Lessons For Recruiting Top Talent (Hint: Don't Pay Them)

May 11, 2010 1:15 PM ET

Alice Korngold's Blog

If you think it’s difficult getting the very most desirable candidates to join your team when you’re going to pay them, imagine convincing top talent to join your nonprofit board of directors when you’re going to ask them to give you money, fundraise from their company and friends, and give you expert guidance.

There are lessons to be learned from the experiences of nonprofit leaders who recruit highly talented people from business to serve on boards. In my role bringing together board candidates with the heads of nonprofits based on their mutual interests, I observe them assessing each other to see if it’s a good match. Later, I debrief with each side.

There are factors that are important to candidates in choosing boards, and there are deal-breakers. These lessons can be useful for those of you in business who are

  • on boards and recruiting new board candidates

  • on the other side of the table and being recruited for boards, or

  • hiring for your company

The key factors that people consider in choosing which board they want to go to might also translate to how people choose jobs:

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Korngold Consulting LLC assists corporations in building fully integrated, high-impact CSR strategies, including leadership development through nonprofit board service.  Korngold Consulting trains and places business executives on nonprofit boards, and consults to nonprofit boards and leaders to strengthen governance for financial and strategic success.

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