Find the skills your nonprofit board is missing and who to ask
It turns a list of board members into a skills grid that shows exactly which seat to fill next.
Published . Steps as of October 2026.
How do I figure out what skills my nonprofit board needs?
Describe your current board members' backgrounds and next year's goals, and ask an AI to build a skills grid that marks the gaps. Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini can all do it from a plain prompt. As of October 2026, Claude's Nonprofits plugin adds this as a skill for nonprofits on Team and Enterprise plans. A small volunteer group can use the same prompt for a committee or PTA, and a larger board can add term end dates to plan who rotates off.
A sketch of what you'll get back.
Your prompt
Fill in your details. Skip any you like.
Claude and ChatGPT open with your prompt already typed in. Gemini can't be filled in from a link, so its button copies your prompt: paste it into the new chat.
The prompt that gets copied
I help lead a small nonprofit or volunteer board. Our mission: [OUR MISSION, e.g. free after-school tutoring]. Our goals for the next year: [NEXT YEAR'S GOALS, e.g. double donors, open a second site]. Our current board members (roles only): [CURRENT BOARD, e.g. retired teacher, CPA, pastor, parent]. Build a board skills grid: list the 8 to 10 skills a board like ours needs to reach these goals (think fundraising, finance, legal, marketing, community ties, lived experience), mark which members cover each one, and highlight the biggest gaps. For the top three gaps, describe the kind of person who'd fill it and where we might find them locally. Then write a short, warm note inviting that kind of person to coffee to learn about the board, with no pressure to commit. Finish with a one-page outline for a new member orientation packet.
Describe your board members and next year's goals and get a skills grid that shows the gaps, the kinds of people who'd fill them, and a warm recruiting note for each.
Step by step
- Jot down each board member's role and background, without full names
- Open Claude and paste the prompt with your notes and goals
- Review the skills grid and the gaps it flags
- Copy the recruiting note for your top gap and personalize it
What you'll get
A board skills grid with the gaps marked, profiles of who'd fill the top three, a recruiting note and an orientation outline.
Claude's Nonprofits plugin does this on Team and Enterprise nonprofit plans. The prompt works on any plan.
- Made for
- Small business owners, Everyone
- Works in
- Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini
