Nonprofit board recruitment packet

The six documents behind The board recruitment packet, six documents around the brief. Fill each page from a completed recruitment brief and send them before the meeting where you ask. No email required.

What is in it

Page one is the one-page prospectus: the mission in two sentences, this year’s budget size, the program the open seat connects to, and a blank line for why the seat is open now.

Page two is the role description, pulled from the recruitment brief. Committee, hours per month, term length, term end date, and three blank lines for what the first year looks like.

Page three is the expectations summary. Four rows, one per commitment, giving, opening doors, attending, serving, each with a blank line for the exact sentence your board’s own agreement uses, so nobody improvises the giving number in the room.

Page four is the meeting calendar summary. A twelve-row table for the year’s dates, with a column marking which are full board and which are committee only.

Page five is the financial one-pager. This year’s budget total, the revenue mix by source, and one blank line for an audit finding, left empty when there is none to report.

Page six is the ask-meeting script. The four moves in order, name the seat, confirm the reading, answer the three questions, make the ask, with the three questions printed as a table and a blank line under each for the answer specific to this candidate. A decision-deadline line sits at the bottom for the chair to fill in during the meeting.

The file is a Word document. Open it in Google Docs with no loss. It prints on six sides of letter paper, one document per page.

How to use it

1. Do not start here. Fill the recruitment brief in the board composition matrix first. The role description page has nothing true to say without it.
2. Copy the file once per candidate and fill the blanks. Keep each page at one page. A prospectus that runs long gets cut, not carried to a second page.
3. Confirm the giving sentence on page three matches the board’s current fundraising agreement exactly. Do not write a new number here.
4. The chair sends pages one through five under their own name, at least a week before the ask meeting.
5. The chair prints page six and holds it during the meeting. It is a script, not a leave-behind.
6. Fill the decision deadline on page six out loud, in the meeting, and follow it in writing the same day.
7. On a yes, add the bylaws, the signed agreement, the last audit, and the committee roster, then hand the six pages to the new member as the first four items of orientation.
8. On a no, keep the role description. Delete the candidate’s name, date it, and return it to the recruitment brief for the next name.

When not to use it

Do not use it for a board of fewer than six members where the chair already knows every candidate personally. Send only the expectations summary and the financial page.

Do not fill in a role description before the recruitment brief names the gap. A role written to sound impressive rather than accurate sets an expectation the seat cannot meet.

Do not send it during an executive transition. The financial page and the first-year plan both depend on decisions the incoming executive director should be part of.

And do not hand the ask-meeting script to anyone but the chair. It is written for the person who is allowed to ask the direct question and hear a direct answer.