Resources to Help Engage Your Board in Fundraising

March 2012

A constant challenge for nonprofits—almost every nonprofit, everywhere—is getting board members to raise funds. With the right motivation, training, and support, some of your board members can overcome their hesitation. Start with clear ground rules about your fundraising expectations prior to bringing a new board member onboard. Discuss any requirements that board members will make personal and/or business contributions within a specific timeframe. Be equally specific about any expectation that board members are to ask others for contributions.

Part of the problem is that few board members know how to do fundraising, and most are afraid to ask others to give. You can help some board members get past their fears. Begin by inviting them to open up their Rolodexes, e-mail contacts, holiday card lists, etc. to identify potential contributors. That means going to their offices or homes and helping them identify prospects. Asking for gifts from friends, family, associates, and/or strangers can be very daunting, so you must provide lots of handholding and support if you want board members to succeed.

With the appropriate organizational structure, clear expectations, and high-quality training, some of your board members can become successful fundraisers. And don't forget that there are lots of legal and regulatory issues regarding fundraising that board members must also pay attention to. The following resources from IdeaEncore Network can help.

Helping Board Members Raise Money

• Board Service Option Form from Graceful Fundraising engages board members in the process of development—including personal contributions ($10).
• Grassroots Fundraising Journal's Finding Your Inner Fundraiser: A Self-Assessment Tool (free).
• Foundation Center's Your Board and Fundraising: An Introductory Class helps the board think systematically about fundraising (free).

Fundraising Ideas Your Board Can Use

• Another article from the Grassroots Fundraising Journal, 53 Ways for Board Members to Raise $1000 (free).
• GuideStar's report The Fundraising Methods That Worked Best in 2010—and Could Work Best in 2011 (free).
• Third Sector New England's article How to Raise a Lot More Money Now excerpts from Network for Good's ebook Money Now: 50 Great Ideas from 11 Top Experts (free).

Fundraising Methods

• Executive Institutional Advancement Exchange's webinar Why, When and How the Big Gift Campaigns Work (free).
• CJW Consulting & Services, Inc.'s Using Social Media for Fundraising ($20).
• Third Sector New England's Adventures in Email Fundraising written by Andrea Berry (free).

The Hardest Step: Asking for the Gift

• Getting People to Ask for $$, from Bob Zimmerman and Ann Lehman (free).
• Scribner & Associates' e-book How to Ask for Money without Fainting ($7.50).
• Getting to Yes! Asking for gifts! from a von schlegell & co. (free).

Fundraising Policies and Regulations

• Understanding and Drafting Nonprofit Gift Acceptance Policies by Kathryn W. Miree, Esq. (free).
• Policy for Approving Fundraising Initiatives Conducted by Others from Janie Anderson Consulting Services (free).
• What Must a Tax-Exempt Group Do to Acknowledge Donations? from Pro Bono Partnership, outlines IRS rules (free).

Fundraising Basics

• Linda Lysakowski's book Nonprofit Essentials: The Development Plan (free).
• J.M. Greenfield & Associates' Budgeting for Fundraising adapted from Hank Rosso's 2010 "Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising" ($20).
• Building a Case Statement, from OneOC (free).
• Tom Ahern's book Seeing Through a Donor's Eyes ($24.95).

Flo Green, IdeaEncore Network
IdeaEncore Network
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Florence (Flo) Green is co-founder and vice president of IdeaEncore Network (www.ideaencore.com), which envisions a future in which every nonprofit shares what they know. Nonprofits can use our online information resource exchange to save time/money by reusing shared knowledge, by uploading files/links for others to use (for free or to sell), by making their expertise visible by "liking," rating, and commenting, and by embedding their branded online library—that displays IdeaEncore resources—within their Web sites.

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