Christian Leadership Alliance
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Dealing with Difficult People
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How to Get Your Board to Love Fundraising
5 Essential Principles and Practices to Spark a Listless Board| Outcomes, Sep/Oct 2007, Vol. 31, No. 5
Some time ago Ron, a ministry CEO friend, stared dejectedly across the lunch table. "I don't get it. My board says fundraising should be one of our top priorities, but none of them is willing to help me raise a dollar. I feel like quitting."
It doesn't have to be this way. If your board seems listless about, even resistant to, fundraising, don't give up. Ron didn't. As he discovered, if you want your board to love fundraising, you can't ignore five essential principles and practices.
1. Govern wisely. A competent, well-organized board goes hand in hand with a well-run organization. Donors want to invest in successful organizations, not those pleading poverty. How many letters have you received at the end of the year begging for help to get out of the red? Are people aware of your successes? Imagine how much more involved your donors (and your board members!) would be if they saw the many transformed lives as a result of your mission.
Governing wisely means choosing the right chief staff officer, agreeing on a clear and compelling mission, setting strong values to guide the ministry, adopting reasonable goals, developing sensible parameters around activities, and measuring performance. Unless these governance-related tasks are done well, forget about successful fundraising. Most of us forget that there are one million American charities competing for donor dollars.
What does governing wisely look like? We believe a critical task is to organize all board policies into a 15-20 page Board Policies Manual (BPM) to:
- eliminate confusion between board and staff roles,
- have in one place all the policies required of a board to govern,
- focus everyone's energy,
- give confidence to donors who evaluate the work of the board,
- prevent the board from reinventing the same wheel (policy) or actually
- contradicting earlier board policies.
A well-written BPM gets everyone on the same page. It's the "one voice" of the board on policy matters and the board "owns" all that's in it. The CEO then sets administrative plans and procedures that don't conflict with the board's policies. The BPM allows the board to set fundraising goals and guidelines without getting into management. The BPM is a "living document," always being reviewed and amended as the board becomes wiser in the task of governance.
2. Communicate roles and expectations clearly—and tailor them to fit a person's skills, personality and availability. While board members of many Christian organizations are often some of their biggest donors, few of them are willing to ask others to give generously. What do you expect of your CEO and board members when it comes to fundraising? Whatever it is, put it in the BPM and make sure every person understands these expectations before he or she says "Yes" to serving on your board.
