The Normal Again Foundation is new, growing, and built to last. We're recruiting board members who want to shape a permanent disaster-recovery resource for the Inland Northwest — from the ground floor.
This is a founder-run organization in its first year. Michael and Madison will do the large majority of the day-to-day work; the board's real role right now is oversight, credibility, and opening doors — not labor. If you join, you're not signing up to run events or process paperwork. You're signing up to govern well, ask hard questions, make introductions, and help a young institution earn trust.
We'd rather describe the role accurately and have it hold up in eighteen months than inflate it to fill seats.
The board oversees a real operation — money in, grants out, events, insurance, compliance. That oversight is strongest when the people around the table have seen these problems before. We're prioritizing candidates unrelated to the founders, with backgrounds in:
CPA, CFO, controller, or similar — financial oversight of funds, restricted gifts, and annual filings.
Nonprofit, tax, insurance, or real estate practice — governance and compliance oversight.
First responders and emergency managers who know what disaster recovery actually looks like.
Counselors and social workers — our grants exist because recovery is as much emotional as material.
Adjusters and brokers — claims-advocacy insight for the families our grants serve.
Contractors and restoration professionals who understand the rebuild timeline families face.
K-12 teachers and school counselors — kids are at the center of what these grants replace.
People who know how funding is won, structured, and reported.
Owners who understand what it takes to keep a small operation alive — and what our Small Business Restart work should look like.
People who have been displaced by disaster themselves. No professional credential compares to knowing what this is like.
To be clear about how we work: professional expertise on the board is oversight — the judgment in the room — and is separate from any professional services the foundation might ever engage. Board service is uncompensated.
Professionals evaluate bounded commitments, so here is exactly what board service asks:
| Term | Two years, renewable up to three consecutive terms. The founding cohort is staggered — two seats at one year, two at two years — so the full board never turns over at once. A one-year founding term is available to first-time directors who want an exit ramp. |
|---|---|
| Meetings | Four per year, 90 minutes, by video, plus one in-person annual meeting. Year one runs heavier — roughly six meetings — while policies and the first grant cycle are being built. |
| Hours | Three to five per month typical, and more in the weeks around our annual fundraising event once that is running. |
| Committees | Each director chairs or serves on at least one committee. Committees include non-board volunteers — this is how a small board runs a real operation, and it's the primary pipeline to future board service. |
| Giving | No dollar minimum. Every director makes an annual gift that is personally meaningful to them, and every director participates actively in fundraising — introductions, sponsor asks, and helping run our events once they are up and running. |
| Governance | Every director signs an annual conflict-of-interest disclosure. |
There's a lower-commitment way in: our advisory committee and grant review committee. No fiduciary duty, no governance responsibility — just your expertise, applied where it's most useful. Many of our future directors will arrive exactly this way. Check "Advisory or committee role" in the form below and we'll talk.