Dolly Farrell, Executive Director of the Charitable Foundation of the Islands (CFI), will lead a discussion on open board searches and nonprofit board recruitment at the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit Roundtable on Thursday, March 13 at 9 a.m. at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southwest Florida.
The session will explore how nonprofits can strengthen governance and expand leadership pipelines by adopting more transparent and intentional approaches to board recruitment.
Farrell will share insights from a widely recognized article on open board searches co-authored by Cleveland Justis and Sanibel resident Susan S. Boren, a member of CFI’s Board of Directors. The article, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, has been recognized as one of the publication’s most downloaded pieces and highlights practical steps nonprofits can take to broaden board candidate pools and build more effective boards.
The discussion will outline several practical steps nonprofits can take to conduct an open board search, including identifying board needs, developing candidate profiles, expanding outreach, and building leadership pipelines for future governance roles.
Farrell has served as the inaugural executive director of the Charitable Foundation of the Islands, a community foundation serving Sanibel and Captiva, since 2022. Under her leadership, CFI has expanded philanthropic initiatives supporting community resilience, nonprofit capacity building, and strategic grantmaking across the islands.
Dolly specializes in major gifts strategy, donor stewardship, and building resilient nonprofit infrastructure. Since joining CFI in 2022, she has guided the foundation through post-hurricane recovery and strategic growth. In 2025 alone, CFI invested more than $2.1 million in community initiatives and distributed $1.9 million in grants, while achieving a 20% donor-advised fund payout rate—four times the national benchmark. She also led the creation of a $1.2 million revolving small business loan fund to strengthen long-term economic resilience and works closely with professional advisors, fundholders, and volunteers to advance strategic philanthropy across Southwest Florida.
For more information about the Charitable Foundation of the Islands, visit myCFI.org.
To register for this free event, click here