As New York’s leading personalized non-profit board matching service, BoardAssist spends a lot of time working with non-profit boards to help them craft their non-profit’s give/get policy—or how much board members should be asked to annually generate for the boards on which they serve. One creative new trend we are seeing is establishing a phased-in give/get.

Non-profits ask new board members to commit to give/get a lower amount than the rest of the board generates for their first two to three years of board service. If the rest of the board generates, on average, $15,000/year, new board members might be asked to commit to generate $10,000/year for each of their first two to three years of service. If, by the end of their board “trial,” the new member is not comfortable that she can comfortably reach the higher $15,000/year, that new board member will step off the board.

The advantage of a trial period at a lower number is that it makes you dramatically more attractive to potential board members. Folks can comfortably commit to a number that works for them and know that if in two to three years they have not been able to generate a higher number for their board, they can easily resign from the new board with no bad feelings or anyone being disappointed.

Read the full article about phased-in giving by Cynthia Remec at BoardSource.