Your Board Needs to Dance to a Different Fundraising Tune
Because of an all-encompassing passion for dance as a kid, I never attended traditional summer camp and instead spent June and July at ballet intensives and jazz workshops. But in college I had the opportunity to be a counselor at a girls camp in Wisconsin. When I got there, the camp director assigned me to teach archery. I remember trying to bluster my way through it before one of the older campers gently showed me that I was holding the bow upside down. On the other side of the field, a group of campers was being instructed in dance.
I reflect on that summer often when I think of how we engage nonprofit boards in fundraising. The universal expectation is that part of a board member’s role is to “help fundraise.” And a lot of board members believe that “help fundraise” means “ask my friends to give money.” But the vast majority of development work is preparing potential supporters to be asked, not actually asking them. There are dozens of ways board members can be super useful to the fundraising effort without having to make “the ask.” Not every counselor is prepared to teach archery, just like not every board member is prepared, or comfortable, soliciting funds.
So why not refresh the way we involve boards in development so that we’re playing to each board member’s strengths? One way to look at it is what we at Brightspot refer to as the "Triple A" framework where board members take on the specific development-related role of Advocate, Ambassador, or Asker.
Advocates are tasked with telling the organization's story to raise awareness of the mission, which is fundamental to growing a pool of potential supporters.
Ambassadors assist with donor stewardship and building relationships, critical steps to ensuring supporters feel engaged with the work, know the mission, and understand the organization’s impact.
Askers are trained to solicit support. They’re comfortable in this space and have experience seeking donations.
At your next board meeting introduce the concept and have board members self-select where they’re most comfortable then collectively brainstorm specific tasks that support their role. For advocates, maybe it’s talking about the organization’s work at a community gathering. For ambassadors, perhaps it’s calling donors or volunteers to thank them. And for askers, it could be accompanying the executive director on a donor ask or making a corporate sponsorship pitch.
There’s several benefits to this type of structure:
Developing concrete assignments will help comfortably engage everyone in fundraising while providing additional capacity to your development function.
It removes anxiety from boards' fundraising responsibility, helping to meet board members where they are and make it more realistic they’ll actually do the work.
Finally, it can support shifting away from the antiquated idea of requiring every board member to make a financial contribution by building a culture where the focus isn’t solely on wealth. Everyone says they want to "diversify" their boards, but if the universal requirement is money, you're creating an unwelcoming atmosphere that may prevent people with equally as important experiences, perspectives, talents, and skills from wanting to join you.
If you’re not comfortable asking for money, being told to solicit a donation can be a bit like trying to teach campers how to hit a target when you’ve never held the bow. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be effective in other steps of the fundraising choreography.