LinkedIn and Taproot Team Up to Support Nonprofit Boards

At the Board Source Leadership Forum in Chicago last weekend, LinkedIn announced the launch of a new initiative to help solve one of the biggest challenges in the nonprofit sector: finding and recruiting the best board members.

Taproot has been a core partner in helping LinkedIn design and launch the new Board Connect program. LinkedIn’s path to create Board Connect is a unique example of a company in the tech field that not only had a strong interest in donating their product but also wanted to create a solution in partnership with the nonprofits it was looking to help. LinkedIn and Taproot gathered input in many ways: a 7-person design panel of board service experts, qualitative interviews with dozens of nonprofit leaders, survey responses from over 1,000 LinkedIn nonprofit users, and work with industry-leading board expert BoardSource. Throughout the product design process, the focus was on a single goal: listen to the challenges faced in board matching and leverage the LinkedIn product to provide an innovative solution.

All registered 501 (c)(3) are eligible to sign up for a membership to LinkedIn Board connect. Visit nonprofits.linkedin.com to learn more.

What is LinkedIn Board Connect?

LinkedIn Board Connect is a program that makes it easy for nonprofit leaders to quickly identify high quality professionals to join their board. Leveraging their own networks as well as their board members’ networks, nonprofit leaders are able to search for and connect with professionals who meet the needs of their organization. Through the LinkedIn Board Connect program, nonprofits receive:

Free access to a Talent Finder account (valued at $1000/annually)

• Amplify your ability to search and to reach out to your boards extended network.
• Exclusive LinkedIn educational webcasts
• Let LinkedIn experts guide you through an interactive product tutorial.
• Membership to the Board Connect group
• Get access to exclusive content and a powerfully connected nonprofit peer network.

How to sign up for LinkedIn Board Connect

Visit nonprofits.linkedin.com to join the program. You’ll need to attend a short webinar to get all of the details and then will have access to all of the features listed above. LinkedIn Board Connect is providing one membership per organization, so it’s a good idea to work with your leadership and identify who is best suited to receive the training and activate the membership.

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