Where can you find them?

13. Where to look
• Donors, volunteers
• Traditional & social
media
• Ask for them
• Corporate community
relations
• External nominating
committee
• Keep a perpetual
running list
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

14. Question 3
How will you cultivate, vet and
onboard them?

15. Create a rigorous
recruiting process.
• Courting and cutting
• Resumes
• Site visits
• Informal interview
• Formal interview
• Reference checks
• Clear expectations

16. Question 4
How will you keep them?

17. A board where folks
want to serve
• Work that matters
• Meetings that matter
• Transforming
experiences
• Opportunities to learn
• High expectations
• Interesting, collegial
peers
• Fun
• Rewarding