Madison-based nonprofit Collaboration for Good will host the 2019 Nonprofit Draft Day at Edgewood College this Saturday, Jan. 19, 10 a.m.-noon, to connect local organizations with diverse talent.
“We need women, people of color, and the differently abled to step up and make a difference,” said Alnisa Allgood, executive director of Collaboration for Good.
Collaboration for Good assumed responsibility for organizing the 2019 Nonprofit Draft Day, an event which offers a new method for recruiting and matching community leaders. Allgood said the deadline for organizations to register is Wednesday, Jan. 16, however, free agents can register anytime before the event, free agents who register by this Wednesday will have their profiles sent to the non-profits before the Nonprofit Draft Day on Saturday.
“If you like that non-profit but every time you walk into that nonprofit you feel like an outsider, it might be an indicator their board needs a change, and you can be that change,” Allgood said.
Each of the free agents will have the opportunity to place cards in the top three non-profits they are interested in. While free agents are encouraged to bring business cards and continue networking, nonprofits will also select their top three free agents at the event to see whether they fit into their organization’s culture.
“Being a newer nonprofit, the 2018 Nonprofit Draft Day was an incredibly beneficial experience for us,” A Woman’s Place and Resource Center Founder and Executive Director Taysheedra Noll said. “I was able to select a board member that was an equal match to what I was looking for and what she wanted. She aligned well with our mission, vision, and values, and has been fantastic to work with. The day also helped expand our social circle.”
Allgood said one of the biggest challenges nonprofits have is finding potential board members outside of their social circles. The Nonprofit Draft Day incentivizes organizations to look at ready candidates in front of them which is beneficial for both a hiring standpoint and social equity standpoint.
“When there’s a staff posting, people will typically put their listing in an ad in a newspaper but when it’s a board, people typically just tell their friends,” she said.
Allgood said this process of recruiting board members will often lead to more like-minded and similar individuals fulfilling those roles. In an effort to increase diversity and inclusion, the draft day will focus on including people who might not have ever served on a board before.
“The people who know that they want to serve on a board have already served on a board before,” she said. “The harder people are the younger professionals.”
As a long term strategy, Collaboration for Good plans on introducing board membership as a pathway to graduate students or people who are already making a difference in their community. Allgood said that sometimes these individuals do not know they are even ready for the role of board member but they are.
She said there is far more scrutiny for people of color during the job application process to meet all the necessary requirements including certifications and experience levels. Allgood said women of color will often look at a job posting and discount themselves due to not chicking one of many boxes in a job posting. However, she said finding board members is an alternative human resources cycle.
“For us, we’re focused on trying to recruit people who want to be community leaders and they’re not certain on what that pathway is,” Allgood said.
She said people often undervalue the power representation and having community leaders who look like them. Allgood also said nonprofit boards should reflect the people the organization serves. She believes organizations want this.
“They would like to have a more diverse board but not just across race and gender but age and experience or what type of information they are bringing to the table,” Allgood said.
Registration for nonprofits and free agents is open now. University students, community members, and professionals are encouraged to sign-up online.
