Personal Payoff

And the work is hard, Prakash said. Not only do executive volunteers work with fewer resources than they may be accustomed to, and often with smaller professional staffs; they also have to work extra hours at night and on weekends after they've put in time at their paying jobs. It can be exhausting and tedious, he said, and it has driven some board members Prakash has known to quit.

"It's much more of a working board . . . than a celebrity board," he said. "We always feel like we're certainly working, but there's always more to do. It can be daunting."

The vision of board meetings held around a glossy mahogany table with technology that beams in other members from around the world is pretty much the opposite of what many nonprofit board members experience.

At Brainfood, board members cram into the one room where three staff members are also working at the Columbia Heights headquarters. They sit around tables and grab chairs "wherever we can find them," Dahm said. If they're lucky and a meeting is held after a class, the board members may get a little treat the students made that day. "It's very low-frills," Dahm said.

Homestretch has filled its board with people with very specific skills. The chairman is a vice president at Capital One, with obvious resources when it comes to finance and loans; there are two lawyers who can guide the nonprofit on legal matters and refer clients when they need legal assistance; there's an accountant to help with financial responsibility, and a builder who can advise on acquiring and maintaining properties.

Park, the AOL executive working with Adoptions Together, said most of the help he provides is on technological matters. But he has also used his background in marketing, sales and technology development.

Mike Schwartz, director of community relations at Freddie Mac, is a member of the board of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League. On another nonprofit board, he said, he once had to help hire a new executive director. Five people had volunteered to read résumés, but none had any experience in hiring. "They felt bad asking questions. But if you had never interviewed someone for a job, you don't know what to ask," he said. Luckily, he did.

Freddie Mac and AOL have been corporate sponsors of the Greater DC Cares leadership training program since its inception. Freddie Mac has sent 123 employees through the training, 58 of whom were placed on boards. Richard D'Amato, vice president of community investment at AOL, said the company has sent 180 people at director level or above through the training, and that there is a waiting list. Not only does it show "another level of volunteerism" among the employees, he said, but "they come back to the company as better leaders. They come back as a more self-actualized person."

And it's good not only for the executive and the nonprofit. Service can actually help the business, Prakash said. Serving on the board of Brainfood, he reconnected with an old business contact. That led to several meetings between the contact and LexisNexis, he said -- and now they're planning to work together on a government contract.