Stop Training Your Board (and Start Engaging Them)

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Image: BoardEffect

If you had no interest in becoming a flugelhorn player, and attended a training on how to become a flugelhorn player, what are the odds that you’d emerge from that training a budding flugelhornist?*

Not totally zero. It’s possible you will start researching brass bands. But odds are, a training won’t motivate you to do something you have no interest in doing. There are plenty of other people in that one-off training that will handle flugelhorn duties, right?

You may have figured out I’m not really talking about musicians.

Question: Why do nonprofits keep training their boards on how to become fundraisers before asking the people on the board if they have any interest in becoming flugelhornists, err, fundraisers?

Because we cling to the notion (the hope, dream, prayer…) that when a person joins a nonprofit board, they are ready and willing to take an active role in fundraising. And when these board members don’t fulfill our fundraising expectations, we bring in a consultant to do a “training” to “teach” them real fast what we want them to do. Post-training, we hang our heads in frustration when they still don’t step up to the task. 

So why don’t our boards respond to all that training that we so kindly provided? 

Experience has taught me the following:

  • Expectation is not motivation 
  • Boards don’t raise (or give) money. People, some of whom happen to serve on boards, do
  • Each board member is an individual with their own passions, life circumstances, interests, and capacity. Board members are complex human beings, just like you and me, and don’t respond well to a herd mentality
  • Speaking of humans, it’s awfully hard to get our species to do things they don’t want to do—especially for a salary of $0

But there is hope! Stop treating your board as a conglomerate and start engaging with them as individuals. Take the time to meet with each one, ask about their motivations, and learn where your organization falls on their list of philanthropic priorities. 

Ask how they would be willing to help move the development function forward. From there, develop a plan for each individual and set your expectations accordingly. 

This may not result in your board of 10 or 12 or 20 being the world’s greatest fundraising board, but it very well may result in them being the best fundraising board your organization is blessed to have at this moment in its history.

*A flugelhorn is a cross between a cornet and a trumpet, and a predecessor to today’s bugle. 

 

Learn more about board motivation and raising funds in Chapter 14 of my new book “Finding Funding: How to Ask for Money and Get It.” 

Get Emotional

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Arm holding a heart and brain in balance

Image: Pxhere

Think about all the nonprofits in the world and the number that you personally support. 

Did you do a detailed analysis using a cost v. value matrix to make an informed, rational decision about where to donate your hard-earned money?

Unlikely. It’s much more likely that you support nonprofits with which you feel a personal, emotional connection. 

Emotion is the driver, but logic does help navigate. If I asked why you support the nonprofits you do, I bet your answer would contain a kernel of logic. You’d want to know how the organizations are making investments to eradicate societal issues such as finding affordable housing for our unhoused neighbors, providing care and services for people escaping intimate partner violence, or eradicating cancer.

When it comes to money, we use logic to keep our emotions in check. We want to convince ourselves (and others) that we are being smart about our donation–we aren’t giving money away willy-nilly to just anybody who asks. 

When asking someone to support a cause we love, what kind of approach will be most effective? An emotion-oriented pitch or a logical “best bang for the buck” logic-filled argument?

If your cause doesn’t activate something in your donor’s heart, chances are slim they will go down the logical path with you, even if you make a great case. Why? Because they are already going down that heartfelt path with the nonprofits with which they DO have an emotional connection.

How do we find out if that emotional connection exists between a donor and your cause? Research can determine if someone gives to similar-type organizations. The best way, however, is to just ask.

The beauty of asking, “Tell me, what nonprofits do you support and why?” is that you will get anything but a simple response. You will learn all kinds of things about why a person cares about what they do, their successes and failures, life influences, mentors, family dynamics, etc.—and whether any of that lines up with the work of your organization.

Here’s an example from my career: Why would a group of predominantly Jewish donors give more than $2 million to a private Christian college? 

Because that college was establishing a chair in Holocaust Studies.

And naming it in honor of their first Jewish board member. 

Who was a Holocaust survivor. 

Raising that $2 million was an act of love and respect. Any kind of cost/value calculation was secondary.

At year end, The Chronicle of Philanthropy writes about the donors who made the top charitable gifts that year. I’ve yet to read a story about one of those donors that didn’t contain an intensely personal story related to the cause(s) they support.

Donors are people. Foundations are run by people. People have rich and complex emotional lives. Mining that emotional landscape for the “why” that lies beneath the surface is the most important first step in creating an honest, thoughtful bond between the donor and your organization.

 

Learn more about getting emotional in Chapter 2 of my new book “Finding Funding: How to Ask for Money and Get It.” 

Unlock the Love

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Philanthropy heals.

Not just by supporting nonprofits working to heal people recovering from a physical or mental setback, the loss of a loved one, abuse, or any other form of past or present trauma.

Philanthropy actually heals the philanthropist.

This truth was revealed to me at a conference for healthcare development professionals that I attended several years ago.

A registered nurse spoke about the part philanthropy plays in the healing journey for those who received care themselves and for someone who accompanied a loved one through a difficult medical intervention. 

Research shows our human desire to give back helps move the healing journey along. Yet when a patient or family member asks a medical team member about how they can give back, the presenter said the response they often get is, “That’s not necessary. It’s our job to make you feel better.”

Her mission is to reverse that trend—and not just to direct money into her hospital system.

That response actually inhibits the healing journey. It is human nature to want to give back, she noted, to repay the place that treated you or your loved one. This desire to give back isn’t only for healthcare, by the way. Giving back to the nonprofit that helped your child overcome a learning disability or the program that brings your elderly parent their meals also closes a loop in the healing journey. 

Nonprofits doing good work—especially those that impact us personally—unlock a powerful set of emotions. And those emotions lead us to want to make a response, often in the form of giving back through volunteering or a financial contribution. 

The RN at that conference noted that everyone on her care team is trained to connect any patient or family member who makes an expression of generosity to someone in the development office. Far from taking advantage of that person, they are enabling that person’s spiritual and emotional healing to come full circle. To let them thank the organization for the gift of healing they received.

Too often philanthropy is associated with the “dirty work” of asking people for money, cajoling, twisting arms, etc. But, as this presenter noted, the truth is far deeper and more complex. Philanthropy, after all, literally means love of humankind.

Do someone a favor by helping them unlock their love response, and let the healing begin.

 

Learn more healing through philanthropy in Chapter 1 of my new book “Finding Funding: How to Ask for Money and Get It.”