Nonprofit Q&A Email-Forum

Whew! And I thought the Congress has political problems! You have your hands full, but your head is on straight, it seems.

Let me say at the beginning that ANYONE, I don’t care who he or she is, who thinks that grants and donors are “low-hanging fruit” is woefully misguided. Grants are great for expansion and capital needs, and donors will provide long-term sustainability. But easy picking? Not in this millennium. In the 1980s? Maybe. 1990s? Lots of folks worshipped at the Great Bull Market church then. But today? No. Today the key words are Mission, Outcomes, Relationships and Tenacity.

Let’s start with the philosophical question: how can board members feel comfortable with plans and goals that are presented to them.

The short answer is that they will be comfortable with plans and goals that they have participated in creating. In other words, if the board is a rubber stamp, there are lots of possibilities for conflicts and suspicion and maneuvers that undermine the Executive Director. But, if the board or a committee of the board is actively involved in setting fund raising goals and agreeing to tasks to meet the goal, the board will be comfortable.

Boards, in my opinion, should not be presented with the goal, but instead they should set it. After all, they have ultimate responsibility for raising it, so let’s get them involved at the beginning. Don’t misunderstand, the board should not do this alone either. Planning – whether for next month or five years from now – is the ultimate staff-board partnership.

Yes, you have to guide the process and maybe even provide most of the information. The important part is getting the board input and commitment.

I realize that for some organizations, board member input in budgets and goal-setting requires a major change in culture and operation. Go slow. As a new ED you are in a position to engage them quickly. An outside consultant who can facilitate the planning process is very helpful here. (And that’s a good topic for a future Q&A. Somebody remind me!)
Back to topic. If you can, you have to ignore the former ED and her power in the community right now. Smooth the feathers that you have to smooth, but focus on your agency and stay out of her way.

Why not start over with your budgeting? Give your board members an actually accounting of your agency’s revenue streams for the last several years. Where are the trends? What did it take to get those revenues in the door?

Then look at your program needs. If there’s more program expense than revenue, don’t let the board be tempted to cut programs to meet the revenue projections – that’s a business model. We’re nonprofit and have a different mind set. Instead, encourage them to brainstorm ways of meeting the program needs. These are the money ideas they need to meet the mission. Always bring them back to mission, because sometimes they forget. We all do.

After brainstorming new revenues sources, help them rank their ideas in terms of ease, likelihood of success, ability to execute without additional staff, return vs. effort, etc. Then ask them where they, personally, fit in to the plan. Board members probably shouldn’t be writing grants or solicitation letters, unless that’s what they do for a living, but they can make follow-up calls, open doors, chair events, and a thousand other things to make the plan work.

Once the board starts to realize that they have a vital role in the vision and fulfillment of mission, they are more likely to make the commitment of their time and money, and be confident with the plans they had a say in creating. And they will think the fundraising plans and goals presented to them for final approval are feasible.

 © 2004 by Jeane Vogel and Fund Raising Innovations