Board service is one of the most meaningful ways you can give your time to support your community and is considered to be at the highest level of volunteer leadership.
Participants of this program will also benefit from:
- Being able to impact communities where you work and live
- Connecting directly to nonprofits seeking board candidates
- Strengthening your professional network
- Seeing how different nonprofits/boards are structured and operate
- Engaging with like-minded community leaders
- Deepening your ability to support causes close to your heart
- Putting your leadership and teambuilding skills into practice
- A greater understanding of the nonprofit sector and how agencies are run
- Insight to help you become a more efficient board member that you can take back to your board room
"Board Speed Dating" is the third and final event in our Nonprofit Board Boot Camp series.
Since we first introduced it in 2015 this event has helped local nonprofits connect with hundreds of passionate, talented, and prepared board candidates from throughout our community. In 2019 The Wall Street Journal used this event as an example of how nonprofits are innovating to fill board seats.
It is an important accelerator event that can reduce into a few short hours what sometimes takes nonprofits weeks to months to years of asking and looking for the right person to fill an important board seat. Or that can help a newly launched nonprofit go from two board members to a full quorum in a day. The magic is in the matchmaking, in the lengths we go to plan ahead, in our commitment that all participants will have a positive experience from this event, and in our ability to bring good-minded people together.
The prep work for Nonprofit Board Speed Dating begins during the Boot Camp Sessions when participants are given the opportunity to review the active board needs and candidate requirements of a diverse range of local nonprofits. After Boot Camp, participants are then invited to select which nonprofits they would like to be introduced to during the Board Speed Dating event where they will meet one-on-one with leadership from each of the organizations they picked. And during these one-on-one meetings, both sides of the table typically will discuss their goals, needs, plans, and backgrounds as they explore if there's a potential fit here to achieve more by working together than apart.
Following the event, it is up to both the board candidate and the nonprofit agency to continue the conversation if they feel there was a spark.
2019 Board Speed Dating Participants Discuss Boot Camp:
Certifed 501(c)(3) nonprofit agencies from throughout our community are invited to update their previous listings or submit a new request for board candidates by completing this form. If selected by at least three of this year's Boot Camp participants there will be a $150 organization fee to take part in the Nonprofit Board Speed Dating event as an agency.
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