Could you be one of our next board members?

Are you looking for a meaningful, substantive opportunity to serve a mission you love, use your most valuable skills, and build new relationships with other leaders in your community who feel the same?

The time is now: We’re hoping to grow the GGWash Board of Directors in a few key ways. Read on to learn more.

Where we’re at

It’s been a busy few years for GGWash. The organization has evolved in many ways that involve deep board leadership and engagement, including strategy, governance, operations, and finance. In 2022, we kicked off a three-year strategic plan, with a new mission statement that captures the spirit and purpose of our work:

The mission of Greater Greater Washington is to inform, engage, and influence the public and policy makers to advance racial, economic, and environmental justice in land use, transportation, and housing throughout Greater Washington.

In 2024, we’ll be developing our next strategic plan.

We’ve worked extensively to strengthen governing policies, revise our bylaws, and implement legal structures that will enable us to fulfill our mission. We’ve revised our benefits package and instituted salary frameworks. We’ve conducted our first financial audits (both clean!) and are implementing an array of finance and administrative policies to ensure we continue to run smoothly and are poised to grow. We’ve diversified our funding base, including growing our individual donor base and tripling our corporate contributions, and are refining an investment strategy for our savings. Our team of staff is small, and while they lead on most of these efforts, our board has been an invaluable oversight body, sounding board, and complement to on-staff expertise.

The current board

Our current board consists of 18 people who are a balanced mix of active leaders in housing, transportation, and land use in Greater Washington—primarily District residents—and individuals who bring invaluable expertise to the table, like law, human resources, journalism, risk management, and more.

Needed perspectives

As we’ve evolved, we’ve realized we’re missing a few key perspectives and skill sets on the board. To that end, we’re hoping to welcome three to five new members. If you check one or more of these boxes, we’d love to hear from you:

• Finance or accounting professional. Last summer, GGWash brought in a temporary CFO who provided us with a clear road map for continuing our work to strengthen internal processes and develop an investment policy for our reserves. However, we could still use more nonprofit financial management experience in the GGWash brain trust to serve as a sounding board and help provide financial oversight.
• Grantmaker/funder. We believe that philanthropy can benefit from visibility into the world of 501(c)4 work, and vice versa. Could you be the bridge?
• Human resources. We continue to update organizational policies and practices. Your insights would help to make sure we’re taking care of our team and the organization, and that we’re poised to grow.
• Door-opener/fundraiser. If you’re passionate about our mission and feel energized at the thought of activating your networks for a good cause, we’d love to have you help with the continued growth of our corporate and major donor revenue.
• Digital strategist. If you have insights and ideas on how to support audience growth and generate revenue from digital platforms, we’d love to be able to pick your brain as our plans take shape.
• Maryland and Virginia residents. GGWash’s board is weighted heavily toward District residents, but our advocacy work has grown regionally. We want to ensure our board reflects the geographic scope of our work, and are prioritizing new members who hail from the M and V of the DMV.

GGWash recognizes the need for diverse perspectives and life experiences on its board of directors to help shape our work to make the Washington region a more equitable place to live. We want our board to include individuals who belong to groups that have traditionally been marginalized in urban development and urban planning decisions, on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, ability, housing tenure, income or other characteristics. We believe inclusion at every level is critically important to how GGWash works.

Board member expectations

What does it mean to be a member of GGWash’s board? These are the basic expectations of all members:

• Support good governance, uphold high legal and ethical standards, participate in visioning and strategic planning, oversee executive performance, engage in careful oversight of financial resources, and serve as a consistent cheerleader for the organization to ensure GGWash remains a well-operated, mission-driven nonprofit.
• Commit to serving for at least one two-year term (up to a maximum of three two-year terms).
• Commit to a time commitment of three to six hours per month.
• Attend four board meetings per year (including some in-person) and participate in ad hoc meetings on an as-needed basis.
• Serve on at least one standing committee: finance, fundraising, governance, or a temporary committee (past temporary committees have focused on needs like strategic planning, communications, and human resources).
• Commit to a give/get fundraising goal of $2,500 per year. GGWash provides guidance in reaching this goal and is also committed to working with excellent board candidates for whom this goal may be otherwise prohibitive.

Nominate yourself!

While we are activating our own social and professional networks to find board colleagues who match these descriptions, we want to cast the widest net possible, and where better to start than our own readership?

If you see yourself reflected in the call above, please email a current resume and a brief introduction discussing your interest in the role to admin@ggwash.org by March 10, 2024. Please put “Board Recruitment” in the subject line. We will be reviewing inquiries on a rolling basis and look forward to hearing from you!