Turn Your Board into a Fundraising Board

Too often, I hear from organizations and development leaders that “their board isn’t a fundraising board.” The problem isn’t likely that your boards can’t fundraise, but rather they don’t know how. Most board members assume that fundraising is all about making the ask. In fact, solicitation only accounts for 5% of the entire cultivation cycle.

So how can you, as a development leader, teach your board members that fundraising is more than just asking for money? Here are a few key tips that will help you engage board members in each phase of the donor cultivation cycle.

STEP 1: Identification

Identifying donors is often the most important, because this is where your pipeline begins. Board members identify individual prospects by:

• Participating in a network mapping exercise that maps their professional and personal network. This exercise often uncovers prospective donors the board member wouldn’t have thought of;

• Making introductions between the board member’s network and development staff;

• Inviting friends and members of the network to volunteer, attend an event, or come to a mission introduction session;

• Creating community buzz; or by

• Hosting tours of your mission/organization’s facilities.

STEP 2: Qualification

Now that your prospects are identified we must assess which prospects have an affinity, the interest, and capacity to financially support your cause. The best ways for a board member to help qualify donors is by: 

• Participating in peer screening opportunities. Peer screening adds to the information already known about a prospective donor. The board member presumably knows their network very well and can add context to the donor profile that might not be easily found in public format;

• Reviewing major gift prospect lists regularly; or by

• Conducting one-on-one visits with prospects to learn more about them. 

STEP 3: Cultivation

Cultivation and Stewardship are the two most important phases of the donor cultivation cycle. Board members can help cultivate donors by:

• Inviting members of their network to attend a cultivation event;

• Hosting a mission driven breakfast;

• Joining you on a cultivation visit;

• Making introductions between you and their network; or by 

• Sharing their personal reasons why they support the organization.

STEP 4: Solicitation

Obviously, making the ask is still a very important part of the cultivation cycle, otherwise your efforts would be for naught. For those board members comfortable with this part, they can support you by:

• Joining a solicitation meeting;

• Sharing stories of impact that have resonated with them; 

• Helping to craft the proposal for a prospective donor in their network; or by

• Actually making the ask.

STEP 5: Stewardship

Like cultivation, stewardship is one of the most important things we do as fundraisers. Even better, this is a great way to engage board members in the fundraising process. Board members can help you steward donors by:

• Personally, thanking donors via phone and in writing;

• Informing donors of the impact the organization is having in your community;

• Participating in annual thank-a-thons, where they call donors and thank them for their support; or by 

• Hosting tours of the mission/organization’s facilities to current donors.

By implementing a few of these quick tips you can begin developing a culture of philanthropy amongst your board members, turning your board into a “fundraising board”. 

These tips are not meant to be exhaustive. We would love to hear what you do to engage board members in the fundraising process. Add your strategies to comments below.