| Course | PNP 6023 Organizational Board and Volunteer Development |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Board recruitment plan |
| Length | 1,180 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | Doctor of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PNP 6023 Module 2
Filling the Gaps the Board Cannot See: A Skills and Diversity Matrix and Recruitment Plan for a Rural Hospice Board
Student Name
American College of Education
PNP6023: Organizational Board and Volunteer Development
Module 2 Assignment
Instructor Name
October 19, 2026
Introduction
Module 1 found that the hospice board in northeast Iowa excels at fundraising and community connection but monitors quality, finances and its executive weakly, and that most members have served for many years without term limits. Boards tend to recruit people like their current members, friends and neighbors who share their background, which reproduces both strengths and blind spots. This paper builds a skills and diversity matrix to make the board's composition visible, compares it with what the hospice's strategy requires, proposes term limits and sets out a recruitment process.
Building the Matrix
The matrix lists the nine current members in columns and the attributes the hospice needs in rows. Members rated their own strengths on a short survey, and the executive committee reviewed the ratings for consistency. Rows fall into three groups. Skills: finance and audit, clinical quality and patient safety, health care law and regulation, fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and communications, human resources and data and technology. Connections: each of the six counties served, the medical community, faith communities and local government. Perspectives: age range, gender, race and ethnicity, and experience as a family member of a hospice patient.
What the Matrix Shows
Strengths cluster tightly. Seven members rated themselves strong in fundraising or community relations, and the board has deep ties to faith communities and to the three counties nearest the main office. Gaps are equally clear. Only the banker reported financial expertise, and he cannot serve as the board's independent financial voice while his bank holds the hospice's accounts. No member has current clinical quality or patient safety expertise; the retired physician and former nurse left practice more than a decade ago. No one has health care regulatory or legal experience. Three of the six counties have no member. And the board, all of whose members are white and whose youngest member is 58, does not reflect the region's growing Latino population, concentrated in two towns with meatpacking plants, or the younger adult children who often make hospice decisions for their parents. The matrix turns a vague sense that the board is set in its ways into a list of specific seats to fill.
Why Composition Matters
Research suggests that what a board brings, and how it uses it, affects how it governs. Harris (2014) found that the mix of expertise on nonprofit boards was associated with organizational performance. Diversity of background matters as well, but numbers alone are not enough: Buse et al. (2016) found that board inclusion behaviors, the practices that let all members' perspectives shape discussion, were more strongly related to good governance practices than demographic diversity by itself. Brown (2002), for his part, found that inclusive governance practices were associated with stronger board performance in the roles that connect an organization to its communities. For the hospice, this means recruiting new members is only half the task; the board must also change how it works so that new members are heard.
Priority Seats
Matching gaps to the strategy, which calls for opening an inpatient wing and expanding services in the three underserved counties, gives four priority seats for the next two years. First, a member with financial oversight experience independent of the hospice's bank, ideally a certified public accountant or a finance officer from another health organization, to chair the finance and audit committee. Second, a member with current clinical quality experience, such as a nurse quality director from a regional hospital, to lead a new quality committee. Third, a member with roots in the Latino community of the region's meatpacking towns, which would strengthen outreach where hospice use is low. Fourth, a member from one of the three unrepresented counties, preferably under 45, who could bring the perspective of adult children making care decisions.
Term Limits
Term limits create the openings recruitment needs. The proposal is two consecutive three-year terms, after which a member must step off for at least one year. Terms would be staggered so that about a third of the board turns over each cycle, protecting continuity. Long-serving members would phase out over three years rather than all at once, and the board would create an emeritus council so their knowledge and donor relationships stay connected to the hospice. Presenting term limits as a way to honor service, rather than to remove people, matters for a board whose members built the organization. The bylaws amendment would require a two-thirds board vote, so the proposal will be discussed at a retreat before it is formally introduced.
The Recruitment Process
Recruitment will be led by a new governance committee and follow five steps. Identify: build a prospect list for each priority seat from staff, volunteers, donors, partner organizations and regional professional associations. Cultivate: invite prospects to a tour, a volunteer event or a committee meeting before any request is made. Assess: a governance committee member and the executive director meet each prospect to discuss expectations, motivation and fit, using the matrix to confirm the skills sought. Invite: the board chair extends a formal invitation, with a written expectations letter covering meeting attendance, committee service, a personal gift at a level meaningful to the member, conflict-of-interest disclosure and participation in orientation. Welcome: new members begin orientation before their first board meeting. Where a prospect is not ready for board service, an advisory committee seat offers a path in.
Barriers in a Rural Region
Recruiting in a rural six-county region brings particular obstacles. Professionals with finance and quality expertise are few and often already serve on other boards. Meetings in the hospice's main town can mean an hour's drive each way. And Latino residents may be wary of institutions or face work schedules, such as plant shifts, that conflict with evening meetings. The plan responds with a hybrid meeting option, rotating some meetings to other counties, offering interpretation and translated materials and approaching prospects through trusted community leaders, including the Catholic parish that serves many Latino families.
Judging Whether Recruitment Worked
Recruitment succeeds only if it changes governance. After eighteen months the governance committee will check four things: whether the four priority seats are filled; whether the finance and quality committees meet as scheduled and bring analysis, not just reports, to the full board; whether new members say in an anonymous survey that their views influenced decisions; and whether the updated matrix shows the targeted gaps closed. If new members are recruited but say they are not heard, the problem lies in inclusion practices rather than recruitment, and Module 3's orientation and board culture work becomes the priority.
Conclusion
The skills and diversity matrix shows a board strong in fundraising and connection but missing independent financial oversight, current clinical quality expertise, regulatory knowledge, three counties and the region's Latino and younger families. Four priority seats, staggered term limits with an emeritus council and a five-step recruitment process address those gaps, with adaptations for rural realities. Module 3 turns to orienting new members and strengthening the board's partnership with the executive director.
References
Brown, W. A. (2002). Inclusive governance practices in nonprofit organizations and implications for practice. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12(4), 369-385. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.12404
Buse, K., Bernstein, R. S., & Bilimoria, D. (2016). The influence of board diversity, board diversity policies and practices, and board inclusion behaviors on nonprofit governance practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(1), 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2352-z
Harris, E. E. (2014). The impact of board diversity and expertise on nonprofit performance. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 25(2), 113-130. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21115
Reading the PNP 6023 Module 2 instructions
Prompts for the second module of PNP 6023 generally ask how a board should be built. Expect to assess current members' skills, connections and perspectives, often in a matrix, compare that profile with the organization's strategic needs and design a recruitment process. Many instructors also want you to address diversity and inclusion, term limits and the expectations new members should accept. Use real or realistic data about your board, rated by the members themselves where possible. Tie each recruitment priority to a specific gap and a specific strategic need, so the plan reads as necessary rather than as a wish list. Say how you will judge, a year from now, whether the recruitment worked.
How the PNP 6023 Module 2 example is put together
The matrix comes first: three groups of rows, skills, connections and perspectives, against nine members, built from a self-rating survey reviewed by the executive committee. Its findings are reported gap by gap with evidence. A research section explains why composition and inclusion both matter. Four priority seats are then defined in terms of the hospice's strategy. Staggered term limits with an emeritus council create openings respectfully, and a five-step recruitment process runs from prospect list to welcome. A section on rural barriers adapts the plan to distance, scarce professionals and community trust before a brief conclusion. A section sets out how recruitment will be judged after a year.
PNP 6023 Module 2 rubric: what full marks look like
Recruitment plans are graded on the quality of the assessment and the logic of the plan. Faculty look for a matrix or equivalent analysis that identifies real gaps, priorities tied to organizational strategy and a recruitment process specific enough to follow, including how candidates are found, cultivated, assessed and invited. Attention to diversity and inclusion should go beyond demographics to how new members will participate. Term limits and expectations for members show governance maturity. Plans that list desirable qualities without a process, or ignore local constraints, score lower. Tidy prose and accurate APA 7 references are assumed. Graders also look for a plan to measure whether new members actually changed how the board governs. Specificity wins.
PNP 6023 Module 2 help: mistakes that cost points
Board recruitment often happens by friendship rather than design, and assignments can end up describing ideal members without a plan to find them. If your matrix is incomplete or your recruitment plan lacks steps, our writers can help. Share your board's composition, your organization's strategy and the prompt; we will build a skills and diversity matrix and a recruitment plan with priority seats, term limits and a process suited to your community. Hospitals, clinics, schools and nonprofits all benefit. A deliberate plan is the first step toward a board that can meet tomorrow's challenges. We also draft the expectations letter new members will sign.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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PNP 6023 Module 2 questions, answered
What does PNP6023 Module 2 usually ask for?
The second PNP6023 module often asks you to design board recruitment for an organization, usually based on a skills and diversity matrix that shows the gaps new members should fill.
What goes in a board skills matrix?
Rows for the skills, connections and perspectives the organization needs and columns for current members, so gaps and overlaps are visible at a glance.
Should nonprofit boards have term limits?
Many governance advisers recommend them, often two or three consecutive terms, because they create openings for new skills and perspectives while staggered terms preserve continuity.
Where can I find a free PNP 6023 Module 2 sample paper?
Right here: a rural hospice board's skills and diversity matrix reveals four priority seats, and a recruitment plan with term limits and an expectations letter shows how to fill them.
Is adding diverse members enough to make a board inclusive?
No. Research suggests inclusion practices, such as how discussion is run and how new members are heard, matter as much as who is recruited.