Recruit and engage tech leaders for your board—so you can fully and responsibly harness the power of technology to maximize your impact.
Why Tech Board Leadership?
Technology is increasingly a key differentiator for nonprofit performance, from operational efficiency to better service of the community. Yet too few nonprofits have the technology resources they need to achieve their missions.
Board service is a high-potential lever for tech capacity-building in social sector organizations. By placing a tech leader for your board, you bring a unique technology perspective to board conversations, add to your general business knowledge, and engage a valuable strategic technology planning partner to the CEO. Making technology risk and opportunity a regular topic at the highest levels of leadership can transform an organization, driving mission success and building greater support for the community.
Board.Dev’s Services for Nonprofits:
Board placement
Board.Dev is a community of purpose-driven tech and nonprofit leaders who are committed to building tech capacity and enhancing technology governance in the nonprofit sector. We connect tech leaders with nonprofit boards, helping to transform nonprofit technology capacity and power mission success.
Our placement work goes beyond a match–we use our proprietary tools to identify high potential connections, and provide matched tech leaders and nonprofits with training, resources, and ongoing support to leverage best practices in technology governance.
Board.Dev provides resources to guide the interview and alignment processes for the nonprofit CEO, Board, and tech board member candidate. To begin their service, tech leaders are trained on technical governance, complete a tech governance plan for their nonprofit, and present their recommendations to the board.
Board training
Do you want to explore or implement tech governance? Change the way your board engages with tech priorities? Build tech champions? You can use tech governance as a lever to make your board more active and engaged, and to transform the way you’re using technology across the organization.
Many nonprofit CEOs have tech-skilled leaders on their boards but are unsure how to activate them; others need their boards to level up on tech overall. Our board trainings will give you a common language and framework to talk about tech, to ensure board members are tackling the right questions and focused on the strategic level.
Advisory services
Many nonprofits are facing big challenges and opportunities with tech. To accelerate your progress, Board.Dev works with you to assess your capabilities; amplify strengths; identify and tackle gaps; and set up the governance structure you need to succeed with tech. In our work with nonprofit CEOs and board chairs, we focus on meeting your board where they are–and getting them to the next level–in tech governance, from tech committees to supporting fundraising for tech and from the tech industry.
Founding Partner
Leadership Partners
Select Nonprofit Partners
Requirements
About the Tech Governance Board Role
Specific requirements will vary based on a nonprofit’s size and operating model, but most need some combination of:
- Experience with a range of technical topics, such as business technology, customer experience, use case design and analysis, vendor selection and guidance, or tech resourcing.
- Broad general knowledge of how tech can accelerate or support teams, processes, and organizations.
- A network and resources to leverage to gain access to deeper expertise when needed.
- Experience leading teams and working with executives.
- Consultative skills, such as listening, scoping, and problem-solving.
Is it time to invest in technology governance?
1. Could a technical voice on your board help you make smarter budget and strategy decisions?
2. Would a shared understanding of your technical risks give you the confidence to lead boldly?
3. Are you ready to diversify your funding and unlock new networks with the power of technology?
Upcoming events
Upcoming events
August 21st @ 2:00pm ET | Zoom
Who’s Driving AI? Why Nonprofit Leadership Matters More Than Ever
Join us and the authors of the new book AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause, for a candid, practical conversation about what leaders need to know now.
Whether you’re a nonprofit executive, board member, fundraiser, or systems thinker, this session will help you engage with AI in ways that are mission-aligned, ethical, and grounded in real-world experience.
Co-authors Cheryl Contee and Darian Rodriguez Heyman will share insights from their research and interviews with 50+ nonprofit innovators, plus frameworks, tools, and examples you can apply right away.
Register hereAugust 26th @ 1:00pm ET | Zoom
Tech Buy-In Starts Here: A CEO’s Guide to Board Engagement
Learn how to engage your board in unlocking the full strategic, financial, and mission value of your tech investments.
What if your board could help you fund your tech priorities, navigate risk, and drive long-term transformation?
For many nonprofit leaders, technology strategy feels like a solo act. But it doesn’t have to be. Most boards want to help — they just need better tools and clearer expectations. When boards understand their role in tech governance, they become powerful allies: opening doors to funding, championing digital priorities, and strengthening your organization’s ability to adapt and lead.
Join TechSoup and Alethea Hannemann, CEO of Board.Dev, for a practical conversation about how to engage your board in tech governance: not as an extra step, but as a force multiplier.
Register here
