![\"DWEM_Board\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DWEM_Board-e1435324376845.jpg\")
This is the third in a series of posts reflecting on last June’s Americans for the Arts convention in Chicago. In the context of serious discussions of equity and diversity, it was inevitable that my thoughts would turn to boards of directors and trustees.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve written several times recently about the conundrum that \u201cfundraising boards\u201d represent in the nonprofit arts world. (Give or Get<\/a>, Can\u2019t Buy Me Love<\/a>) Specifically in discussions of diversity, the truism that \u201cyou know who you know\u201d leads to boards populating themselves with people who look like them. Even with the best of intentions, if you don\u2019t know any [fill in the blank] you can\u2019t suggest them for board slots. Self-perpetuating boards, the largely default status of nonprofit boards in the U.S., nominate and elect their own successors. Sounds crazy, but it’s the norm in organizations that are not membership based; and, admittedly, there are not a lot of good alternatives out there. This is a big, if not the<\/em> biggest, issue in diversifying our boards.<\/p>\n Some time ago I cited here the hopefully apocryphal story of a board, desiring Hispanic representation, placing an ad in the Hispanic newspaper. (They didn’t know anyone<\/em>?!?!) In order to address board diversity, we need to realize that not knowing appropriate diverse candidates is our<\/em> issue, not\u00a0theirs.<\/em><\/p>\n An interesting new criterion for annual board member evaluations could be something like \u201cHow many people unlike yourself have you developed relationships with this year?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo: Lack of board diversity reflects “who they (don’t) know.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Self-Perpetuating Boards\u2013Lack of diversity reflects \"who they (don't) know\" #aftacon : http:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-169","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[12,13,42,47,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-4225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-diversity","11":"tag-equity","12":"tag-governance","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DWEM_Board-e1435324376845.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-169","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4229,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/08\/afta-thoughts-2015-staff-diversity\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":0},"title":"AftA Thoughts 2015: Staff Diversity","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What if arts organizations were seen as robust contributors to better lives for African-Americans, Hispanics, recent immigrants, the poor, the disenfranchised? Enhance diversity by being valuable.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DiverseStaff-e1435326777756.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4213,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/07\/afta-thoughts-2015-equity-watershed\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":1},"title":"AftA Thoughts 2015: Equity Watershed?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Americans for the Arts 2015 conference in Chicago appeared serious about addressing diversity and equity.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Equity","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Equity-e1435255742641.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4968,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/07\/social-silos\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":2},"title":"Social Silos","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Most people know few or any people from outside their own inadvertent silos. It takes extraordinary attention and effort to counteract this tendency.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Silos-e1495116145390.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5983,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/06\/there-is-no-try\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":3},"title":"There Is No “Try”","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The time for words is past. With respect to equity and justice, Yoda was right. \"Do or do not. There is no try.\" Benchmarks\/metrics are essential.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Yoda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2643,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/03\/the-board-as-engagers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":4},"title":"The Board as Engagers","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we consider nonprofit governance from a community engagement perspective, specifically the make-up and function of the nonprofit board of directors. Most arts administrators understand boards as resource engines. We have a history (understandably) of populating our boards with moneyed people or people who know moneyed people. They clearly represent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Introductions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Introductions-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6388,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2021\/06\/what-was-said\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":5},"title":"What Was Said","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Observations on the Community Engagement Network's Conversations on the topic Benchmarking Equity.","rel":"","context":"In "Community Engagement Network"","block_context":{"text":"Community Engagement Network","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/community-engagement-network\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Report.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4225"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4261,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions\/4261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Attribution\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" "\\"Attribution\\""){kind=icon}
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<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by sludgegulper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"