Attracting and Retaining a Diverse Board: Increasing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion with Orchestra Staff and Boards

Organizations are most effective when their work is governed and delivered by people who represent the diversity of the communities they serve. The following resources are designed to support orchestras’ efforts to attract and retain diverse orchestra boards and staff.

Boardroom Resources, 2017

This video draws on K&R Block board member Christy Wood’ experience with multiple boards, to walk us through her thought process for recruiting diverse directors. Christy talks about the personal and financial risks associated with recruiting unfamiliar candidates and how human tendencies for comfort and trust often come into play, challenging the practice of limiting board searches to candidates with previous board experience.

“How Can Orchestras Be More Diverse?” (PDF) – Jesse Rosen, League of American Orchestras, Symphony Magazine.

“Aiming for Board Room Diversity” (PDF) – Steven Brown, League of American Orchestras, Symphony Magazine.

Explores tactics employed by League member orchestras including the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony, in their work to develop and sustain more diverse boards.

“Board Diversity: Recruit Talent, Not Tokens.” – Randy Hawthorne, Nonprofit Hub, 13 Sept. 2017.

Includes a helpful reminder of the importance of structural factors such as board term limits.

“Is Your Board Composition Representative of the People It Serves?” BoardSource, 2018.

Case study and worksheet that could be used to support a board discussion.

“10 Steps to a More Diverse Board.” – Jennifer Chandler, National Council of Nonprofits, 12 Sept. 2017.

Practical tips with a focus on looking inwards, towards the organization’s own culture and individuals’ unconscious biases.

7 Things You Can do to Improve the Sad, Pathetic State of Board Diversity – Nonprofit AF. 

Elicits some of the complex and difficult challenges faced by boards seeing to overcome homogeneity, and challenges boards to identify and address their own unconscious biases.

A report from Koya Leadership Partners (PDF) that provides an overview of the current state of diversity on boards as well as actionable steps that boards can take to increase diversity and inclusion.