Comments on: Your Board is not Responsible for Fundraising

By: TupShoupe

TupShoupe — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:18:22 +0000

Very amusing phrase

By: liska

liska — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:24:33 +0000

The author continued in the same style

By: Tina Barton

Tina Barton — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:27:36 +0000

I agree!! Any given ‘Board’ just wants the bottom line RESULTS. They want to be included but refrain from the ‘work’. But if you are supported by your board, the energy carries you through to your next group that you might encounter or approach during your campaign/fundraiser/gala etc. Whatever you do, don’t rely on your boards to fundraise! Take control and use the Suddens Group Principals, they all work!

By: Linda Rogers

Linda Rogers — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:45:07 +0000

I disagree.

Who is responsible for fundraising will vary greatly from organization to organization. In smaller organizations, Boards are composed of people who come together for a certain reason, for example, to found a community orchestra in a small town. They are the key people interested in having such an orchestra and so it falls to them to be the principal fundraisers. They might raise the funds in the early years to hire a staff member to manage some day to day business of the orchestra, but cannot expect that person to also take on all fundraising for THEIR vision, nor expect that the professional musicians that they hire to fulfill THEIR vision will necessarily want to volunteer their time to help with fundraising.

I agree that as an organization grows and matures, fund development staff may be hired that take on more of the fundraising roles, and the Board become more narrowly focused on engagement and stewardship, giving up most of its fundraising role. However this is the case for a minority of Boards.

Many conflicts develop in organizations when it is unclear as to who “owns” the Mission of and organization. For example Board Members rufusing to fundraise for an orchestra might feel like they are there only to assist musicians with realizing their artistic goals and so feel that the musicians should be very involved with fundraising, while the musicians are feeling like they have been hired as professionals to deliver a service that the Board wanted to provide for the community and can just as easily play for another orchestra in another town. In this example, neither side feels that fundraising is “their” job because neither side owns the Mission of providing a professional orchestra for a community.

By: Nick Fellers

Nick Fellers — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:20:33 +0000

@Gayle Gifford, Thanks for posting this… finally had a chance to read. GREAT STUFF!

By: Gayle Gifford

Gayle Gifford — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:10:31 +0000

I agree. I’ve been preaching and writing about this for years. When I started saying it people thought I was insane. The first time I submitted my article “Banish Your Expectation of Board Fundraising” it was turned down. I finally published it for Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review at CharityChannel.com. I now get lots of requests for that one article.

Glad to know that other colleagues are also starting to tell the truth and spread the word.

I think one of the worst lies ever told to fundraisers and executive directors is that their board is responsible for fundraising. As you pointed out, they just end up resenting their board members rather than figuring out how to engage those few champions and get out and raise some money.

You can read the article at http://tinyurl.com/djnkwh