Thoughts on Nonprofit Leadership
In addition to a decreased capacity in service delivery, nonprofits are paying a high financial price because of The Great Resignation. On average, it costs 90-200 percent of an employee's salary to replace them.
The first line of defense is to...
As I explain in The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System, “Although your fundraising staff are responsible for implementing specific fundraising activities, you also bear some responsibility for how well your development staff performs. You work in tandem as a team. You, the executive...
As I state in The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System, “Fundraising is a charged word, and there are different perceptions of what it means. Many of them are negative and tinged with the fear of asking for money. Board members are no different. In my experience, most board members...
As I muse in my latest book The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System:
Ever heard anything like the following from your board members? I have.
- “If we could only get more grants.”
- “Agency X raised $100,000 through its event. Why can’t we do the same thing?”
- ...
Actions speak louder than words. As we pointed out in Overcoming Why Board Members Don’t Fundraise, one of the reasons why board members don’t engage in raising funds is they don’t have a good role model to learn from. And people need role models. If you expect your board to...
We all want to be acknowledged and appreciated. It is a human need to be recognized and validated. You can meet that need by incorporating opportunities for board members to be thanked for their efforts when you design your fundraising program.
Your Personal Efforts
You, as an executive director,...
To really excite your board about fundraising, focus on a transformational fundraising strategy rather than a transactional one. If your board is reluctant to fundraise, you may be giving board members transactional fundraising tasks to oversee, like asking for money and monitoring revenues....
Board members may resist fundraising. They may see raising money as solely management’s responsibility, not knowing their proper role. Or they get caught up in all operational details involved in planning and executing fundraising activities and don’t understand why the development...
Your board is the most valuable leadership asset your nonprofit has. Board members teach your community how to interact with your nonprofit. And you want your community to be excited about your cause and financially support your mission. You need board members who carry your message to the world....
