Nonprofit Board Fundraising - Yes or No

Nonprofit Board Fundraising – Yes or No? Easy answer—Don’t. Longer answer—Well, with a few exceptions.

Okay, yes, I have taught classes in getting your board to fundraise, I admit it, but first we need to define fundraising. Guess what, it’s not all about asking for money. There are actually four steps to fundraising:

Identifying donors
Cultivating donors
Soliciting donors
Stewarding donors.

So, when I say don’t expect all your board members to want to ask for money, and certainly don’t expect them to actually be good at it, and definitely don’t expect them to enjoy it. But remember, there are exceptions, and we’ll talk about those a little later. For now, let’s address those four steps in fundraising. There are some areas board members may be really good at. And it’s important to let them know that they are helping your fundraising more than they may realize.

Identify Donor Prospects

The first step in identifying donors is usually electronic research such as the DonorScope platform, which will help you find all the millionaires or billionaires in your community. It’s much easier than you might think. (For more information, check out link to Donor Scope) But it is the first step. You also have donors already in your file and many of these are smaller donors. Why? Perhaps you’ve contacted them through an impersonal way—direct mail, email, social media. Perhaps you’ve never asked them for more than $25, $50, or $100, so they never realized you needed or expected more. Maybe you’ve even made that fatal mistake of telling them, “Any size gift will help.” If you’ve ever done that, give yourself 10 lashes and vow to never do it again! You’d be surprised after reviewing the DonorScope list and uploading your contacts into Donor Scope how many of your small donors have the capacity to give ten, or a hundred times more than they’ve ever given you. Maybe you’ve just never presented them with a big idea which could have resulted in a major gift. I recall hearing about a gentleman who served on the board on one his local hospitals and had been giving them modest sized gifts. One day the Development Director of the hospital opened the local newspaper and saw that this gentleman had just made a $1,000,000 gift to another hospital in the community. After her shock wore off, she called the board member and expressed her dismay that he had never made a gift like that to the hospital where he served on the board. When she asked him why, his answer was simple, “You never brought me a $1,000,000 idea. Have you brought your major donor prospects a $1,000,000 idea? Do you have a case for support that tells people how much you need for programs, capital needs, and endowment? They may just be waiting for that big idea.

Nonprofit Board Member Networking

You’d be surprised how many nonprofit board members know people with giving potential larger than their giving history. I guarantee there is someone on your board with a contact who is a millionaire! Okay, you’re thinking I am crazy. Your board are not the movers and shakers in town, they may be other nonprofit leaders (not a good idea to put them on your board in most cases), or recipients of your services (also not suggested—you need board members with expertise and experience in governance roles.) But don’t discount the connections they might have—a neighbor, a relative, someone they worship with, may be a major donor prospect if approached properly. So, run a list of all your donors, give board members this list and list you have gotten from DonorScope and find out who they know. The next step is to develop a cultivation plan for these potential donors.

Cultivating Donor Prospects

Cultivation can be done in several ways—one-on-one or cultivation events. There may be some donors on your list that need the personal touch and if you have staff or board member who knows them personally, arrange meeting with the prospect. A cultivation event is the answer to seeing a large group of people at one time, present your case, and ask them for a follow up meeting. These non-ask events are a great way to cultivate relationships and learn more about the prospective donors on your list, while also telling them more about your organization.

Board members can greatly assist your fundraising efforts, by inviting the major donor prospects they know to attend these events, to sit with them, to answer questions, to encourage them to take the next step. Notice that so far there hasn’t been one single ask for money mentioned!

Eventually you will be asking these donors for money and to consider serving on your Campaign Cabinet and invite others to give. There may be a few board members who really get into this and want to get involved in asking—the third step in fundraising. But please, please don’t tell them every board member must ask for gifts. They won’t do it, or they will try and fail and say, “I told you so.” For the board members who want to ask, thank them and involve them in asking. For the others thank them for what they have done to help and don’t make them feel that they are not as good as the board members that are making asks. Remember, staff and volunteers can be good askers, probably better than most of your board.

Fundraising Campaign Stewardship

The last step in this process is stewardship and every board member can and should be doing this. Part of stewardship is providing sound financial oversight and making sure your nonprofit adheres to all legal and ethical standards. This is a major role of the board. The other thing they can do is call or write to donors to thank them. If you have well respected community leaders on your board, a call from them will make the donor feel good and they will be honored that a community leader took the time to call them. Their gifts will almost certainly increase with proper stewardship.

Final Thought

So, have you re-thought how you can involve board members in all the aspects of fundraising? I guarantee you will be able to recruit and retain good board members if you change your expectations of them and let them focus on their governance role.

Nonprofit Board Fundraising – Yes or No was first posted at Major Gifts Ramp-Up

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Linda Lysakowski

Linda is one of slightly more than 100 professionals worldwide to hold the Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive designation. In her thirty-plus years as a philanthropic consultant, she has managed capital campaigns raising more than $50,000,000, and helped countless nonprofit organizations achieve their development goals. A graduate of Alvernia University, with majors in banking, finance and theology/philosophy, and a minor in communications, Linda is also a Master Teacher, graduating from AFP’s Faculty Training Academy. She served on the Association of Fundraising Philanthropy (AFP) Foundation for Philanthropy Board and the Professional Advancement Division for the aAFP. She is past president of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Sierra (Nevada) AFP chapters. Linda received the Outstanding Fundraiser of the Year award from the Eastern Pennsylvania, Las Vegas, and Sierra (Nevada) chapters of the AFP, was honored with the Barbara Marion Award for Outstanding Service to the AFP and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Las Vegas AFP chapter. Linda is currently a staff writer for the National Development Institute and its Major Gifts Ramp Up Program, as well as a Senior Counselor for Development Systems International.