The Role of the Board in Fundraising October 29, 2009

In our eNewsletter coming out today, we have an excellent article on the role of the Board of Directors in raising funds for your organization.  It's written by one of expert GiftWorks Consultant Partners: Pete Nixon of Apogee Consultants in Park City, Utah.  You won't want to miss it in your inbox!  Please let us know if you're not on our mailing list. 

It's typical for a board to want to "delegate" fund development to the Executive Director and/or Development Director and take on other matters.  But, really, this is part of the core board responsibility, and one that cannot be totally delegated to staff.

Ruthellen Rubin, CFRE, another expert GiftWorks Consultant Partner, writes about this topic (among many others) in her blog.  Here's an excellent article Ruthellen wrote on this topic that was published in Fundraising Success Magazine:  Success in Fundraising Starts with the Board of Directors. 

I have never been involved in a nonprofit organization that hasn't struggled with this issue in some way.  We'd love to hear your insight from a board or a staff perspective! 

Comments

I am both a Giftworks consultant and a board member of a nonprofit. At our meeting last night I pointed out just this issue to both the other board members and also our ED. He was afraid we would just be putting more burden on staff. I said that fundraising was our responsibility.

I also think that having a product like Giftworks is essential.

The organization I was hired to direct, the Latino Community Association, had a successful fundraising board member (1 of 10) when I was hired. I made it very clear that that very fact was an attractant to me as I'd never worked with a board that was good at fundraising. We struggled to get other board members more involved. Then that board member resigned and, despite our best efforts to get others to connect with the donors she brought to our group, they did not follow through.

I have been amazed by the disparity between board members' passion for our mission, but absolute lack of responsibility with fundraising. Fear of rejection is what I boil it down to. Not easy to overcome. I've given up in the short-term and have become a grant-writing fool, but I don't see grants as a sustainable source of funding for us. I'm pushing for campaigns that increase individual donors, raise awareness of our work, and truly lead to broad community support. I share articles, books, and more, but I know they are mostly unread.

Not sure what it will take. We are seeking new board members, but none is a hired gun for fundraising.

Brad,
Thanks for sharing. I strongly suspect your challenges are more the norm than not. I am posting a few more articles on this timely topic.

Mary Pat