Thoughts on Nonprofit Leadership
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....
Is your board excited about fundraising?
Mine wasn’t. When I first became an executive director, one of the first things my board said to me was, “We are not a fundraising board. That’s why we hired you.”
Ugh. I knew I had my work cut out for me if finances were going to...
Do you, as executive director, want to increase your nonprofit’s capacity without increasing the budget? It can be done.
Meet the maternal health education agency whose funding was about 80 percent from government, just under 20 percent from foundations, and the rest individual donations....
This week, I give you excerpts from my book The Sustainable High ROI Fundraising System to guide you in hiring fundraising staff.
The Development Director’s Role
“A development director is a fundraising generalist with skills and experience in a wide variety of revenue...
