WVDO Third Thursday

1
WVDO Third Thursday

• Developing a Strong Fundraising Board
• October 21, 2004
• Presented by
• Colin Ware
• Senior Account Executive
• The Collins Group

2
What we will cover today

• Board myths and facts
• Recasting your board
• Structure
• Recruiting
• Setting Expectations
• Supporting Board Members

3
Board Myths - Structure

• All the activity provided by the board should
  fit into one structure.
• Board membership is the only meaningful
  recognition for service
• The only way to get someone to do something
  important for the organization is to put her/him
  on the board.

4
Board Fact - Structure

• The current widely accepted board model is over
  40 years old, and does not match the behaviors or
  expectations of the next generation of leaders

5
Americans are Working More

• In the 1990s Americans added a full 35 hours to
  their annual work load
• 35 cared for an aged parent in 2001, up from 26
  in 1998
• More boomers live in single adult households

6
Boomers Volunteer Differently

• Demand meaningful experiences
• Volunteer less 4.7 hours per month in 1987 vs.
  3.6 in 2000
• 1/3 say they will volunteer in retirement
• Half of older (50-59) boomers anticipate
  volunteering for episodic special projects vs.
  23 who anticipate ongoing involvement

Source Harvard School of Public Health-MetLife
Foundation - 2004
7
Boomer Retirement Expectations

• 75 say the will relax and indulge themselves
  more than their parents did/do
• 84 say they will need more money than their
  parents

Source Harvard School of Public Health-MetLife
Foundation - 2004
8
More Boomers Will Work In Their Retirement

• End of mandatory retirement
• Fewer financial disincentives
• Improved health and longevity
• Working important to self esteem
• Need the money!

Source Harvard School of Public Health-MetLife
Foundation - 2004
9
Implications

• Board structures must change
• Opportunities for short- term commitments needed
• More leadership volunteers needed
• Start courting the boomers now

10
Board Myth - Recruiting

• If we tell prospective board members the truth
  about the duties and responsibilities of being a
  board member, they will not come on the board

11
Board Fact - Recruiting

• Transparency and honesty are more important than
  ever
• If you dont set expectations at the time of
  commitment, it is very difficult to change
  behavior in the future

12
Accountability is Still a Problem

• Corporate scandals
• Congressional investigations
• Press for efficiencies
• Non-profit ethics blunders
• Red Cross and 9/11
• United Way
• 36 of boomers believe charities are less
  trustworthy than 10 years ago

13
Setting Expectations

• Boards recruited with no expectation of giving,
  rarely evolve easily into those that give (or get)

14
Implications

• You cannot trick a board into becoming a
  fundraising board
• Transparent, ethical staff/board and board/board
  relationships are a prerequisite of an effective
  board

15
Board Fundraising Myths

• If we double the size of the board, we will
  double the size of our contributed income.
• We must attract corporate CEOs, foundation
  trustees and individual heavy hitters for our
  board to be a good fundraising board.

16
Board Facts

• Its not the total number that matters its the
  number raising money
• There just arent enough heavy hitters to go
  around

17
Giving in Oregon
12.19
Foundations
Corporations
26.90
(5.1)
(11.2)
18.10
Bequests
(7.5)
183.73
Individuals
(76.3)
All Figures Rounded
Source AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy/Giving USA
2003
18
Boomer Wealth

• Less equally distributed than parents
• Much more debt
• Much will come from wealth transfer

19
Implications

• Non-profits MUST identify a new generation of
  leaders
• Non-profits must cast their fundraising net far
  wider than in the past
• Identifying wealth is much harder than in the
  past
• May need more donors as boomers may give less

20
Arthur Ashe

• Do what you can
• Use what you have
• Start where you are.

21
Recasting Your Board

• Structure
• Recruiting
• Expectations
• Staff Support

22
Structure and Operations
From this
23
Structure and Operations
To This

• Involvement increases as you move to center
• Volunteers will move closer and further
  depending on many factors

Source Arts Boards/McDaniel Thorn
24
Structure and Operations

• Leadership center
• Staff, Program and Board leadership
• Set direction, policy, budget
• Lead resource development work
• Leadership core
• Board-like in terms of size may be smaller
• Task forces vs. committees
• Shorter commitments
• Participate in resource development
• Participate in expertise-specific tasks

25
Structure and Operations

• Community connections
• Program and leadership volunteers
• One-time event volunteers
• Auxiliaries
• Friends willing to do a few things for you
• Civic and political relationships
• May or may not participate in resource
  development

26
Structure and Operations

• Evolve the structure
• Traditional standing committees
• New task forces
• Evolve communications methods
• Traditional regular meetings
• New virtual meetings email, web conferences,
  phone calls, faxes

27
Structure and Operations

• Evolve volunteer roles
• Traditional President, Secretary, Member,
  Committee Chair
• New Advocate, Event Planner, Ambassador, Numbers
  Guy, Fundraiser, Publicist, Friend Raiser,
  Planner

28
Structure and Operations

• Outcomes
• Many more connections into the community for
  fundraising
• Volunteer responsibilities matched to interests,
  abilities and availability
• Flexibility of structure allows integration of
  many more volunteers than traditional board model
• Variety of roles makes organization attractive to
  wider group of potential volunteers

29
Structure and Operations

• Moving Forward
• Survey current volunteers
• 21 Ways
• Eliminate unnecessary committees
• Re-form time-limited task forces around specific
  needs
• Raise 100,000
• Increase organizations visibility in business
  community
• Introduce civic leaders to organizations
  programs
• Set aggressive time limits for each task force

30
Recruiting

• Traditional
• Board members identify good prospects
• Money
• Connections
• Personal friendship
• All three
• Recruiting committee vets
• Board thumbs up or down

31
Recruiting

• New
• Organization identifies all key constituencies
• Identifies ALL volunteer opportunities
• Maps volunteer relationships
• Develops list of current and desired volunteers
• Creates individual strategies to recruit desired
  individuals
• Monitors board development to ensure good
  representation of constituencies

32
Recruiting

• Outcomes
• Larger, and stronger group of volunteers
• More fundraising contacts
• First volunteer commitment not necessarily on the
  board
• Org gets to know volunteers volunteers get to
  know org
• Better community representation
• Less volunteer burn-out

33
Recruiting

• Getting started
• Inventory all volunteer opportunities
• Identify key constituencies in facilitated
  meetings with volunteer, staff and program
  leadership
• Map relationships
• Develop plans for involvement of current
  volunteers
• Create cultivation plans for desired volunteers

34
Recruiting

• Tools
• Board/volunteer matrix
• Donor research methods
• Fundraising mapping lists

35
Expectation Setting

• Traditional
• Board giving and participation in fundraising
  strongly urged
• New
• Expectations about fundraising responsibilities
  expressed in writing
• Volunteer solicits volunteer
• Volunteer performance regularly evaluated

36
Expectation Setting

• Tools
• Volunteer information package
• Volunteer job description
• Volunteer contract
• Board giving campaign

37
Expectation Setting

• Performance evaluation
• Each volunteer is evaluated on a regular schedule
• Consequences for not meeting expectations
• Evaluation includes meeting with volunteer

38
Expectation Setting

• Outcomes
• Board members committed to clearly defined roles
  and expectations
• Mechanism to gently remove non-performing board
  members
• Fewer deadwood board members

39
Expectation Setting

• Cautionary note
• This is a fundamental change for many
  organizations
• Has to be carefully managed
• May take several YEARS to evolve a
  non-fundraising board into an active one

40
Staff Support

• Traditional
• Limited contact mostly meetings
• ED and the Board Pres
• Staff leaders and their committees
• New
• More contact at more levels
• More staff dedicated to board/volunteers
• More informal contact outside of meetings

41
Staff Support

• Organizational commitment to volunteers
• Clear vision, mission and goals
• Clear expectations
• Transparency in business and financial issues
• Ethical practices
• Respect for volunteers time

42
Staff Support

• Individual staff commitment
• Volunteers will never be knowingly put in a
  potentially embarrassing situation
• Staff will prepare volunteers for all fundraising
  calls
• Staff will provide training
• Staff will provide adequate prospect research
  when needed
• Staff will be available to volunteers

43
Wrap-up/QA