It is no secret that one of the most important factors for the success of your not for profit is the effectiveness of the NFP board. However, finding the right people to include in the board may be a challenge, especially if you have no plan of action and you are not fully aware of its present condition.

Where do you begin and how do you find out what skills are necessary to make it work?

First of all, you will have to evaluate your current board members and find out if there are gaps in the general ‘skill reserve’ of your NFP board. If you are aware of what skills you need for the successful management of your NFP, then you can create a table and compare the members. If, however, you need some ideas and don’t know where to start, you can use this useful chart from Joyeaux Associates that lists the standard skills needed in every NFP board and gives useful directions and explanations. The chart is pretty well-organized and once you fill in all the board members and their skills, you will be able to see the skill and knowledge gaps in your board.

Another way to find out what your board is missing and to check out its functionality and efficiency in a broader aspect is provided in this chart from John Coxon and Associates. It gives you a checklist that will help you evaluate the performance of the board without missing important factors. Here you also have the list of skills, qualifications and experience needed by your NFP board, but you also have a points that will help you clarify your goals, your operations, diversity and strength/weakness, as well as a section that will help create an action plan to follow.

What happens once you identify the skills of your NFP board?

Once you have evaluated your board and found out what is missing, you will need to recruit new members to fill in the gaps. You will need to focus on a couple of things, starting with diversity. You will need a member from every community you represent and it is really important that your board is diverse in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, origin, religion etc. This will not only gain the trust of the people you work and are going to work with, but will also give you access to various perspectives and points of view that will help for the functionality of your NFP.

What about communication as a skill?

When selecting members for your board, don’t forget that seamless communication between them is the way to success. In other words, make sure that you are recruiting members with strong communicative and collaborative skills – they will need to get along with each other well in order for the NFP board to work the way it is supposed to. Once you have made your choices, a team/skill-building program would be a wise investment so that you are sure everyone is on the same page. On these programs you will be able to emphasize the importance of working together, establishing the aims and breaking the ice between new and old members.

Your NFP board is bound to be effective as long as you are constantly maintaining the skill/qualification resource you have in it and using it appropriately. Make sure to take an active role in the recruitment of new members – thus you can be sure that they will fit in exactly the way you need them to.