Know a star for our board?

Building a movement

For the past 10 years, Taproot has developed the pro bono ethic into a powerful movement by strategically connecting business talent with nonprofit organizations and providing key resources to advance social impact. To date, we’ve delivered nearly $86 million in pro bono professional services to more than 1,300 nonprofits, moving the needle on some of today’s most pressing issues. All this was done thanks to the spectacular leadership, commitment, and generosity of our board of directors.

While biased, I believe Taproot has one of the best nonprofit boards in the country (and as a member of the BoardSource board myself, I should know)–and now we’re asking your help to find new, exceptional individuals to join us.

Our current, outstanding board understands the gravity of their responsibility and shows up in a big way. They take their governing role seriously, they push me to think bigger, and they raise the resources we need (our average member generates $80,000 in cash, in-kind, and in pro bono contributions).

Recruiting our next class of board leaders

After extensive research on best practices, we developed a Board Recruitment Service Grant in 2009 to help build nonprofit boards around the country–and have applied those principles to our own work: we recruit talent we need, put our skilled board at the front and center of our operations and enlist them as a driving force for the entire organization. Last year we reached out to our pro bono consultants and nonprofit clients for nominations for our national Board of Directors. We received over 100 nominations and in March elected five stellar new board members. We just posted Q+A interviews with all of them on our blog:

• Chan Suh – CEO, Broome Crosby Ltd
• Kiko Washington – EVP, Worldwide Human Resources for Warner Bros.
• Gari Ann Douglass – COO & CFO, 3ality Digital
• Roberto Orci – President & CEO, Acento
• Tracy Barba – Advisor, Blackbox VC

We are now seeking nominations for Taproot’s 2012 board class, who would be eligible for election next March. This year we are looking for executives who have a passion for our mission and reside in New York, Chicago, San Francisco or D.C. Our focus is on new members who can bring the following critical leadership skills and experience:

Executive Leadership

We are seeking members who have the capacity and experience to grow into leadership roles on our board. This requires previous nonprofit executive committee experience and the ability to provide an average of at least five hours per week of board service. These nominees are likely currently:

• Retired/semi-retired managing director of a management consulting firm in one of our cities
• Retired/semi-retired ED of a national nonprofit organization or foundation
• Semi-retired venture capitalist or investment banker
• Early “retired” entrepreneur

Financial Leadership

We believe in having a deep bench of members with strong financial backgrounds. They are able to not only play a key role on our finance and audit committees but support our fundraising and planning efforts. These nominees are likely currently:

• Accounting firm partner
• CFO (corporate or large nonprofit)
• National nonprofit board treasurer

Thought Leadership

Taproot is the leader of the pro bono movement but also in the fields of capacity building and social innovation. We seek to populate our board with members who are fellow leaders in these fields to push our thinking and help to connect our work to their network. These nominees are likely currently:

• Publisher of a leading social innovation publication
• CEO of a leading organization associated with social innovation (e.g., scaled social entrepreneur)
• Leader at a professional services firm well known for pro bono (e.g., Bain, BCG, etc.)
• Leader at a national capacity building organizations (e.g., NFF, Ad Council, Bridgespan, etc)

Philanthropic Leadership

We work with hundreds of foundations and companies and value their perspective and networks on our board. These nominees are likely currently:

• President of F500 corporate foundation
• C-suite corporate executive
• President of a national foundation
• President of an association of foundations (e.g., GEO, COF, etc.)

If you know someone who fits any of these profiles, please let me know, and I will forward their name to our Governance Committee by Sept. 1st. Please include their name, your affiliation with them (ie how do you know them) and a few bullets on why you believe they would be a great fit. The Governance Committee will then review the nominations in the early fall and get back to you with next steps.

Thank you for everything you do and for your help in finding exceptional leadership for our 2012 board class.

Interested in helping build nonprofit boards across the country? Volunteer your recruitment skills at Taproot+.

Aaron Hurst is the President & CEO at the Taproot Foundation.