WARNING! Christal Cherry is an expert and like most experts she isn’t always aware of how much she knows. When you listen to her tell her stories, grab a pen, because you are going to find yourself taking notes and getting excited with new ideas!
Christal is a natural researcher. She tells us that her research is all in the leg work, but she does plenty of online research, too.
Like any good researcher, she defines what she wants in prospective board members and then goes looking for them. She might get tasked to find board prospects that include people of color, but that is one of a few criteria. Specifically, she is also interested in a board prospect’s skill sets that can round out the board.
Her experienced leg work – the calling, emailing, and networking – is what sets her apart. As prospect research professionals we are often the first step in board prospecting, but how well do our organizations understand that there are more steps that must follow our initial research?
If you’ve been struggling with or just wanting to help your organization understand how much is possible when recruiting for board members, now you have this interview as a resource to share!
And be sure to connect with Christal Cherry on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned
- Silence Is Not Golden: A Workbook for Creating Woke Boards | Christal Cherry | 2021
- Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love | Editors: Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira, Nicole Salmon | 2020
- Book Review | Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love | Elisa Shoenberger | 2021
- boardnetUSA | https://www.boardnetusa.org
- Work for Good | https://www.workforgood.org
- Impact Opportunity | https://impactopportunity.org
- Atlanta Women’s Foundation | https://atlantawomen.org/women-on-board