These past ten years of WorkTogether have included more unexpected opportunities than we could have ever anticipated. We didn’t know that career coaching would take off in 2021, and we’d need to add another career coach to our team. We didn’t know that we’d partner with a national education organization going through a massive layoff and build out an entire outplacement service. We didn’t know that Partner, our most comprehensive and inclusive tier, would be our most popular.
Finally, we didn’t know that in 2024, our fastest-growing service would be board recruitment! It turns out there is a demonstrated need in the space to help schools and organizations recruit and select mission-driven board members that can bring their expertise. These are schools and organizations at all stages of development: some don’t even exist yet as they go through the charter approval process. Some are in the middle of executive leadership transitions and ready to build a new board around a new leader. Others are in a really exciting time of growth and looking for new board members to share the upcoming workload. Regardless of stage or why this need exists, we are thrilled to support partners in this way.
This need seems to be true across the country: we’ve done this work in Texas, Washington, D.C., Washington state and Tennessee. Those are disparate markets with different education landscapes, and yet, their needs are the same! Therefore, we’re anticipating this only growing as we move into 2025. Overall, we know how essential boards are to a healthy organization. A strong, mission-driven culture starts with a highly engaged board.
Here are the trends we’ve noticed:
1. Our two most common areas of expertise our partners need? Fundraising and finance. Ensuring stellar financial management in an increasingly complex funding landscape is a place where our school leaders and instructional leaders are hungry for support. And, resource acquisition and fundraising feel very top of mind, as they think about how to best meet the needs of students through products and programs, and the best to engage the broader community in their work.
2. We’re raising the bar! The majority of our partners have built out a robust list of indicators to ensure more alignment between board members and school/org mission and vision. This ensures that each board member brought on board (pun intended!) is mission aligned, has a baseline understanding of the work of the org and their responsibilities as a board member. It also means prospective board members can viably and consistently contribute during their board term. This is incredibly important as organizational leaders think about sustainability for their org.
3. Diversification and representative leadership are a driving factor. In every conversation, with every org at every stage, we and our partners have shared our commitment to representative leadership. For many of our boards, this is a continuation of conversations they are already having and a commitment they share.
Here are learnings about what makes a great board member:
1. Professional expertise in a relevant or applicable field. We are so appreciative of the professionals that choose to bring their skillset to our partners, donating their time and effort to supporting our students.
2. A learning orientation. We don’t anticipate that our board member candidates will know how to lead charter school finance…yet! But our strongest board members learn quickly, build upon their existing expertise, and ask lots of questions.
3. A commitment to diversity and inclusion. An understanding of self (identity markers, strengths, areas of growth) and an understanding of systems (historical inequalities) is incredibly important as boards are tasked with making major decisions and advice on behalf of organizational stakeholders, namely children.
If you’re building or strengthening your board and want a partner who understands both mission and strategy, we’d love to support you. Reach out to WorkTogether to learn how we can help you find the right board members for this moment and the future.
