Published:
May 12, 2025
Many not-for-profit boards across Ontario and Canada are actively trying to diversify, which is great news.
However, we keep seeing this pattern: the desire is there, but the definition is missing.
What does diversity actually mean for your board?
What does equity look like in your governance context?
Without clear answers to these questions, recruitment becomes a stand-in for strategy. It feels like action, yet it rarely creates the change you want.
Here’s how it usually goes:
At the same time, you’re asking current board members to tap their networks, which often leads right back to people who look and lead just like them.
The core issue is that recruitment is treated like a one-time event. Just something to check off the list. It’s episodic and reactive, relying heavily on the same networks and processes that created the current board makeup in the first place.
Instead of opening doors, it often just circles back to the familiar.
It mirrors familiar HR practices. It’s easier to plan around. There’s a clear beginning and end.
But equity isn’t a hiring cycle.
A post and a form don’t build trust.
They don’t deepen understanding.
They don’t help someone who’s never served on a board see themselves as leadership material.
If you want equity to thrive on your board, recruitment can’t be your only move.
Inclusive boards are built through relationships, not just recruitment. That means:
This takes more time, it is slower yet more authentic. It lays the groundwork for more meaningful and actual inclusion, not just the appearance of diversity.
We’ve seen some great examples of this relationship-first approach:
Host open conversations(e.g., “What is a board?” sessions for community members who might never have seen themselves in this kind of leadership).
Invite observers to board meetings
Hold a debrief afterward to help demystify governance.
Identify and mentor community leadersDo this long before the nomination process starts.
Partner with equity-focused groups
Co-design leadership development pipelines.
Board succession planning starts the moment someone joins. Waiting until recruitment season begins before engaging with community members is too late.
Equity-focused boards recognize that representation without relationship is fragile. Inclusion isn’t a line item on the agenda, it’s a culture that builds over time.
When recruitment is the only strategy:
Real change doesn’t happen in a call for applications. It happens in how we show up—and who we show up for—every day.
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