Nonprofit Board Leadership Volunteering
Take a leadership role
Volunteer on a Nonprofit Board of Directors
Canadian charities and nonprofits rely on their Boards of Directors for oversight and strategic leadership, an essential role filled by volunteers from the community. Non-profit boards have a special responsibility to promote an inclusive culture in their organizations. Recruitment processes must ensure there are diverse perspectives and life experiences around the table, and board processes need to empower all voices to be heard.
Are you interested in bringing your perspective to a Board of Directors? Volunteer Ottawa can help with training and your search for a meaningful role.
Find a Board Leadership Opportunity
You can find Board Leadership volunteer opportunities on our Search page using the filters “Board Leadership” and “Governance (Boards, Committees)”.
Get quarterly updates on new Board of Directors volunteer opportunities — right in your inbox! Sign up for VO’s Governance & Leadership e-Blast.
Volunteering on a Board of Directors is a great opportunity to apply your professional skills, deepen your involvement in a cause you care about, and bring your unique perspective to leadership decisions. All provincially and federally-incorporated non-profits are required to have a Board of Directors in order to function.
Some Board opportunities may call for specific skills (for example: financial, legal, fundraising) or linguistic competencies. Volunteering on a board of directors may look different from volunteering you have done in other roles: it happens mostly through meetings, it requires reading and handling official documents, and it involves formal, legal obligations. Depending the nature of the board, you may be involved in committee work, fundraising, organizing events and public outreach.
Board volunteering can also be a great way to advocate for causes or issues that you feel passionately about, and you can bring your unique experiences, identity, and point of view to a non-profit’s strategic direction.
Now Available: Board Leadership Online Course
Learn online at your own pace!
Board members are vital to the non-profit sector but many don’t have access to the training they need. Volunteer Ottawa’s self-paced Community and Board Leadership Training courses help develop more knowledgeable and engaged board volunteers who will do better board work and bring greater good into the community.
Available in English or French, this course was created for current or prospective Directors on a non-profit board in Canada. The course contains two modules, Board Leadership Fundamentals and Board Leadership Insights.
Whether you’re currently on a Board of Directors or are interested in joining one, this course will introduce you to the basics and then help you level up your work as a non-profit director!
2 modules, 30 lessons each
$145 / user
About VO’s Nonprofit Leadership Training Programs
VO has been dedicated to capacity building in NFP leadership for many years and our programs have taken many forms, but the values of inclusion and diversity have been embedded in all of them. Our current Nonprofit Leadership Training is an evolution of the Diversity in Leadership Ottawa (DLO) program, itself an evolution of earlier programs. VO continues to improve our overall offering and to provide Board Leadership volunteer opportunities and training.
Search volunteer postings for Non-profit Leadership opportunities
Learn more about being on a Board of Directors with our self-paced online course
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