Board

How do your board members feel about fundraising? Not enthusiastic, I’ll bet! One of the biggest myths around is that board members should be willing and able to raise money. We wish!

But here’s the reality: Most board members have some very real challenges when they are confronted with fundraising. Let’s look at the myths — and the realities — of board members and fundraising.

Nonprofit taboos are so insidious because they are unwritten and unquestioned. But that has to stop. If we want to move the nonprofit sector forward, we must uncover certain taboos and determine whether they are really unacceptable anymore. Here are the five most egregious taboos in the nonprofit sector: Nonprofits shouldn't … raise a surplus, pay market-rate salaries, demand board members fundraise, question donors and invest in fundraising.

There are some things your board and CEO just don't get about fundraising and donors, so it's your job to tell them. Here are five of them: 1. Donors feel good when they give. 2. Donors respond to sizzle, not steak. 3. Donors fund outcomes they can visualize, not strategic plans. 4. Donors don't like the same things you like. 5. Donors don't care about bells and whistles.

Anyone who's been in fundraising for at least a week knows that board members are reluctant to visit would-be donors in person. And yet personal visits are the sine qua non of securing big gifts.

As James Reynolds, mastermind of a long-ago Harvard campaign, put it: "No cow will let down her milk in response to a letter or a telephone call. You have got to sit down beside her and go to work."

It'll always cause anxiety, but asking will be more palatable if board members understand the following dynamics.

Nonprofit board members are growing increasingly interested in how nonprofit executives are using technology to increase funds, retain donors, generate engagement and cultivate awareness. In fact, David Edelman, a digital marketing strategist, is noticing that boards in the for-profit sector are being asked for detailed digital strategies. Edelman identifies five concerns for business boards, which can be applied to the nonprofit sector as well …

This year, the FSV advisors tackled the issues every-sized organization and mission need to know to thrive well into the next decades.

"You can't handle the truth!" is Jack Nicholson's memorable line in "A Few Good Men." Fortunately, your board members are a hardier lot than Tom Cruise's character. They can in fact accept the truth — in this case, three fundraising truths — if you carefully explain the validity of each.

If we really want to see a shift in how the nonprofit sector is funded, we need to make some pretty radical changes to business as usual. So start to entertain the idea. What would it look like if your board brought in 10 percent of your annual budget?

Spearheading a one-person development department can feel like you’re spinning 10 glass plates in the air.

Donors demand accountability and transcparency in today's philanthropy landscape. With that in mind, here are five things your nonprofit board can do to lead in that department: review and share organizational financials, condcut an annual assessment of your CEO, regularly assess your boards performance with a self-assessment, address issues head on, and lead with authenticity.