A (Board) Match Made in Heaven
This evening, 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.
Hello. And Bye.
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