‘Board recruitment is broken’

A social post by nonprofit marketer Jeremy Reis argues that board recruitment is “broken” because organizations screen résumés before they let prospects experience the work. (x.com) Reis said boards should recruit for curiosity, create “connector” and “strategist” roles, and let prospects serve in lower-stakes ways before asking them to take on formal governance. His post was published on X and framed those ideas for nonprofits, while saying the approach also fits private and public boards. (x.com) The argument lands in a sector that has spent years warning against reactive board searches. Leadership Metro Richmond, for example, is advertising an April 27, 2026 workshop on “Purposeful Board Recruitment” that promises a “strategic, year-round approach” instead of last-minute seat filling. (lmronline.org) BoardSource, one of the largest nonprofit governance groups in the United States, says strong recruitment starts with ideal board composition, including expertise, background, experience, and leadership styles. Its guidance says boards should recruit for community knowledge and mission fit, not only for professional credentials. (boardsource.org) That context also includes a long-running diversity problem. BoardSource said in a 2024 brief based on its Leading with Intent research that board diversity levels have “only marginally changed since 1994,” and that more than 40% of executives said they lack the right board members to build trust with the communities they serve. (boardsource.org) The Foraker Group made a similar critique in September 2023, saying the board matrix is not necessarily the problem but that boards often use it in ways that preserve the status quo. Its advice was to recruit around lived experience, access to constituencies, interpersonal traits, and work styles, not just conventional qualifications. (forakergroup.org) Other nonprofit advisers have moved in the same direction. Boardable’s January 23, 2026 guide says boards should define gaps in fundraising, legal, finance, marketing, and community representation before recruiting, then write clear role descriptions instead of relying on informal networks. (boardable.com) National Council of Nonprofits makes the case even more directly on diversity: boards that draw from the same social circles can become stagnant, while more varied boards bring better networks and more direct knowledge of community needs. That is close to the problem Reis is describing when he pushes boards to engage people before they judge them on paper. (councilofnonprofits.org) Reis’s post does not change any formal governance rule. It adds one more public argument that boards should treat recruitment less like vetting a résumé stack and more like building a pipeline of people who have already done the work up close. (x.com)