[Nancy]

The first thing that you need to do is have a job description for the position. For example do you want your treasurer to actually maintain the financial records or do you have staff to do this job? Is the Treasurer a doer or an over-seer?

I would try to recruit the CFO from a medium to large size nonprofit with a similar mission to be your Treasurer. The CFO will have the accounting and finance skills and I find that CFO’s generally aren’t recruited for outside activities and are delighted to serve. Just check the 990 of the organization of the CFO to make sure that their nonprofit is financially sound itself.

Most statewide CPA associations have a board matching program so contact them.

Just because a bank deals with money, it doesn’t mean bankers make good treasurers. As a small nonprofit you will be recruiting from local branches. These folks are primarily marketing folks not finance folks. The same is true of investment advisors. If you are are located in a city with a bank headquarters, you may be able to recruit from their financial department.

I do financial and administrative consulting and have about 20 clients – two of my best treasurers are retired goverment employees. Prior to retirement, both of them had a direct role in funding the organizations for which they are now treasurers. They are mission focused and have an understanding of the organization. My worse treasurers are the bankers.

[MicheleT]

Hello Nancy, I was trying to say exactly that but you said it so much better. I agree bankers were the worst.

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Thanks everyone for your insightful responses. Please continue to visit our forums to keep this and other great discussions going!

[kelly]

While we have occasionally recruited CPA’s that is generally difficult since they are so busy with the billable hour expectation. We have successfully recruited business bankers. We have a couple of community banks that serve nonprofits and emphasize community involvement among their officers. Business bankers understand financial statements, audits, and budgets. And bankers typically have lots of community connections. We do not need our treasurer to perform accounting or budgeting. We want our treasurer and finance/audit committee to understand financials so they can provide oversight. We also recruit a couple of community members to our finance/audit committee who are not board members. And we’ve had more luck recruiting CPAs to the committee than to the board itself. It’s a more limited commitment and completely focused on their professional skill set.

[Bill]

My advise is ask. So send something out through your email list. Basically post a position. I agree that Nonprofit CFO’s would be ideal also make sure that you have a clear job description for the position. That will help anyone who is interested. Other options are potentially city staff, young professional groups, and chambers.

[Henry]

Hi Rick:

I offer a couple of insights to your question. The first is recognizing that this exercise is a signal of the need to build stronger capacity in the governance/nomination area of your board. This is important because the more you scale your organization you will have an ongoing need to expand your board composition with the needed additional skills and representations. The standard is you do that with the consent and engagement with your governance committee. Second, in terms of the where and how you source the potential candidates, I agree with most of what has been stated already.

Good Luck.

Henry