Why Board Diversity Fails (And How to Actually Make It Work)
- Sharmon Lebby
- Jun 26
- 5 min read
I was sitting in a board meeting, and someone suggested we needed more diversity of experience on the board. Reasonable, right?
An older board member immediately said, "We tried that once. It didn't go well."
Another chimed in: "We already have diversity. We don't always see eye to eye."
And there it was. The whole conversation reduced to either a failed experiment from the past or the idea that disagreeing with your friends equals diversity.
I'm saying this with love: that's not it.
This moment stuck with me because I see this pattern everywhere. Nonprofit boards talk about wanting diversity, but they don't always understand what it actually means or how to make it work. So they either avoid it entirely or approach it in ways that set everyone up for failure.
Let me break down what I've learned about building diverse nonprofit boards that actually function well, based on my experience as both a nonprofit founder and board president.
What Board Diversity Actually Means
When we talk about board diversity, we're not talking about checking boxes or hitting quotas. We're talking about bringing in lived experiences, skillsets, and perspectives that your current board doesn't have.
Here's what that looks like in practice.
If your nonprofit serves formerly incarcerated people but your entire board has never been touched by the criminal justice system, you're missing something critical. You might have the best intentions in the world, but there are gaps in your understanding that good intentions can't fill.
That's not a moral failing. That's just reality.
The same goes for age, geography, industry experience, economic background, disability, immigration status, and more. The lived experience someone brings to your board can shift entire strategies, reveal gaps you didn't know existed, and ask the questions no one else thought to ask.
But most organizations approach board diversity in ways that don't work.
What Board Diversity Is NOT
1. Diversity for diversity's sake
If you're adding people to your board just to say you did it, you're setting everyone up for failure, including the people you bring on. Tokenism doesn't build stronger boards. It builds resentment, awkward dynamics, and eventually, people walking away feeling used.
2. Just adding random people
"Hey, you seem different from us. Want to join our board?" is not a strategy. If you don't know why someone's specific experience matters to your mission, don't recruit them yet. Do the work to figure out what you're actually missing first.
3. Filling seats with people who don't share your values
This is the big one. You can have all the diversity in the world, but if someone doesn't align with your mission, values, and the direction of your organization, it's not going to work. Period.
Boards bring on people with impressive resumes and completely different lived experiences, only to spend the next year in conflict because they fundamentally disagree about what the organization should be doing. That is not productive tension. It's just chaos.
How to Make Board Diversity Actually Work
Start with what you're missing
Before you recruit anyone, sit down with your current board and ask: What skills, experiences, and perspectives are we lacking? What voices are missing from our decision-making?
Be specific. Don't just say "we need diversity." Say: "We need someone who understands grant compliance," or "We need a board member who's navigated the foster care system," or "We need someone with marketing experience who can help us reach younger donors."
Get clear on the gaps. Then recruit with intention.
Make sure your values align
This is non-negotiable. You need people who believe in what you're building and where you're going. That doesn't mean everyone has to think exactly alike. Healthy boards have disagreement and debate. But it does mean everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction.
Before you invite someone to join, have real conversations. Ask about their values. Share yours. Talk about the hard stuff. Make sure there's alignment before you ask them to commit.
Create a culture where different voices can actually be heard
Here's what nobody wants to say out loud: you can bring the most diverse group of people into a room, but if the same three people dominate every conversation, nothing changes.
If you want diversity of experience to matter, you have to build a board culture where different perspectives are welcomed, not just tolerated. That means:
Making space for people to speak
Actually listening when they do
Being willing to change your mind
Acknowledging when someone's lived experience brings insight you didn't have
It also means being honest about power dynamics. If your board has been the same five people for ten years, and you bring on someone new with a completely different background, that person is walking into an established culture. You have to actively work to make sure they're not just there to nod along.
The Truth You Don't Know Until You've Been There
I've learned in my years of doing this work, both as a founder and a board president, that you genuinely don't know what you don't know unless you've been there.
I didn't understand the full weight of burnout in the nonprofit sector until I lived it. I didn't get the nuances of building partnerships across different communities until I had to navigate them myself. I didn't see certain gaps in my own thinking until someone with a completely different life experience pointed them out (gently, thankfully).
That's the gift of diverse experience. It's not about conflict. It's not about making your board "look good." It's about building something stronger, smarter, and more responsive to the people you're actually trying to serve.
So What Do You Do Next?
If you're reading this and realizing your board could use some fresh perspectives, here's where to start:
Audit your current board honestly. What experiences, skills, and voices are missing? Write them down.
Get clear on your values and mission. Before you recruit anyone, make sure your existing board is aligned on where you're going.
Recruit with intention. Don't just grab people. Have real conversations. Be honest about what you need and why you think they'd be a good fit.
Build a culture of listening. Diverse perspectives only matter if people actually listen to them. Work on that from day one.
Be patient with the process. Building a well-rounded, diverse board doesn't happen overnight. You'll make mistakes. Learn from them and keep going.
The key to building a well-rounded board isn't just bringing on people with different knowledge and experience. It's bringing them on when they align with your mission, values, and the direction of your organization—and then creating the conditions for their voices to actually shape the work.
That's it. That's the whole thing. Now go build something better.
If you want help with this process, Blessed Designs Consulting works with organizations to build stronger boards and develop intentional recruitment strategies. Whether you're starting from scratch or reshaping an existing board, we can help you figure out what you're missing, who you need, and how to bring them on in a way that actually works.
Sharmon Lebby is a nonprofit strategist, board president, and founder who helps Black women launch and sustain mission-driven organizations. She's lived through the chaos, learned the hard lessons, and now teaches others how to build without burning out.
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