A self-perpetuating board recruits its own members.
What kinds of people should it seek?
Carver and Charney ask the board to build a team, not fill chairs, in rehearsal 6.9.[1]
I would begin with the work ahead.
Which ownership relationships are missing?
Which future Ends questions will require judgment?
Which perspectives are absent from present deliberation?
Which conduct and time expectations must every member meet?
Which collective skills support oversight without creating private departments?
BoardSource recommends a continuous recruitment process that identifies needs, cultivates candidates, clarifies expectations, and conducts due diligence.[2]
The board should not begin with names.
Names pull the discussion toward familiarity, prestige, gratitude, and availability. A written profile lets the board decide what it needs before deciding whom it likes.
I would map the present board across several dimensions.
Connection to the people on whose behalf it governs.
Lived experience of the results the organization seeks.
Race, ethnicity, gender, age, geography, disability, faith, economic experience, and other relevant perspectives.
Strategic judgment.
Financial and legal literacy.
Ability to deliberate, learn, and disagree with respect.
Time, preparation, and reliability.
No single member must contain the whole map.
The team must.
Technical expertise helps, but recruit experts who can govern the entire organization. A lawyer is not the board’s private counsel. An accountant does not own finance. A clinician does not supervise programs. Each brings a lens and shares responsibility for every board decision.
I would interview for behavior.
Tell us about a time you changed your mind after hearing others.
How would you respond if the board rejected your proposal?
Whose interests would you represent here?
What would make you raise a difficult concern?
Can you support a collective decision without pretending you agreed?
Those questions reveal more than a résumé.
Candidates should receive the role description, bylaws, policies, conflict expectations, contribution policy, annual calendar, and current challenges. The board should check references and conflicts appropriate to the role.
A self-perpetuating board carries a special legitimacy risk. It can reproduce itself and call the result fit. Ownership linkage should inform composition. Some organizations may need election, appointment, reserved seats, or other mechanisms in law or bylaws. The board should understand the design it has.
I would avoid giving every constituency a delegate bound to vote its instructions. Trustees bring knowledge from communities but owe judgment to the whole.
Term limits and succession planning can create room. They do not guarantee better composition. A poor recruitment process repeated on schedule remains poor.
The board should maintain a prospect pipeline before a vacancy. Invite potential candidates to appropriate public events or learning sessions. Let them observe the work without promising a seat.
Then orient the people it elects.
Recruitment is not complete when someone says yes. The result is a member who can contribute to collective governance with clarity and independence.
You can test a slate with one question:
“What will this group notice that our current board misses?”
If the answer is only donors, titles, or technical credentials, keep looking.
A strong team is not a row of impressive individuals.
It is a board whose differences improve one governing voice.
I would publish the process even when deliberations remain confidential. Explain how candidates are identified, which criteria guide selection, who decides, and how interested people may be considered. Opacity makes a self-perpetuating board look like a private club.
Transparency will not make every applicant a trustee. It can show that service is connected to governance needs rather than friendship alone.
Footnotes
[1] Miriam Carver and Bill Charney, The Board Member’s Playbook (Jossey-Bass, 2004), rehearsal 6.9, pages 222–225.
[2] BoardSource, “The Board Recruitment Process”.
Additional reading
BoardSource’s The Nonprofit Board Answer Book provides tools for recruitment, composition, orientation, and succession.
Richard P. Chait, William P. Ryan, and Barbara E. Taylor’s Governance as Leadership helps boards recruit for judgment and generative capacity.