Listen to La Salle’s Laura Otten discuss board development on this nonprofit podcast

Building out a board is one of your first tasks when starting a nonprofit. But you don’t want just any old schmuck serving on that board, do you?

Dr. Laura Otten, director of The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University’s School of Business, was recently featured in the Nonprofit Ally podcast to discuss best practices for building nonprofit boards to be “sustainable” — that is, filled with accountable people who actually give a damn about your mission.

One of her shared pieces of expertise? The skills you’ll need on your board will change over time.

“What a nonprofit needs on a board isn’t static over time,” she said. “It really, really varies on what the strategic priorities are that they’re working on, where they are in their lifecycle, et cetera.”

However, you might always want a financial expert or lawyer on your board, but — perhaps surprisingly — you might not want a lot of mission experts or “big check” writers.

Nonprofit Ally is an Alaska-based blog and community website aimed at helping nonprofit leaders strengthen their organizations.