Foundations, 15 min
Before you start building, take 15 minutes to walk through what a great board actually is. It will make every tool in this app more useful.
Board Builder, the roster
Board Roster
One card per person. Score their competencies, evaluate their fit, name the seat you are recruiting them into, and mark the doors they can open, all in one pass. The summaries underneath update as you go.
People
Current members and prospects live in the same list, so you never enter a name twice.
1. Competencies
0 means not a factor, 1 means some capability, 2 means this is a strength they will actively use.
2. Fit and capacity
3. The seat
Roughly Mar 1, 2027
4. Doors they can open
Pick from the ecosystem map below. Anything you check here shows up as their name on that relationship.
Add a funder, peer organization, community leader, or gatekeeper in the ecosystem map below, then come back and check it here.
5. Your narrative
Draft for your judgment. There is no recommended verdict here, by design. Numbers organize a conversation. They do not decide who belongs on your board.
6. Their conversation
No conversation notes yet. Open the guide to run a recruiting or onboarding conversation with this person and keep the notes on their record.
Open the conversation guide for this personNo competency strengths marked yet.
Gap summary
Totals across everyone in the roster.
Strong
Nothing yet.
Thin
Finance, Org development, Fundraising, Program expertise, Community connection, Legal, HR, Marketing, Technology, Lived experience, Perspective diversity
Draft for your judgment. A gap summary is a prompt, not a verdict. A board that scores low on technology may be perfectly well served by a consultant, while a board that is thin on community connection usually has a real problem.
Recruiting timeline
Everyone who is not seated yet, in the order you plan to seat them. An 18 month build produces a stronger board than a 90 day scramble.
Month 6: Unnamed seat
not started - Mar 1, 2027
Draft for your judgment. Mass recruiting fills a board roster and empties a board. One excellent seat every four to six months is a healthy pace for most young organizations.
Ecosystem map
The funders, peer organizations, community leaders, and gatekeepers around your issue. Door openers are pulled from your roster.
Not yet approached
1
Scheduled
0
Met
0
No one in your roster is marked as a door opener here yet.
Draft for your judgment. A worked example: a founder solving affordable housing meets established housing funders, existing providers, and community leaders before launching, to learn where the real gap is. Sometimes the finding is that partnership beats founding.