Fostering Catalytic Pro Bono

By Katelyn Wilson on March 4, 2010 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In August 2009, the Stanford Social Innovation Review published the article "Catalytic Philanthropy," describing the approach one entrepreneur took to reduce methamphetamine abuse in Montana. By researching the entry point into drug usage (teens who were unaware of the dangers of using meth), and implementing a strategic, well-resourced, targeted crusade to intervene at that level (a multi-million dollar, Hollywood produced, award-winning ad campaign which brutally depicts the downward spiral of a meth user), Thomas Siebel was able to make an almost immediate impact on reducing meth abuse in the state by more than 50%.

Since Siebel's campaign, the words "catalytic" and "philanthropy" have become favored buzzwords of social entrepreneurs. Never ones to be late to a social innovation party, the (non-meth-addicted) Pro Bono Junkies at Taproot Foundation were eager to see how this new movement could be augmented with pro bono service, and set to work on a Catalytic Pro Bono Cause: Foster Care.

Having polished their logo, web presence and marketing collateral through three previous Service Grants with Taproot Foundation, Youth Law Center (YLC) was well-versed in pro bono service. As a public interest advocacy group whose mission is to end abuse and maltreatment of children in the nation's foster care and justice systems and to ensure that these children are connected to families and communities, they were also also a major resource and expert in the foster care system. When YLC approached Taproot requesting help with messaging to "encourage the right families to foster," with hopes of rebranding foster care systematically, and not simply for their own organization, Taproot Foundation jumped on the opportunity.


Following the four steps outlined in the August 2009 Stanford Social Innovation Review article for successful Catalytic Philanthropy, Taproot Foundation and YLC set to work.

1. Take Responsibility for Achieving Results

By following the basic guidelines of the Key Messages & Brand Strategy Service Grant (Taproot's got about 250 of these projects under our belt already), we went into the project with a clear project scope and defined expectations on all sides of the pro bono consulting engagement - from the time commitment of YLC staff as well as the consultants, to a timeline for the execution of the project. We also began the project with confirmation that the end would be implemented not only by YLC but by a variety of government and nonprofit agencies working in the field.

2. Mobilize a Campaign for Change

In order to confirm that the new messages and brand position delivered by the Service Grant would resonate with the right audiences, Taproot Foundation's pro bono consulting team worked carefully with YLC to ensure that all benefiting organizations had channels to provide their input and feedback on the team's work. By making sure that the California Social Work Education Consortium, California Department of Social Services, County Welfare Directors, the Foster Parent Association and other agencies supporting the foster care system across the state were aware of the progress the Service Grant was making and able to discuss their thoughts and concerns directly with YLC, we were able to effectively manage the consulting team's bandwidth. This effective management enabled the Key Messages & Brand Strategy Service Grant to be completed on time.

3. Use All Available Tools

The collaborative nature of the Service Grant program lends itself to an "all hands on deck" approach - the consultants drew upon their expertise in marketing, branding, design, management, and other key areas to build professional-quality messaging about foster care. On the flip side, YLC and the other participating agencies brought their perspectives from decades of experience working in the field to help identify a target audience and the attributes of that audience to ensure that the new branding was focused and pointed them in the right direction.

4. Create Actionable Knowledge

The pro bono consulting team created vignettes to personify the new brand attributes they discovered. "I am up for the challenge," was personified through a brief story about a child who refused to eat anything his foster mother brought him. Through the foster mom's detective work - checking in with his teacher to see if and what he ate at lunchtime- she was able to find a solution get the child to eat dinner with his foster family. The vignette demonstrated the key principle identified by the consulting team: " Being a foster parent is definitely a challenge, but it's so rewarding to see your child thrive." The ideas were reinforced by this new tagline, "I am someone's hero. I am a foster parent."

The professional-quality deliverables created by this Service Grant are already being adopted eagerly by the groups involved. This compelling message will enable foster care agencies to better demonstrate the value that volunteering as a foster family presents - and by putting these new ideas into the form of an anecdote, the consultants have made these attributes accessible, communicable and memorable for a variety of audiences.

Because this Key Messages & Brand Strategy project is geared towards reworking the perception of foster care as a whole rather than focusing on one particular agency, the resulting impact of the Service Grant will be catalytic in rebranding the issue area and enhancing public perception of the importance of foster parenting. By improving their ability to match foster youth with compassionate, flexible families that are up to the challenge of being someone's hero, these agencies are positioned to provide foster children with the love and support they need to thrive.   

Structured for Creativity

By Laura Weiss on March 1, 2010 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I was working with my colleagues on some organizational design issues. We were grappling with the classic question of how to scale an organization so that it's optimized for impact. As we explored ways in which other types of enterprises have dealt with this kind of growth challenge, I realized how easy it would be for the discussion to remain fixed on an analysis of traditional organizational models - functional, divisional matrix - in the quest to find one that suited us best.

Such organizational models emerged in the early part of the twentieth century to prevent chaos and to promote efficiency in growing businesses. Unfortunately, management theory today confirms that these very structures can become so rigid that they often prevent creativity even as they preserve order.

This all got me thinking - how much structure does a small organization really need? In mulling over this question, I found myself thinking about the work of the famous Swiss architect LeCorbusier (1887-1965) and his equally famous plan libre. Allow me to explain.

During the early days of LeCorbusier's career, buildings were designed to reflect traditional bearing wall construction, which often limited the placement of interior walls. But LeCorbusier changed all that with his most iconic design and lasting legacy to the architecture profession - the "Domino" house. Conceived in the 1920's, it promoted a simple grid of structural columns supporting horizontal concrete slabs. This organizing armature, if you will, allowed for a more important innovation to be realized - a "free plan" of undulating walls that could be placed in a variety of configurations to achieve spatial ingenuity. This was achievable because the walls were not limited by the structural grid but rather were enabled by it - the grid was "the function that gives the form to the interior space"¹. 

To bring the conversation back to that other kind of organizational structure - can we design nonprofits for efficiency as well as creativity? Can there be just enough structure in the right places to not only support but also enable the kinds of human interactions that will help them operate as creative entities? In an ever-changing world, organizations of all kinds must be both strategically adaptable as well as operationally efficient. To paraphrase management guru Gary Hamel, we must "build organizations where discipline and freedom aren't mutually exclusive"².

Organizations that enable some freedom of activity are naturally structured for creativity. They are often characterized less by prescribed roles, functions or departments and more by the types of human interactions their culture desires. Typically these are reflected in such things as a strong sense of community, interdisciplinary collaborations, a "one-team" mentality, and an open environment (both literally and figuratively).

So when thinking about what kind of structure is the right kind of structure, we need to ask ourselves what kins of behaviors are we trying to encourage so that our relationships - both internally and externally - deliver unique value and have real impact. Too much structure can mean too little freedom to explore and adapt. We need to prevent that from happening.

¹ Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, 1960
² Gary Hamel, The Future of Management, 2007


Laura Weiss is the Vice President of Service Innovation at the Taproot Foundation. Laura comes to the Taproot Foundation after nine years as Associate Partner and Practice Director with the world-renowned design consultancy, IDEO, where she was an advocate for bringing a business perspective to the design process. A former licensed architect and educator, Laura holds and MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MArch from Yale University and a BArch with honors from Cornell University.
              

Pro Bono Junkies in Training

By Jaime Hiraishi on February 26, 2010 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A vast majority of students want to make a positive impact on society and are seeking new ways to leverage their expertise to help their communities throughout their academic careers. Across the country, professional students are joining and starting pro bono consulting programs and clubs as a means of immersing themselves within their local communities to create a lasting impact on worthy organizations.

Many schools are starting to take notice of this trend and are dedicating precious resources and staff to support these efforts-- a crucial step in creating sustainable programs. We've created an online showcase of some of the top pro bono programs in professional schools across the country to share best practices, foster learning, and promote collaboration across fields and schools.

One of these programs is the IDEAcorps™ Challenge which partners MBA students from schools like Northwestern Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas School of Business, DePaul University, and Stanford GBS, with business professionals from companies like Google and Salesforce.com to solve business challenges for participating organizations. For the final two weeks of this program, students traveled to New Orleans to complete their projects and present the findings in a case competition setting. To take a deeper look at this program, or to create a Program Profile of your own program, check out our Professional School Program Profiles. 

These student consultants are not only taking part in the pro bono movement, they are also paving the way for future generations. I have no doubt many participants in university pro bono will lead the way for corporate pro bono and philanthropy, and challenge the culture of the professional world. They are truly pro bono junkies in training!

Jaime Hiraishi is a Recruitment Coordinator at the Taproot Foundation. She also leads the Taproot Foundation's efforts to promote the pro bono ethic in professional schools.

Taproot Celebrates 1000 Projects

By Anne Diaz on February 22, 2010 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (76) | TrackBacks (0)

This month Taproot announced an exciting milestone- the completion of our 1000th Service Grant!  Consider this post an interactive thank you card from all of us at Taproot Foundation!

Please take a moment to reflect on all that we have accomplished together. Join us in celebrating by posting your most memorable Taproot moment, sharing what pro bono service means to you, or thanking your fellow members of the Taproot Foundation family! You have proven that we can accomplish more by working together and sharing our talents and passions across sectors. Thank you!

Taproot Program Manager Anne Diaz shares what this milestone means to her:

As a Program Manager at Taproot Foundation, I have the great honor and privilege of overseeing our Service Grant projects from start to finish. A fellow Program Manager put it well when she recently remarked to me, "the emotional rewards at this job are amazing.  We spend a lot of time at our desks, but we somehow get to witness and facilitate great change at the same time."  

Over the course of the100 projects I've managed, I have witnessed amazing results. I have seen nonprofits whose work is completely transformed for the better by stellar deliverables; pro bono consultants who, inspired by their clients, change their careers by switching sectors (some even joining their client's staff, full time!); and nonprofit board members who decide to become pro bono consultants after they witness the professionalism of the Taproot teams working for their organization. 
 
The road to 1000 projects hasn't always been smooth.  Each one of our projects demands the utmost dedication and expertise from our pro bono consultants as well as professionalism and candor from our clients. There have been moments of frustration, disappointment, confusion, and hilarity. Yet these moments make the final deliverables and the overall experience that much sweeter for everyone involved.
 
When chosen to write this post in celebration of our 1000th project milestone, I tried to think of one moment that would encapsulate the deep gratitude I feel around each and every project we support - projects that expose the absolute best of the corporate and nonprofit worlds. 

I thought about what to write as I ate lunch with a three-time Account Director who told me, "Anne, I will always be an Account Director for Taproot. This is work just too meaningful to stop."  I kept thinking as I brainstormed with a pro bono consultant who had offered to help Taproot create different pro bono service options. I continued thinking as I spoke to representatives from a nonprofit and heard their deep appreciation for their team and the lessons they had learned about their infrastructure through creating a new logo. 

What I realized is that this milestone can't be summed up in one moment. This milestone is the culmination of thousands of little "aha!" moments collectively proving that pro bono can be high quality, reliable, and accessible. Perhaps one of our clients summed it up best, in an email to me this morning: "This work has been an exciting and stimulating adventure!!!" 
 
An adventure it is. Here's to the next 1000!

Nonprofits Slow to "Green"

By Aaron Zueck on February 19, 2010 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For over a year now, Taproot Foundation has been asking its Service Grant applicants whether or not they have a written Environmental Policy, with only 26 percent answering yes. As an AmeriCorps VISTA Program Fellow here for the past 10 months, I have read many of the responses, and I am not impressed.  

If nonprofits aren't making the changes within their organizations necessary to truly be society's ethical innovators, who is going to do it?

Relying on governments to make the necessary changes is painfully slow and wrought with risks and dangers, as we saw in the Copenhagen Quagmire earlier this year. And while corporations have made some small steps in the recent green revolution, they won't start acting sustainably at the necessary scale until consumers decide to make radical lifestyle changes.

While it is true that the direct economic impact of nonprofits is small, their societal impact can not be understated, especially in the United States. As has been the case here for generations, nonprofits have a key role in showing, not just telling, what is necessary for society to move forward. It is paramount that they do more to work towards the goal of sustainability as we as a society attempt to avoid catastrophic climate change.

So how do nonprofits do more?

Drafting environmental policies, subjecting them to board and executive review, and implementing them at every level of their organization's operations is a good start. This is a systemic way for nonprofits to lead by example. Nonprofit Organizations are chronically strapped for resources, but if we can show that we are able to operate effectively and sustainably, it will be that much more difficult for our corporations and households to claim that they can't do the same.


There are some resources available to help nonprofits towards greening their operations. Check out one of TechSoup's helpful articles. Fast Company writer Alice Korngold also mentions a few others in this recent blog entry (in which she gives Taproot a shout out). Taproot president, Aaron Hurst, also gives some of his ideas in this blog post and identifies some best practices in this post.

Grant-makers also have a very important role to play. Grant-making and capacity-building institutions have the task of providing the tools and funds for nonprofits to operate sustainably. We need to transition from merely raising the issue of sustainability in nonprofits, to encouraging, supporting, and expecting the creation and implementation of effective environmental policies at nonprofits of all stripes. Without our support, this effort will flounder.

Taproot can even do more to make its current commitment a more visible part of our culture. Let's unearth our environmental policy from the investor relations page of our website, and display it prominently (print it, frame it!) in our offices. We have various quarterly awards - a new one could be created for the "Root" (staff member) most dedicated to environmental stewardship. To this end, there are many things that every nonprofit could include in their processes with relative ease.

Every member of the nonprofit community needs to be taking deliberate, daily steps toward social progress and our future environmental well-being.
 
Aaron Zueck is a New York City Program Fellow at the Taproot Foundation. This summer, Aaron plans to embark on his own venture "Bikeloc"- a cross-country bike trip to learn and share stories of the Local Food Movement through potlucks.

 
 

Kara Hartnett Hurst- Policy for a Sustainable World

By Kate Gazzaniga on February 12, 2010 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Corporate social responsibility plays an important role in the pro bono movement. To discuss CSR and pro bono, here's an interview with Kara Hartnett Hurst.


Kara Hartnett Hurst is the East Coast Managing Director BSR, a leading corporate responsibility organization with a global network of over 250 member companies. Kara specializes in facilitation of collaborative industry efforts, stakeholder engagement, corporate transparency, responsible supply chain management, and strategic CSR policy setting. She is also a founding member of the groundbreaking Electronic Industry Citizen Coalition.

Let's start you off with a softball to ease you in to this interview- who is the best looking guy in the field of pro bono service?

Oh- let me think about that one (laughs). Yeah- it'd have to be my husband [Taproot President, Founder, and Esteemed Interview-Question-Writer Aaron Hurst]. Shocking (laughs).  

You co-authored the children's book "Mommy and Daddy Do It Pro Bono" with your husband this year- how did that come about?

As parents there really wasn't a way to talk to our kids about what we do. We're not in professions that are really straight forward like doctors or lawyers or something that you can kind of point to- firemen or ballerinas. With both of our jobs and the fields that we're in, things can tend to get a little bit dry and serious.  I spend a lot of my time talking about the doomsday scenario around the environment, human rights, labor violations, and corporate misdoings- and I think with volunteering and pro bono it can be the same. Combining all of our interests as parents as well as career-wise, it really pointed towards a kids' book.  We also don't have any time in our lives (laughs)- so the shorter the better!

When you were a kid, did you want CSR guru when you grew up? You mentioned not being a ballerina, but what did you want to be?

(Laughs.) You know, I always thought I would be a senator. The first job I had in college, I worked for Senator Moynihan in the Chrysler Building here in New York, and I loved it, but I also saw how much of that job was about fundraising and how much of that job didn't actually entail the substantive policy work that I was interested in. That started my- disillusionment (laughs) with politics. I tried a couple of different positions and decided to work more directly in policy.

A lot of people talk about CSR, volunteering, corporate philanthropy, and pro bono interchangeably- what do you see as the difference?

The most simplistic way that I can put it is that with CSR, it's not about what you do with the money that you make- it's about how you make the money in the first place.  I'm less interested in how a corporation is spending money in a community- I expect them to do that; that's great; it's definitely something we need. I'm interested in how they made that money. If they made all of the money they're giving away by mistreating their workers, sourcing irresponsibly, and creating products we don't need, that is the core issue. It's not just about giving to organizations that work in the community.

What are some examples of breakthroughs that you've seen in the field of CSR?

One of the big breakthroughs for companies- and I see this in a number of different corporations across the industries that we work in- is conceptualizing corporate social responsibility not just as something that they must do but as something that really can bring a tremendous amount of value to the business. You can create a better bottom line by operating responsibly. Operating responsibly can bring new thinking; it can bring new perspectives. It's not just about saying, 'ok we're doing what we want to do, and nobody's going to campaign against us'- it's also about bringing in innovation.

You have started on a number of innovative industry collaborations. Why were these competitors willing to collaborate in this setting and around these issues?

The do it because they're much better going at it together than they are alone. One example of collaboration is the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition. That group now is a group of 43 electronics companies and electronics supply chains that have addressed environmental and labor issues together. No one company is going to solve human rights issues in the electronics supply chain alone no matter how good their code of conduct is, how good their auditing is, how good their supplier relationship is- the issues are just too big.

Companies understand that even though they may compete against each other in the marketplace, these issues are about leveling the playing field for workers, for communities- they're about bettering practice overall within a supply chain where there are multiple companies working with the same suppliers.

How has the field of CSR change in the last ten years since you got in the game?

There's been a big change in terms of the level of integration we see. In the last economic downturn we've been experiencing, people always ask me- have companies been cutting their CSR programs? What we've seen is that in companies that really understand CSR and do it well, there's not a whole function you can just lop off. It would be like me saying they have to cut their sales function or their HR.  Operating responsibly is good for business and we've definitely seen greater levels of integration.

So, where is the field of CSR going in the next 10 years?

I think one key is companies understanding more about aligning their public policy positions with their citizenship agendas- those two things can't remain as disconnected as they have been. Another issue is around board governance- aligning sustainability with board governance, getting boards to ask better questions about company operations. Another is integration of CSR with enterprise risk management- companies looking across the whole organization in terms of how they manage risk, looking to be more global and anticipatory and incorporating sustainability issues into risk management.

Where do you see pro bono service fitting in with CSR?

Well I think the idea that companies are getting smarter about how they run, smarter about how they incorporate CSR into their operations, really translates to how companies are approaching pro bono and volunteering. People have their own agendas; they have lives outside of their work places, however there's a tremendous need to recognize our professional skills and understand the value those skills might have in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits also need professional level skills, and they're incredibly hard to access. I think that realization is becoming a lot more main-stream.

A lot of business professionals are seeking to get into CSR- what are a few things all professionals can do to be CSR change agents?

Start small- start within the company you're at and connect to the larger conversation. Start looking what changes you can make; be a maverick internally; advocate for change. Look to what other businesses are doing and think about how you company can do things differently- where can you innovate to lessen your environmental footprint? Where can the policies you advocate for align with corporate citizenship? There's a lot of information out there and a lot of people who have great ideas, so I would just say get involved.

Contrarian Thinking

By Laura Weiss on February 1, 2010 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Innovation is a very large ten-letter word.  It usually conjures images of vast sums of money invested over lengthy periods of time resulting in significant change in products, services, processes or entire organizations.  Anything small or incremental runs contrary to achieving success.  

Or does it?


I've recently encountered two works that promote seemingly contrarian approaches to solving the types of problems that can lead to lasting change.  These same techniques can help offset the "analysis paralysis" that often blocks the innovation process.

In their new book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath suggest that the key to solving big problems can be found by looking at similar situations where things are actually working well - in other words, by focusing on the bright spots. Instead of tackling an entire system at once, the idea is to investigate easy-to-observe elements of the system; instead of trying to fix what's broken, try to emulate what's working instead. The authors illustrate this point with an exploration of malnutrition in rural Vietnam.  Instead of relying on heaps of socioeconomic data about poverty and education, for example, a research team went out into the field to understand what was actually going on in the villages, and even made villagers part of the investigative team.  Taking this approach had remarkable results in the discovery of dietary habits with surprising nutritional value.
 
Robert Maurer's 2004 book One Small Step Can Change Your Life discusses the concept of kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement. Similar to the Heath brothers, Maurer promotes a focus on breaking a systemic issue down into smaller pieces (specifically, "small problems") as a more manageable way to deal with an overwhelming crisis.  He suggests that asking small questions and taking small steps can dispel fear of failure, inspire greater creativity, and generally stave off inertia.  Maurer, a clinical psychologist at UCLA, illustrates this concept through the successful efforts of individuals seeking to improve their health, financial stability, or personal productivity.  As with the stories told in Switch, these too have positive outcomes.

The guidance offered by these two books is characteristic of design thinking - itself a contrarian concept that showcases inspiration, intuition, and experience as key elements of the innovation process. The Heaths' "seeking the bright spot" is a human-centered approach to insight gathering that is based on observing how people actually behave in a specific context in order to design solutions with broad impact.  Maurer's "taking small steps" is suggestive of rapid prototyping where pursuing a series of low investment experiments can increase the pace of learning towards reaching more significant outcomes. Both of these techniques have application to innovating in the nonprofit sector, a sector that passionately tackles society's biggest challenges utilizing minimal resources. Contrary to the complexity of these efforts, a focus on small steps and bright spots can actually help lay the groundwork for transforming our world.



Laura Weiss is the Vice President of Service Innovation at the Taproot Foundation.  The newest member of the Taproot team, Laura comes to the Taproot Foundation after nine years as Associate Partner and Practice Director with the world-renowned design consultancy IDEO, where she was an advocate for bringing a business perspective to the design process. A former licensed architect and educator, Laura holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MArch from Yale University and a BArch with honors from Cornell University.  

Automated Jury Duty

By Aaron Hurst on January 29, 2010 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Josh Rai, our fearless web developer, is already the third casualty of jury duty on our team this year. (We're not even a month into 2010!) In the hope that it would get him out of jury duty, Josh developed a program that could reliably return verdicts that would replicate actual human jury verdicts.

Here it is-

if (trial.getDistrict().getUntrustedRaces().includes(defendant.getRace()) and
    defendant.getAnnualIncome() < LocationService.lookup("90210").getAverageIncome() and
    MagazineService.lookup("Us").countOccurrencesInPastYear(defendant.getName()) < 10) {
  return "Guilty";
}
else {
  return "Not Guilty";
}

We think he did a great job. Imagine how many hours of wasted time and government costs Josh just saved the country. Nobel Prize? He has my vote.

Boards that Encourage Innovation

By Aaron Hurst on January 20, 2010 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

With an upcoming Taproot board meeting, the recent release of our Board Recruitment Service Grant, and our participation in the San Francisco board matching event referenced in my last post, this week we have been thinking a lot about board service. 

As a result, an article that referenced a board made up mainly of lawyers caught my attention. My experience is largely in working with social entrepreneurs. To most social entrepreneurs, a board of lawyers feels like an innovation death warrant.

Instead, social entrepreneurs tend to design boards they believe will support their own entrepreneurial drive. These boards tend to come in one of five flavors-

1) The Passive Board- The goal is to have a board that doesn't get in your way. It is small and populated by friends.

2) The Succession Board-  The goal is to ensure the organization will continue after you leave. This board tries to help the organization 'grow up' as fast as possible and put systems in place.

3) The Capital Board-  The goal here is to raise $500k+ per year in unrestricted funds to pay for innovation and growth.

4) The Mentor Board-  The goal is to support you as an inexperienced entrepreneur by partnering with veterans who can play a very active role in the leadership of the organization.
 
5) The Credibility Board- The goal is to show foundations and others that you are legit by populating the board with experts in the field.

Are these the best five models? How can social entrepreneurs create better boards?

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As mentioned last week- for my thoughts on the future of nonprofit board service, check out my keynote address from the recent BoardSource Leadership Forum. You can also check out BoardSource for additional tools and events.

A (Board) Match Made in Heaven

By Katelyn Wilson on January 15, 2010 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On January 12, the Volunteer Center Serving San Francisco and San Mateo Counties presented their annual Board Match Event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The event is essentially a job fair for potential board members. More than 120 nonprofits set up booths and wooed potential board members from all walks of life - there were young professionals that would likely be carded at rated R movies mingling with folks who could have ordered off the back of the Denny's menu while Clinton was President.

One woman attended because after a 20-year "stint" on the board at a local hospital, she had reached her term limit and was looking for a new organization to serve. Some younger professionals were attracted no doubt by the sassy, "come one, come all" attitude conveyed by the tattooed, orange legwarmer-wearing board member portrayed on the event's collateral.

In the first hour - when most of us were still at work - more than 700 potential board candidates arrived. That's how many attended in total last year. As co-host, Taproot Foundation would love to take credit for this amazing turnout (we did tweet about it ...), but it would seem that the booming interest in board service might surpass even our reach.

The volunteering and service movement seems to have found another growth opportunity, and people are clamoring for a way to engage on a deeper level with the nonprofits serving our communities. Events like the Board Match provide nonprofits with an opportunity to meet a diverse pool of talent, and therefore be positioned to be strategic in their selection processes. By capitalizing on the vast and growing interest, nonprofits are able to build their leadership and management capacity. And isn't that what it's all about?

On a side note, Taproot Foundation's network showed up in droves - several nonprofit clients busily recruited, dozens of pro bono consultants attended, and a few of our friends from Service Grant Tokyo stopped by our host's table to say hello.

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For even more about the future of nonprofit board governance, about check out Aaron Hurst's recent keynote address from the BoardSource Leadership Forum.