Board composition matrix template

The spreadsheet behind Board composition matrix, the template and how to use it without offending anyone. One row per member, a scoring rule two people would apply the same way, and a gaps tab that turns the sums into the next three seats. No email required.

What is in it

Tab one is Matrix. One row per board member, eighteen rows pre-formatted and room to add more. The columns run left to right: Name, Term end (month and year), Officer role (chair, vice chair, treasurer, secretary, or blank), then eight skill and experience columns each scored 0 to 2: Finance and accounting, Legal, Fundraising, Program expertise, Marketing and communications, People and HR, Technology and data, Lived experience. Then Giving capacity band, which takes A, B, or C. Then four network columns each scored 0 to 2: Network, funders; Network, business; Network, government and policy; Network, community organizations. A final Notes column holds the Form 990 independence yes or no. The scoring rule for every scored column sits in a comment on its header cell, copied from the article’s table.

Tab two is Gaps. The header row repeats the twelve scored columns from Matrix, in the same order. Row two, labelled Current, sums each column from the Matrix tab with a formula, so it updates as you score. Row three, labelled Target, is blank for the governance committee to fill with the score the next three years of the strategic plan need. Row four, labelled Gap, is Target minus Current, with negative numbers left visible so a surplus shows. Row five, labelled Leaving within 18 months, sums only the points held by members whose term end falls inside the next 18 months, using the Term end column. A column where that row equals the Current row is a gap now, whatever the Gap row says.

Tab three is Recruitment brief. Three blocks, labelled Gap 1, Gap 2, and Gap 3, each with the same six cells: Column, Gap size, Brief (one paragraph naming the year one work, the committee, hours per month, and the giving expectation in the same words every member received), Where we will look, Owner, and Target date. Nothing on this tab calculates. It is the page the governance committee prints.

How to use it

Fill the tabs in this order, and do not skip to the gaps.

1. Agree the columns. The chair and the executive director read the scoring rules in the header comments and cut any column they cannot both score the same way. Fifteen scored columns is the ceiling. Add nothing.
2. Fill Term end and Officer role from the bylaws and the minutes, not from memory.
3. Score every skill, experience, and network cell yourself, in one sitting, from bios, LinkedIn, the CRM giving history, and last year’s Form 990. Put a question mark in any cell you are guessing.
4. Fill Giving capacity band as A, B, or C against your own top three gift tiers. Never type a dollar figure on the sheet.
5. Send each member their own row only, with the scoring rules, and ask for corrections in fifteen minutes. Lived experience is theirs alone to fill, and declined is an accepted answer. The chair sends it, not staff.
6. On the Gaps tab, fill the Target row from the strategic plan. Read the Leaving within 18 months row before the Gap row.
7. Pick the three biggest gaps after the departure adjustment and write one brief for each on the Recruitment brief tab. Give each an owner and a date.
8. Present the Gaps tab totals and the three briefs to the board. Never present the Matrix tab.

Rescore once a year, after elections and before recruiting starts. On a board of a dozen or more, the governance committee does this in one sitting. Term end dates are the only cells that change on their own.

When not to use it

Do not use it with fewer than six members, or where the founder still chairs the board and recruited every member personally. The sheet will show you a wall of zeros you already knew about. Recruit three people you can name today and come back next year.

Do not use it if no chair or governance committee will own it. A matrix built by staff about the board is received as an evaluation, whatever the header says.

Do not use it in an executive transition or a deficit year, and do not use it to solve one member who should leave. The chair conversation does that. The matrix will only delay it.

If your bylaws fix the seats, keep the Term end and Officer role columns and use the scored columns as a briefing for whoever appoints, not as a recruiting target.