My organization currently has three vacant board positions that have never been filled. We want to recruit new members of influence and affluence who align with our mission, vision, and purpose and would like a Taproot volunteer to help us find viable candidates for these positions.

The Wells International Foundation is 8 1/2 years old. We have accomplished amazing results in our five Strategic Focus Areas with zero employees, a part-time paid contractor, and numerous volunteers. Our achievements include two successful years of our Youth Veterinarian Initiative, which introduces Black and Latinx youth to the possibility of pursuing veterinary medicine as a career; the organization of university visits and networking events for five International Youth Leadership Program excursions to Paris, FRANCE since 2022; and a new mentoring project in support of the female executive director of Jolt Youth Initiative in Uganda through our L³ Alliance women's empowerment initiative.

We have reached the point where we are not going to be able to maintain our current level of activity, let alone expand it, without paid staff. One of the primary ways any nonprofit organization is expected to fund itself is through the actions of its board of directors. Some of our current board members have done extremely well in this regard, while others have not.

We all agree that in filling our empty board slots, we should actively seek people of affluence who can easily make substantial monetary gifts to the organization from their own pockets and who have well-established networks of individuals and businesses that can do the same. We do not have the connections that will allow us to find the type of board member mentioned above. We hope that a skilled Taproot volunteer will be able to help us with this critical recruitment task.

We have a clear mission statement and can point to the excellent track record we have regarding the fulfillment of our mission through projects and programs in five Strategic Focus Areas. We have a recruitment procedure in place. Once candidates pass the pre-interview stage, we set up interviews rapidly and make a decision on each candidate in a maximum of 72 hours. We're ready to go!!!