Charities Give Boards Little Training in Fund Raising, Study Finds

Nonprofit executives often complain that their board members do not do enough to raise money.

But a new survey of donors that included nearly 3,500 current or recent board members suggests that much of the problem stems from nonprofits’ failure to provide clear requirements and other basic resources for the people who serve on their boards.

Board members in the survey, which was conducted by Cygnus Applied Research, in Chicago, included trustees at charities that had professional fund raisers (46 percent) and at those that did not (54 percent). The survey was part of an effort to learn how people who support charities respond to different fund-raising practices; it drew responses from more than 17,500 donors, including the 3,474 board members.

In both cases, more than half of charities that trustees serve offer little fund-raising guidance.

For example, only 47 percent of trustees at organizations with paid fund-raising staffs said board members are required to participate in raising money; just three in 10 of their counterparts at charities with no fund-raising staff are subject to that requirement.

Less than 10 percent of trustees, even at organizations with paid fund raisers, said their boards are required to attain a minimum fund-raising goal each year.

What’s more, few organizations evaluate how well their boards do at raising money. Only a quarter of trustees at charities with paid fund raisers said their board’s fund-raising performance is evaluated by the organization; that percentage dropped to 12 percent among board members at organizations without paid fund raisers.

Room for Improvement

When asked to rate their board’s fund-raising performance on a scale of 1 to 7, trustees found room for improvement, with an average rating of 4.7.

They gave a similar rating for their own accomplishments in fund raising.

And when asked about the challenges facing their boards, one of the most frequently cited concerns by trustees was how to attract board members with proven fund-raising abilities.

Nearly 60 percent of all board members in the survey said there was no orientation program when they joined their boards, and only 39 percent said they had attended one or more fund-raising training sessions for board members.

Only 6 percent of the trustees said that their organizations had any budget for trustee training.

More than half of the board members said that it is hard to find board members who are willing to raise money.

At least some of that problem, the researchers said, is because most board nominating committees at nonprofits do not operate year round.

“When active only for a limited period of time prior to the annual general meeting,” the researchers wrote, “tight deadlines cause nominating committees to default to filling vacancies with anyone willing to serve rather than with the best people for the job.”

Creating an active nominating committee and recruiting year-round, they wrote, “sends a message to candidates that these boards are strategic, serious about their work, and selective about who is qualified to serve.”

In addition to year-round nominating committees, they said, charities need to create orientation programs for trustees and adopt clear requirements about their fund-raising responsibilities that are communicated before people join the board.

They also recommended that charities set aside a budget for fund-raising training and make sure the training is based on what trustees want and need to know.

An executive summary of “The Cygnus Donor Survey: Where Philanthropy Is Headed in 2011” is available for free online.