# BoardBridge Co-Founder Stephe McMahon on How to Join a Nonprofit Board, Why It Beats Traditional Leadership Development, and the Power of Your 'New Kid Card'

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/forward-looking-leadership-6473861/boardbridge-co-founder-stephe-mcmahon-on-how-to-join-a-nonprofit-board-why-it-beats-traditional-leadership-development-and-the-power-of-your-new-kid-card
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/forward-looking-leadership-6473861/boardbridge-co-founder-stephe-mcmahon-on-how-to-join-a-nonprofit-board-why-it-beats-traditional-leadership-development-and-the-power-of-your-new-kid-card.md
Podcast: [Forward-Looking Leadership](https://stenobird.com/podcast/forward-looking-leadership-6473861)
Published: 2026-06-16T14:22:39+00:00
Episode link: https://zencastr.com/z/fAvihwN6
Audio file: https://redirect.zencastr.com/r/episode/6a315c2f50805e441edd2f3e/size/64495434/audio-files/64aff89f6e7cce741d1eae8a/6d940bb4-9b73-4968-8b65-e07c8313629f.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2687

## Resource

Stephe McMahon (boardbridge.com [https://www.boardbridge.com/], linkedin.com/in/stephe-mcmahon-3b2750/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephe-mcmahon-3b2750/]), co-founder and Chief BridgeBuilder at BoardBridge, which empowers corporate employees to serve on nonprofit boards, joins host Dan Freehling (contempusleadership.com [https://www.contempusleadership.com/]) to dig into why there are more than a million open seats on nonprofit boards and how to close the gap. Stephe explains why the on-ramp to board service is so unclear and how BoardBridge lowers the barrier for individuals and nonprofits alike (01:18). He shares his advice for aspiring board members (07:55) and gives a crash course on board service (14:20). Stephe and Dan discuss board service as a form of leadership development, including new Taproot Foundation and PwC research showing pro bono service outperforms traditional training on human skills (17:44). Stephe makes the case for using your "new kid card" and what good governance actually looks like (32:25) and walks through the BoardBridge process end to end (38:10). Recommended Reading: BoardSource's resources [https://boardsource.org/] and Taproot Foundation and PwC's "Human Skills at Work [https://taprootfoundation.org/tools/human-skills-at-work-pro-bono-service-driving-development-in-a-changing-world-of-work/]" report. Show notes at forwardlookingleadership.com [https://forwardlookingleadership.com/].

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