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Board of Directors Policy

How we grow our board of directors to be representative of the communities we serve and well-suited to supporting the organization's needs.
Published onFeb 02, 2022
Board of Directors Policy
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Overview

We believe that a diverse and multi-faceted board of directors is a requirement for a successful and effective board of directors. The process for identifying good director candidates is different than the process for identifying good staff candidates — we do not post job listings, or have structured interviews. The process is more dependent on personal relationships and our existing network. As such, a critical requirement for assembling a diverse board of directors is assembling a diverse network of supporters and users of our work, and expanding our network to include these groups and their communities.

Candidate Discovery Process

To identify candidates for the KF Board of Directors, several groups must be invited to submit recommendations. At a minimum, these groups must include:

  • Current staff

  • Current board members

  • Current advisory board members (for all existing advisory boards)

  • Current member organizations and participants

  • Current newsletter subscribers

We will generate a report detailing the breakdown of recommended candidates along several demographic and professional criteria. If we find that we have failed to receive recommended candidates representing all critical segments (e.g. no women are recommended), we will identify that our processes for growing the above groups (staff, member organizations, etc) have been insufficient and address the upstream issue.

Selection Process

New board members are selected by majority vote of the current KF Board of Directors. Before making offers, the board will create a list of finalist candidates that could each effectively serve as a board member.

Offers cannot be extended until demographic requirements for the finalist list are met. At least 50% of finalists must be a non-cisgendered-male and/or an American racial minority.

Once the list of finalist candidates is created, current board members will work together to select the candidate(s) best suited for the position and extend necessary offers.

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