I’m often asked, “How do we get our board to help us with fundraising?” I actually think people are asking the wrong question. I believe the question is: “What should we do differently to cause board engagement?”
If you want your board to show up, be educated about your mission, enthused about their duties, talk to others about your organization with passion, share stories about those you serve, invite others to do specific things AND feel great about their board experience, then YOU have to make sure to support them and communicate clearly how they can best serve.
In life AND in nonprofit board effectiveness, communication is key to creating an experience that’s interesting, exciting, and enjoyable.
If you are a frequent reader of this blog you’ve are familiar with my motto: “It is 100% staff responsibility for board members to be great. AND 100% board responsibility to do what we said we’d do.”
There are many, many good resources to help you train, excite, and engage your board. Taking time to add in some professional development training for THEM is as important as it is to add in time to train staff.
To support you I’ve put together a FREE eBook filled with a collection of editable worksheets and templates. Please use these tools to help you create an amazing board experience AND cause board engagement all year-long. Here’s the link to download my brand new ebook Mission Possible: Your Workbook for a Successful Board .
While having some terrific tools to build in accountability and better communication is a great first step, sometimes you need outside help to move things along. I’m always honored to be invited to work with nonprofit boards to shift their fundraising culture.
We are now accepting applications for my January 2015 Fundraising Boot Camp. These are intimate webinar classes for 6 nonprofit organizations who have applied and been accepted to start the year off by creating or updating their annual fundraising plan. Download the brochure to share & discuss at your next staff or board meeting.
If being a part of a class with others is not what you want or need I deliver 2 customized on-site Board Member Workshops each month. Just let me know if you’d like to talk about whether or not one of these options is right for you.
No matter if you invite me or someone else in to to support you, please take the time to fully ignite your board for 2015.
My mission is to help you raise more money from individual donors. My vision is that you do that with genuine ease & joy! And I know that having a fully-engaged, passionate board is a giant step toward that goal.
