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Board … Not … Responsible … Fundraising

For Impact Ideas | | Tom Suddes

We’ve been with a lot of Boards in the last few weeks … and it just feels like this needs to be re-stated, re-peated, re-inforced.

THE BOARD … IS NOT … RESPONSIBLE … FOR ‘FUNDRAISING!’

You may have heard this from us before, but just a reminder to everyone who is struggling with:

  • Getting the Board to ask their friends for money.
  • Sharing names of people who need to be hit up. (“How’s that working for you?” as Nick always says.)
  • Handing out 3 x 5 cards and then having follow-up meetings to discuss ‘progress’ (when, of course, there is none).

The Board should do 3 things as it relates to funding:

    1. CHAMPION … a Cause, a Case and the Organization.
    2. INVITE … others to be engaged.
    3. INVEST … with a commensurate commitment.

If they can’t do those 3 things, they are not ON BOARD.

Therefore, they should not be ON THE BOARD.

For more on this, see our Guidebook On Boards.