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Lana Majid has always wanted to give back to her community in a particular way; serving on the board of a non-profit in the Greater Toronto Area.

“But I’ve always found it’s really difficult to navigate,” said Majid, a senior manager at an online healthcare provider, referring to the board application process. “Determining what content you need to know about boards, about governance, how to sort of up-skill yourself to make sure you’re prepared to do it, can be a challenge.”

She believes BoardShift, a new initiative aiming to connect governing boards with Indigenous, Black and racialized candidates, will help people like herself prepare for, and connect with, leadership positions.

“A lot of people we find as potential candidates are really ambitious, and they want to make a difference. We want to equip them,” said Joanna Rodrigues, program manager at CivicAction, which is the new home of BoardShift. The program is currently focused on the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, but Rodrigues hopes to see it expand across Canada.

Earlier iterations of the program resided with Toronto Metropolitan University. 

The initiative provides potential candidates with a three-course curriculum. Once completed, they’re granted access to the program’s matching portal. 

“The first course is called Demystifying the Board,” Rodrigues said. “It’s all about governance 101: what are all the different committees on a board; what is fiduciary duty; what actually happens in a board meeting; what needs to go into minutes? It’s all of those things that people really need to know.”

The second course is focused on fundraising and finance, and was developed in consultation with seasoned executive directors and CEOs from a variety of non-profit organizations. Time and time again, Rodrigues said they were told new board members don’t often understand their role in fundraising.

“Voluntary sector work is different than corporate work,” she said. “It’s not necessarily that you’re going out specifically getting money, but you’re spreading the word and your organization’s mission.”

The third and final course contains new elements around soft and transferable skills, helping candidates identify tangible goals and prepare for board interviews. There is, however, no interview requirement to become a BoardShift candidate.

 “We felt that in itself was a bit of a racist practice, we do not know what makes a good board member, you know, that changes from organization to organization,” Rodrigues said. “If we have someone who’s doing a quick 15-minute conversation with a candidate, we were really worried we would be falling back on these traditional ideas about what a board member is and looks like.”

Organizations that sign up for BoardShift must also sign an inclusivity charter.

“We are very conscious that we don’t want to promote tokenization within these organizations,” said Rodrigues. “And so we have this inclusivity charter. It’s eight commitments that speak to various ways they can promote diversity on their boards and within their organizations.” 

Those commitments include asking organizations to challenge themselves and their habits, and reflect on how current practices may reinforce systemic bias – even inadvertently. The charter also requires organizations to set clear and measurable targets around diversity and inclusion.

Both candidates and organizations pay to participate, but Rodrigues said fees are charged on a sliding scale and can be waived for candidates if necessary. Candidates who feel financially secure are charged a one-time fee of $125, while those who self-identify as less financially secure are asked to pay $75.

Fees for organizations seeking potential board members range from $200 to $1,000.

Although the program only just launched, many non-profits have already signaled their intentions to participate, including the Toronto Foundation.

“Equity is at the core of what we’ve been up to for the last five years in the organization,” said foundation CEO Sharon Avery. “I’d like to think the sector is having its own reckoning on this, especially in philanthropy, which is pretty white.”

The board governing the Toronto Foundation reached gender parity and 50 per cent BIPOC representation about 18 months ago.

“I am happy to be able to say that, but I think it’s also sad that it would take 40 years as an organization for us to achieve those,” she said. “So, for me, joining BoardShift has a couple of purposes – one is to really signal, broadly to the sector, to my staff, to my colleagues and to my fund-holders, how serious we are about maintaining those targets and going beyond them.”

Boards and their members often say the biggest challenge is finding BIPOC candidates, but Rodrigues believes this newly launched program tosses that excuse out the door.

“You have to work at it and you have to make it a priority,” she said. “I’d say our biggest barrier is ourselves. I don’t think it’s what’s out there. I think it’s a lack of trying.”

Lana Majid is excited to start the BoardShift curriculum and hopes the portal provides new connections and warm leads as she begins her search.

“I think conventionally, a lot of board appointments have been done through word of mouth, and it really kind of relies on social and economic capital,” Majid said, “That’s why oftentimes you see  very similar voices in the room,. whereas this opens it up and you don’t necessarily have to know someone who’s a board chair to be considered.”

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