Get your board members some buddies.

As the month keeps marching on, we’ve got more tips to get your board activated around fundraising. We’ve talked about engaging them in fundraising, getting clear commitments from them, and supporting them with training.

This week, I want to talk to you about board buddies. It’s a strategy I’ve used time and again to get board members comfortable with the fundraising process.

Here’s how it works: I’m working on pursuing a new donor prospect. It’s someone whose name came to me in a way OTHER than arm-twisting a board member into giving me a name. I meet with the prospect to get to know them, then I go back to the office, and I look at my board list. And I decide which of my board members would really like to get to know this prospect. Who on my board would this donor really jive with? Then I ask that board member to give me some times they could come with me to meet with the prospective donor. 

This is helpful in two ways:

(1) Board members add cache to your donor solicitations. Asking a prospective donor to a second conversation (especially one that will likely be an ask) is a recipe to get no response. Adding a board member to the meeting makes it seem different, maybe even special, and will up the “yes” responses you get.

(2) The board member gets to witness how prospect development works by going with you to further get to know or to solicit a prospective donor…and they will see how the process works. 

Last week, we talked about how getting board members fundraising training can be a key way to get them to actually take action on getting involved in fundraising. Similarly, this “fundraiser apprenticeship” allows them to learn as they do. 

Here’s Your Assignment:

Pull out your board list. Think about a current donor or a prospective donor you are pursuing that you could work on cultivating or stewarding with each board member. Then make a plan for activating that relationship.

Okay, I know, this is one of my more vague assignments, and it may not work for every organization if you don’t have a big prospect pool. But if you do have the prospects to support this effort, I promise it’ll make a difference…both to how fast you can get a gift from the prospect AND how much more buy-in you have from your board.