GuideStar Blog

You’ve recruited a strong, dynamic, and influential board. So, what now? It’s time to activate your board as fundraisers. Each of your board members needs to actively participate in fundraising to support your organization. Cultivating a fundraising mindset among your board of directors is a critical step in implementing a culture of philanthropy. 

If we think we can send board members out to fundraise without giving them tools, we might need some analysis. What are we thinking?! It’s a license for complete failure, and the proof is in the pudding. Time and again our board members fail to partner successfully with staff to develop the organization’s resources because we never show them how or provide the training.

Last fall BoardAssist launched a junior board matching pilot program to find junior boards for all the terrific millennials who approach us for board service. The pilot was an immediate success with loads of amazing young professionals approaching us for junior board seats. From the nonprofits we helped, the feedback has been extremely positive. While many were concerned that having a junior board would take a lot of staff time away from other critical functions, what we’ve heard has been wholly to the contrary. Millennials are terrific self-starters that don’t need or want a lot of hand-holding. Give them a task to do, and they will get it done!

I train people (and boards) to be great fundraisers. 

The following is a case study interview between Brian Saber, Asking Matters, and John Collins, founder and executive director of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, to understand his strategy behind successfully preparing board members to become leaders and advocates for his organization. 

Brian: Hi John. From what I understand you took a different approach to building your board when you founded the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance in 2012. Can you share what you did and why you did it?

Identifying new trustees for your board of directors is one of the most important functions any nonprofit board performs. And with nearly 2 million board seats opening up in this country every year, board recruiting can be challenging. For that reason, many nonprofits opt to turn to board recruiting services like BoardAssist for help. Choosing the best board recruiting service for your nonprofit is critical.

What questions should you be asking as you think through who will perform the very important function of board recruiting for you?  

 Board members hate quid pro quo fundraising, and I don’t blame them. How intrusive to ask one’s board members to cough up their entire contact list, and how unstrategic.I recently led one of the many board trainings I conduct each year, and heard the same complaints I always hear:

• “I don’t want to ask all my friends because they’ll ask me in return.”
• “My friends are deadbeats. I’m tired of asking and not getting anywhere.”
• “My friends are cheap. They give less to my organization than I give to theirs.”
• “I’m tapped out. I’ve asked everyone I know.”
• “They have their own organizations and areas of interest. They’re not interested in mine.”

And they’re right! All these are valid reasons for them not to want to cast the net wide. They should be valid reasons for you as well.

What do nonprofit executive directors really want from their board members? We know nonprofit leaders rely on their boards for financial support, but they also need so much more from them in non-financial ways. What ways to help mean the most to nonprofit leaders? Who better to ask than this week’s guest blogger, Ellen Simon, the former head of Union Settlement Association, one of Harlem’s largest nonprofits for more th an 100 years. Thanks for the great advice, Ellen!

A common refrain among executive directors is that board members aren’t involved enough in fundraising. Fundraising, however, is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a board member. Raising support for the organization is a key measure of the board’s commitment to the group’s mission and is one of the most tangible ways to ensure its sustainability.

The Q&A below is a follow up to address many of the questions raised by participants at the April 5^th webinar presented by Friedman LLP Accountants and Advisors. Don't miss out: view the recording of the event and slides from the event.