“Board Engagement” – A BIG Perspective

As we’ve often discussed, fund raising is far easier and more effective if you can tap into donors’ hearts so, for them, giving is an act of fulfillment, an act of feeding their passion. If you can connect their hearts and nurture their passion for your institution, they’ll be thinking, “How can I help?” rather than feeling put upon when you ask, “Won’t you give?”

But that’s easier said than done if you have a board that resists fund raising. How do you remedy that?

A recent article in Advancing Philanthropy magazine aims to answer that question, but I think it misses the mark.    The conventional wisdom presented in this and so many other articles calls for deeper board “engagement” in fund raising, but it defines “engagement” as little more than performing preordained tasks. The article uses verbs like “expected,” “required,” “enforced” — as if this is a job and fund raising is a job requirement. This approach does not create true engagement; it enforces a sense of obligation — which burns energy on both ends of the equation. It requires energy from administrators and board leaders who grudgingly “enforce,” and it requires energy from the other board members who must grudgingly meet their obligations. This is negative energy, and it burns reserves that could be channeled far more positively.

Earlier this year, I attended a board meeting for a charity I advise. The board members were “required” to sign a “Board Commitment Policy” that included lines like: ” Each voting member of the board shall make an annual cash donation to the organization” and “All board members will be required to volunteer their time and energies on at least one day of program operations each calendar year.” I don’t quarrel with the desired outcome. Nor do I quarrel with the idea that board members engage.

But the path to engagement is the rub. Just as good fund raisers must nurture donors’ passion, so, too, must non-profit leaders nurture board members’ passions. There are bold, innovative, and generous people at the board table. You have to help them discover their BIG passion and connect their hearts with your cause. Stop framing board participation as a job. Start framing board participation as an opportunity.

In the article , a fund raising expert is quoted as saying, “Every board member should be asked to be part of prospect development.”  I disagree. I think every board member should be given the opportunity to spread their passion for the cause. Just semantics? No. It’s about the mindset with which you approach your board and the mindset that your board members have.

Engagement for a board member should not be about doing a job, meeting an obligation, or performing some duty. It should be about personal fulfillment, opportunity to connect with a cause, a way to discover and then spread passion.

Many organizations do a lousy job of helping board members explore and discover their connections to the cause. In many cases, board members join because a friend or co-worker tapped them and “it seems like a good cause.” So when the organization says, “You are obligated to volunteer at the picnic,” the board member dutifully, but grudgingly obliges — while passion remains dormant.

What if that same organization presented the picnic as an opportunity: “Meet the families and hear the stories. This will be a wonderful way for you to look beyond the numbers and hear directly from them how much of a difference we make in changing lives.”

What if non-profits consistently nurtured board members passion by asking them to reflect on their connection to the cause? What if the organization reminded board members that fund raising begins with story-telling and that the same stories that reflect their passion are stories they can share with others who might connect with the cause?

And so we circle back to fund raising. We raise more money and build stronger relationships if we feed donors’ passions. The board member who acts as an obligated solicitor will rarely do that well. The passion-driven, engaged board member — who loves to share passion for the cause, who finds it easy to tell those moving stories — will make it happen.

At the end of the meeting this week — long after we signed our commitment policy and ran through budgets and program policies — the program director shared a story: A mother called in a panic. Her daughter’s school was closed last year, and her current school is not one that participates in the academic enrichment program. Could the daughter continue in the program? The program director said she could. The mother said, “Thank God! and then proclaimed that the program was the single most important and life-changing experience for her daughter. Three years earlier, muggers murdered the girl’s father while trying to rob the family as it returned home from a dinner out. The girl shut down completely, was failing in school, and getting in deep trouble in the neighborhood. A teacher encouraged her to attend the program last summer. She didn’t want to go, but had no choice. She’s now a different person. A better student than she’d been before the family tragedy, confident about her future, eager to achieve things she never previously imagined.

Go to the picnic, board members, not because it’s an obligation, but because it’s an opportunity to connect with more families like this one, to hear more stories like this. And then after the picnic, tell the stories to your friends and your co-workers and anyone who will listen — not because you’re obligated to raise money but because it’s fulfilling, and exciting and (gasp!) fun to share your passion with others who get it. It’s what you do when you’re BIG. That’s not a burden; it’s a joy. And if an organization can nurture that approach, if the organization can find ways to help you be BIG,  both the organization and the board members will have far richer experiences.