Nonprofit Kit For Dummies, 6th Edition

Chapter 3

Prioritizing Building Your Board of Directors

IN THIS CHAPTER

Making forming the board your first priority

Recruiting the right board members

Recognizing the roles of a board of directors

Training your board members for full engagement

Most nonprofit founding visionaries don’t prioritize the task of first getting their governing board onboard with their vision. The board isn’t formed after the founder has written the mission and vision statements for the new nonprofit — the board needs to be involved in the creation of these two items when members are starting to develop the new nonprofit’s first strategic plan document (see Chapter 4).

Here’s a story about a nonprofit visionary who did not prioritize building a board of directors upfront. Jeffery decided to create a nonprofit organization — to help women who are single, pregnant, and homeless get off the streets, learn better parenting skills, and enter the workforce by the time their child is old enough to start kindergarten. Working alone, he wrote his mission and vision statements. He also drafted a strategic plan ...