• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Social Velocity

Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.

  • Consulting
    • Financial Model Assessment
    • Executive Coaching
    • Strategic Planning
  • Book
  • Clients
  • Speaking
  • Blog
  • About
    • Nell Edgington’s Bio
    • Media
  • Connect
  • Tools
Home » Board of Directors » Financing Not Fundraising: Jump Start Your Board

January 18, 2012 By Nell Edgington 15 Comments

Financing Not Fundraising: Jump Start Your Board

FacebookTweetLinkedIn

In part 12 of our on-going Financing Not Fundraising blog series we’re talking about activating an often under-used nonprofit financing resource: the board of directors. The words “fundraising” and “board” can sometimes seem so incongruous that it results in  a lot of eye-rolling on the part of an executive director. As a general (and probably optimistic) rule, nonprofit boards of directors are not very helpful at bringing money in the door. It is often a chicken or the egg scenario that leaves many nonprofits at an impasse. But I believe it is up to the executive director to get tough and strategic about getting her board to take action.

If you are new to our Financing Not Fundraising blog series, the series is about how nonprofits must break out of the narrow view that traditional FUNDRAISING (individual donor appeals, events, foundation grants) will completely fund all of their activities.  Instead, they must create a broader, more strategic approach to securing the overall FINANCING necessary to create social change. You can read the entire series here.

If you want to learn more about how to apply the concepts of Financing Not Fundraising to your nonprofit, check out our Financing Not Fundraising Webinar Series.

Here are some ways to get your board to bring more money in the door:

  • Make Them Strategic. Involve them in strategic planning. No one wants,  or is able, to raise money without a bigger plan. If you don’t currently have a strategic plan, put one together, but make sure to get the board involved in the whole process. It must be their strategic plan if they are going to help finance it. If you already have a strategic plan, make sure that you are updating the board, and more importantly, asking for their help on implementing it at every board meeting. It’s not enough to create a strategic plan, you must keep the board engaged in making it come to fruition.
  • Force Them to Give. Once your board is excited about the strategic plan and the future direction of the organization, get them to invest. It is unconscionable to me that there are still nonprofit board members who don’t make a financial contribution to their organization. Make it abundantly clear that a contribution (at a level significant to them) is a requirement of service. No one can convincingly ask someone else for money if they aren’t giving themselves. End of story.
  • Focus Their Fundraising. The highest and best fundraising use of a board member is major donor recruitment. Stop asking board members to be involved in any and all aspects of fundraising (event planning, direct mail letter creation, grant writing). Instead have them focus on tapping into their networks to bring people to the organization. And no matter how “connected” you may or may not think your board members are, believe me, their networks are vast. They include their friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, social media fans/followers, church congregants, fellow alumni and on and on. Ask each board member to come up with 5 people in their network that they think have the capacity to give at your major donor level. Then have the board member spend the year focusing on getting those people in the door.
  • Integrate Money into Every Conversation. A lot of boards don’t like to talk about money: either raising it, or how it is spent. Boards often have limited financial management conversations, skimpy or non-existent finance committees, and a general preference for discussing mission over money. But you can’t let them get away with that. It is absolutely critical that money be fully integrated into any conversation the board has. They must understand what the financial model of the organization is and be continually monitoring the ability of that model to deliver on mission.
  • Don’t Sugar Coat Anything. The tendency in the sector is to treat a board as the organization’s most important donors and from which you hide the truths about your organization. But you need to move beyond that and start helping the board to understand the harsh realities of your work. The next time your board asks you to raise more money without additional staff, or add programs without new funding, or go down a rabbit hole for no reason, tell them “No.” Give them your honest appraisal of what the organization should or shouldn’t do. And make sure they listen.

Boards need to step up. There is no doubt. But it is up to the executive director to make sure that they do. By getting your board to be strategic, focused, invested, integrated and aware they can start helping to finance your work.

If you want help jump starting your board, download the “10 Traits of a Groundbreaking Board” e-book.

If you want to learn more about applying the concepts of Financing Not Fundraising to your nonprofit, check out our Financing Not Fundraising Webinar Series, or download the 27-page Financing Not Fundraising e-book.

Photo Credit: Intercontinental Hong Kong

Related Posts

  • Nonprofit Board Fundraising
    Why Nonprofit Boards and Fundraising Must Mix
  • Is Your Nonprofit Board Avoiding Their Money Role?
  • The Right Questions to Ask A Potential Board Member
FacebookTweetLinkedIn

Filed Under: Board of Directors, Capacity Building, Financing, Fundraising, Individual Donors, Leadership, Nonprofits, Roadblocks, Strategy Tagged With: board fundraising, board role in fundraising, executive director, financing not fundraising, major donor fundraising, nonprofit board of directors

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. wayne says

    January 20, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    fantastic article and gives me a more focussed apporach to discuss at my next board meeting jump start your board

    Reply
  2. Nell Edgington says

    January 20, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Great. Glad to hear it, Wayne!

    Reply
  3. Shaun says

    January 20, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    great article – so clear; now need to read the whole series!

    Reply
  4. Marcus Edibgo Akor says

    January 21, 2012 at 4:16 am

    This is timely! Thank you Nell for this great one again. I will do as written immediately! Thanks and remain blessed.

    Reply
  5. Cindy Sinkez says

    January 21, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    I created a board member contract. One part of the contract is a requirement that all board members make a donation to our organization and a date that the donation should be received. This topic should not be taboo and should be discussed early and often.

    Reply
  6. Nell Edgington says

    January 21, 2012 at 4:06 pm

    Cindy, good for you! I absolutely agree, let’s get rid of the taboo topics!

    Reply
  7. Nell Edgington says

    January 21, 2012 at 4:06 pm

    Shaun and Marcus, thanks so much, I’m glad this is helpful. Good luck to you both!

    Reply
  8. Stan Cahn says

    April 8, 2013 at 6:56 am

    I work with a board where the members do very little if any of their own fund raising. I’ll pass this along to their exec director,

    Stan

    fundraising ideas

    Reply
  9. Nell Edgington says

    April 8, 2013 at 8:46 am

    Great, thanks Stan!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Free Training

Consulting Services

If you want your nonprofit or foundation to do and be more, Nell can help you get there

Ready to Learn More About Working with Nell?

Book a Discovery Call
Reinventing Social Change Book

FREE GUIDE: Find Your Social Change Joy

  • Figure out what you LOVE to do
  • Make time for it
  • Find your way back to Joy

Featured Blog Post Topics

  • Social Changemaker Interviews

  • Smart Strategic Planning

  • Effective Philanthropy

  • Networks for Social Change

  • The New Nonprofit Leader

  • A Groundbreaking Board

  • Reinventing the Nonprofit Sector

  • From Fundraising to Financing

Recent Posts

Woman with magnifying glass

You Can Turn Any Challenge into Opportunity

Marching soldiers

A Social Change Army is Amassing

It’s Not All Up to You

To Save the World, Save Yourself

Imagine the World You Want to See

Categories

  • Abundance
  • Advocacy
  • Board of Directors
  • Capacity Building
  • Capacity Capital
  • Financing
  • Fundraising
  • Individual Donors
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Networks
  • Nonprofits
  • Philanthropy
  • Roadblocks
  • Social Change
  • Social Movements
  • Strategy
  • Consulting
  • Book
  • Clients
  • Speaking
  • Blog
  • About
  • Connect
  • Tools

© 2022 Social Velocity | Privacy Policy | [email protected] | Tel: 512-694-7235