First and foremost, happy Fall! We hope everyone had a wonderful summer.
One of the principal activities in which non-profit Boards of Directors play a key role is obtaining major gifts to reach the goals of capital campaigns, major gifts programs, endowment, and annual funds.
Indeed, the success of any fund raising efforts depends in large part on the efforts of directors in both giving and enlisting gifts. The role of directors in helping the organization obtain major gifts is more comprehensive and pervasive than merely “giving and getting” major gifts and grants.
Directors Help Establish the Environment in Which Major Gifts Are a Logical Outcome of a Planned Approach.
Directors can fulfill a unique role in establishing an environment at their organization in which major gifts are looked upon as necessary, all-important, and possible, and in which the obtaining of major gifts becomes not just an unwelcome job, but also a whole way of life for the institution.
If directors at your organization say or feel that they do not understand how or why donors make major gifts, or that they do not really know anyone who can, or that they themselves do not make major gifts, then there is little hope that other volunteers, or the management for that matter, will mount a sustained effort to locate, cultivate, and obtain major gifts.
However, if your organization has at least two or three directors who feel that people who believe in the institution should make major gifts, or who recognize that they have friends and associates who are capable of making major gifts, and who prompt other directors and the management to plan and sustain an effort to obtain major gifts – then we inevitably have an institution which can receive major gifts.
How Do Directors Establish This Kind of Environment?
There are at least seven ways in which directors help establish an institutional environment that encourages and stimulates the obtaining of major gifts:
1. Establishing a Belief in the Organization’s Plans for Success
An effective director usually joins the Board of an institution because they believe in its mission. Directors who believe wholeheartedly in that mission and the goals it can generate enthusiasm among other directors, with the management and staff, and also with other volunteers and prospective major donors. This belief in the mission is the first step for an effective director.
2. Establishing Priority
Directors have many interests and demands on their time and pocketbooks. Thus, it’s vital that they establish your organization as a priority: a priority in the time that they give to voluntary service, a priority in their thoughts and enthusiasm, and a priority in their own personal giving.
Successful directors also establish priorities for various projects within the institution. And when you have directors who feel that completing a new surgery suite, increasing endowment, providing a new library wing, or increasing the reservoir of funds for feeding the hungry are priorities – then you will see projects initiated and sustained, and you will see major gift prospects being identified, cultivated and solicited successfully.
3. Establishing Identity
Directors can establish Identity for the organization when they:
- Identify themselves with the institution, which is invaluable in attracting influential donors.
- Identify the institution with its mission
- Identify prospective major gift donors who are or could be deeply interested in the organization’s mission.
Some directors constantly identify themselves with their institutions. Their enthusiasm naturally wells up in the course of their everyday activities. It’s no accident that their institutions achieve local, regional, or national identity, while others are still almost invisible.
4. Establishing Planning Procedures
Directors can and should establish planning as a continuous procedure at their organization. Big gifts cannot be obtained without big plans. There are institutions in which the development program is reduced to mere fundraising because the strategic development planning – and even short-range planning involving major gifts programs – has come to a standstill. Often the fundraising has not paralleled the institution’s planning effort, and is not integrated with clear objectives into the overall plan. Directors are able – through their own insistence and interest – to see that planning is inaugurated and sustained. Major gifts do not come from personal contacts and “clout” alone- most often they come in support of well-formulated ideas, concepts, programs, and plans.
5. Establishing and Encouraging Involvement
Most major gifts – $25,000 and more – come from donors who have become involved with the organization. Directors can encourage and establish this involvement by helping to obtain new directors, helping to nominate and cultivate prospects board committees, advisory groups, development committees, and development participants at many levels. By insisting on involving volunteers and prospects with the ongoing life of the institution, directors can pave the way for major gifts.
6. Establishing and Encouraging Expressions of Appreciation
Vital to the obtaining of major gifts is the gratitude expressed by organizations to those who give and work for them – and director’s play and important role in donor recognition. By encouraging management to recognize and thank donors in many ways, by going out of their way to express appreciation themselves, by remembering past donors and their surviving families, by keeping the organization from being a closed society, directors can establish a way of life in which appreciation is spontaneous and genuine. Often a well-planned donor and volunteer recognition effort can elicit gifts which otherwise may never have been given.
7. Establishing Action
Directors can insist on the clarification and articulation of their organization’s aims, of plans, of a program and schedule to carry out the plans. In addition, they can insist on action from their own board for support to the program. Director interest in the development program, in the progress in obtaining major gifts, in hearing reports on cultivation and solicitation – all prompt management and staff into even greater progress.
Obtaining major gifts is not just a phase of a development program; it is a way of life for a non-profit organization. This way of life involves constant reinforcement of the mission, continued planning, the supporting of projects which help fulfill the mission, enlisting directors and other volunteers who give the organization high priority in gifts of time and money, expressing appreciation, and following a sustained and active process of identifying, cultivating, and soliciting new prospects for major gifts. Directors can and should help create an environment that achieves all of these objectives.
But it Starts with You
It is the responsibility of the CEO or development team to provide board members with the tools needed to be successful fundraisers. Board members must be informed about, and
committed to the organization; knowledge and commitment are the two strongest tools anyone asking for a gift can have. Regular, consistent board education and awareness building is needed. These tools will give your board members the confidence to pick up the telephone, knock on a door, and make the appointment to meet with their banker, relative or neighbor and ask for a gift.
Educate board members on fundraising with workshops, retreats, online PowerPoint presentations, and share fundraising tips regularly. Continually reinforce your shared belief in the organization’s mission and values. Assign tasks that involve board members in a fund-raising campaign that require them to solicit gifts. Give them the opportunity to be visible at community events. Partner a board member who is a successful fund-raiser with a new recruit as a mentor.
Create opportunities for board members and volunteers to experience the organization.
If you can create this kind of relationship with your board, you will build a successful, committed, and sustainable fundraising environment for your organization.
I hope you have found these ideas useful. If I can be of any further assistance, please give me a call. To learn more about how The Huddleston Group can help you and our “special approach”, unique in the industry, please visit our website at www.TheHuddlestonGroup.com or email me at ron@thehuddlestongroup.com
Good Luck
Ron Huddleston, CFRE, FAHP
President
