Board Reality Check

One of the first myths I learned when I started my nonprofit career can be stated in two words: “Boards fundraise.” Some do, though generally that consists of getting their corporations to contribute, or selling tickets to your special events to their friends.

These are not, of course, bad things. To the contrary, they are quite good. They are not, however, fundraising. Nor, I would argue, is fundraising asking your friend for a gift in exchange for a gift of the same amount that you will give to the nonprofit where he or she is involved.

That, however, is how most board members view fundraising, and it plays a big part in why they don’t want to be involved.

That most boards don’t fundraise may be a fact, but it is also a fact that we really need them to. At a time when even the 400 largest nonprofits are seeing declines of up to 9 percent in their fundraising revenue, we all need to be working harder. If your organization, like many, has been overly dependent on grants, your need is even greater and going to get greater still.

Since the 1940s, giving as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) has hovered around 2 percent. Last year it was 2.2 percent, down a bit from the previous year.

Where those funds come from has also remained remarkably steady over the years.

In 2008, about 5 percent of all charitable gifts were made by corporations. Another 13 percent came from foundations, and — even though this represents a drop from 2007 — a whopping 75 percent of all charitable gifts came from living individuals. If you add gifts by bequests, individual giving rises to 82 percent.

Clearly, to get your charitable revenue to increase, you need to go where the money is — and that is to individuals. Here is where your board can and should be a real resource.

Fundraising, especially with individuals, is about relationships. Your board members have stronger connections to likely donors than any staff member could. Even if you are as passionate about the work you do as the most passionate of your board, the fact that you are paid will always come into play. Your board member’s passion, on the other hand, is seen as authentic. After all, they pay — with their time, their talent and, yes, their treasure — to be involved.

Important steps
Translating that passion into action is the challenge. How do you get your board to be a real partner in fundraising?

The first thing is to do a reality check with your board. Find out what its members really think about their fundraising roles, what keeps them from enthusiastically fundraising and what they expect from you.

This can be harder than it sounds. Members of your board might not want to talk about what concerns them about fundraising. They may not want to talk about fundraising at all.

This reality check is important for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is starting or kicking into higher gear the conversation about fundraising with your board. Starting the conversation is one important factor. Listening to what your board members really are saying is another thing altogether. And it is the more important part.

Often, board members would be more than willing to help with fundraising (and note that they are willing to help, not necessarily be one-person bands), if only they knew what to do.

Your job, therefore, is to ensure that they not just know what to do but also how to do it well. This does not mean that you give them a quick course in fundraising 101 and send them off. It does mean that you walk them through the process slowly, ensuring that they experience success.

The best way for your board to be successful is to start small. I liked to bring my board a list of recent gifts and ask them to hand-write letters to the donors. This is a great first step because it is not threatening, and it shows that fundraising is far more than just asking for money.

It is, after all, asking for that check, credit card number or stock certificate that is most daunting. Take them there slowly, and understand that many will never get that far. Still, with the right moves, you will get all of your board to help with fundraising.

Over the years, board members have come into meetings jazzed because someone they sent a thank-you letter to contacted them to say thanks. A great next step is to ask them to call that person back and invite him or her for a tour or a meeting with the board member and the ED. This, you can assure them, is not to ask for an additional gift, but rather to connect the donor more closely to your organization.

Again, the best thing is not the meeting but the hands-on teaching to your board member what fundraising really is. Make sure that the meeting is about connecting the donor with your organization and not about asking for a gift. From this point, it is a pretty easy step to encourage your board to set up meetings with other people so you can connect them.

Make a big, very big, deal of these appointments at your board meetings. Thank the member(s) profusely, and ask him or her to tell the others what occurred.

As your board members begin to see that fundraising really is about giving people an opportunity to get connected to an organization they have great pride in, they will begin to see it as an opportunity for them to share this pride with those they know.

Inevitably, some of this will lead to gifts. More importantly, you will have partnered with your board in service of your organization and by doing this you will turn the myth into reality. If you take the time and work with your board, then you will be one of the few organizations that can say, “Our board fundraises.”

Janet Levine is a consultant and trainer who owns Janet Levine Consulting.