how to motivate your board to raise money

How to Motivate Your Board Members to Help in Fundraising

Gail Perry MBA CFRE

www. Firedupfundraising.com gp@gailperry.com

Who Am I? • 25+ years as staff or consultant

• Fired-Up Fundraising newsletter

• “Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Board Passion into Action” (Wiley)

• AFP Fundraiser of the Year

• International speaker and workshop leader

• email: gp@gailperry.com

• facebook: firedupfundraising

• twitter: @gailperrync

Gail Perry gp@gailperry.com

Is This Your Board?

Is This Your Board?

Is This Your Board?

A Happy Fired-Up Board!

Would You Like to Be An Ambassador?

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Fundraising? “YETCH!” !Ambassador? “What fun!”

“No Problem can be

Solved from the Same

Level of Consciousness

that Created It” ! Albert Einstein

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Is This Your Board?

Is This Your Board? Is This Your Board? Is This Your Board?

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Is This Your Board?Boring Meetings = A Bored Board

Did Somebody Say the “F-Word?” Did Somebody Say the “F-Word?”

The Myth of Board Members and Fundraising

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Board Members’ Myths about

Fundraising

Board Members’ Definition of Fundraising

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Board Members Think:

Fundraising = Begging

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They Think Fundraising = Cold Calls

Board Members Think Fundraising = Rejection

The Dark Side of Fundraising

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Cost per Dollar Raised

Of Various Fundraising Strategies

!EVENT  

!50%

ANNUAL  FUND 30%

MAJOR  GIFT  OR  CAPITAL  CAMPAIGN

10%

Steps in the Fundraising Adventure

THANK THANK THANK AGAIN

CULTIVATE AND INVOLVE

ASK FOR SUPPORT

IDENTIFY PROSPECTS

TIME AND ENERGY INVOLVED in each step of the cycle

thank ask

involve

identify

Are We Losing or Gaining Donors?

!!

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Who’s supposed to do what? Who’s supposed to do what?

What Is Our Job as Board Members?

If our true believers won’t help us, who will? Albert Camus

Want Different Results?

! Make it fun!

Lighten up.

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Ask Board Members Why They Care!

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Why Do You Care About Our

Organization?

The Mingle Exercise: An Amazingly Powerful Tool

!• Easy, low pressure

practice talking about why they care. !

• Build visibility by simply talking to people.

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“Gail, I am putting some of your ideas into action…. At our last Trustee meeting, I asked, “What legacy do you want to leave from serving on this board?”

Well, you would have thought I had opened the flood gates. One

man told us about his cousin in hospice . . . and how we helped his family through that terrible time.

This turned out to be the best meeting we've had so far on with

this group in the last 3 years! I can’t change them, but I can change me. !

Laurie Taylor, Lower Cape Fear Hospice Foundation

Try This Question To Pull Out Their Personal Story

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Spread the Idea Virus Sneeze Wherever You Go!

This is how you turn your board members into “sneezers,” spreading the BUZZ wherever they go.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm!

How To Have a Conversation about the Cause!

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What are your impressions? Get the other guy talking!

Part 3 of the Elevator Speech:

Turn It Into A Conversation

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What    are  your  

impressions?

The Fundraiser’s Kiss of Death

• Being boring! • Talking too much!

What Are We Raising Money For?

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A Broader Conversation

Fire Up Your Board

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• A panel discussion or interview format.

• Why does it cost so much?

• Program by program.

• How much does it cost per person?

• Story about someone whose life was changed.

More Questions That Will Fire Up Your Board’s Energy and

Passion

1. “What do you believe is your purpose or your contribution to the world?”

2. “What kind of difference do you want to make?”

3. “What do you do well, and how do you want to use that toward the highest good you can possibly imagine?”

Fire Up Your Board Step #2 Where Does The $ Go?

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!

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• A panel discussion or interview format.

• Why does it cost so much?

• Program by program.

• How much does it cost per person?

• Story about someone whose life was changed.

Fire Up Your Board 10 Terrific Questions to Discuss with Your Board

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1. “Why do we even need private contributions anyway? 2. “Why does it cost so much? 3. “Where exactly does the money go? 4. “Why does it take so much staff to do this work? 5. “How many kids are we helping in this program? 6. “About how much does it cost per person helped? 7. “What else do we really need? And how much would that cost? 8. “How many kids are we missing? What happens then? 9. Can you tell me a story of someone whose life was changed thru our

work? 10. “What would we do if we had an additional $100k? (or $50k, or $500k or

million – whatever is relevant to your budget size.)

A Word About Nonprofit BOARDS

Fire Up Your Board Liven Up Your Meetings

NOT Business As Usual

12 Ways To Liven Up Your Board Meetings

1. Focus on results. 2. Be creative with the agenda. 3. Focus on problems, challenges, broad issues. 4. Look at trends within routine reports. 5. Plan big. 6. Cheerleading sessions.

12 Ways To Liven Up Your Board Meetings

7. Use consent agendas. 8. Interview the Executive Director. 9. Set up one interesting item for a discussion. 10. Select a theme for each meeting. 11. Create “mission moments” in every board

meeting. 12. Break into groups.

Find  this  handout  on  my  website:  Firedupfundraising.com  

#5 Give Them Social Time

Give Them Social Time

Clarity on Action Items!

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Give them something specific to do!

Peer Pressure: The Best Motivator

What Is Our Job as Board Members?

If our true believers won’t help us, who will? Albert Camus

What  Is  Our  Job  as  Board  Members?

We’d Rather Have FRIENDS Than Donors!

For Your Board Members, Re-Define Fundraising into Friendmaking

Easy Fundraising Jobs:Host Small Socials

1. Board member hosts 2. Free to invitees 3. No ask“It’s  easy  to  get  intimidated  if  you  are  asking  someone  for  help.  But  inviting  somebody  to  be  part  of  something  that  you  are  proud  of  is  easier.”    !~Diane  Paces-­‐Wiles,  former  board  member  

Easy Jobs: Host Sizzling Tours

• Board members invite their FRIENDS

• Board member welcomes

• Call the next day: “What were your

impressions?”

Thank You Calls To DonorsWill Directly Impact the Bottom Line

• Donors received a thank you phone call from a board members within 24 hours of receiving the gift. !

• The next time they were solicited, they gave 39% more than the other donors who did not receive a call. !

• After 14 months, those called were giving 42% more. !

~Donor Centered Fundraising, Penelope Burk

"There's a different between knowing the path, and walking the path."

Morpheus, The Matrix.

My favorite executive director:

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Create  a  Fired-­‐Up  Board!!

Many More Resources at FiredupFundraising.com

Top 10 Things to Understand About How Fundraising Really Works Today 5 Clues Your Fundraising is Headed Downhill Why Board Members Love Advice Visits Does Your Organization Really Support Fundraising? Take This Simple Quiz Easy Elevator Speech Exercise for Your Board Show me the Money: How To Move From Friendraising to Fundraising How Major Donors are Changing and What To Do About It Board Members’ #1 Job: How to Be a Personal Advocate for the Cause 20 EASY Ways Board Members Can Cultivate Donors 10 Easy Ways Board Members Can Raise Money 12 Ways to Liven Up Your Board Meetings —and Your Board

Gail Perry MBA CFRE twitter: @gailperrync

Questions?

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