Building a Better Board

It often takes more than wealth for a trustee to be effective in raising money for a charity

During Carol Weisman’s service on the board of the Family Resource Center in St. Louis, the organization sought to expand the number of trustees — largely as a way to improve its fund-raising capabilities. As head of the nominating committee, Ms. Weisman recruited seven corporte chief executives to serve.

“I thought I was marvelous,” she recalls. But that feeling didn’t last long.

Business commitments left the new board members with little time to devote to the charity or to attend its meetings. “They’d make promises to do something, and then you couldn’t track them down,” says Ms. Weisman.

Ms. Weisman did not want to lose out on their guidance or their assistance in raising funds, so she asked each chief executive to recruit a top-level employee from his or her company to be a “corporate partner” on the board to fill in in his or her absence.

The idea worked. The corporate partners kept the chief executives up to date and fired up about the charity, and they were pivotal in making sure that their bosses held to their fund-raising commitments.

Recruiting board members who can help bring in funds is sometimes easier said than done. Well-established, well-known charities can skim off the cream of the crop — experienced trustees with track records for bringing in generous gifts — but for the majority of charities, finding the right person for the job is a fine art. And, for many, it is an elusive one.

In a survey of 1,200 charities conducted by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, fund raising topped the list of weaknesses among board members cited by non-profit chief executives. Twenty-six per cent of the charity executives wished that their boards did a better job fund raising, and only 2 per cent called fund raising a strength.

All too often, boards rush to recruit new members at the 11th hour or invite friends of current trustees without taking the time to find out if they would be suitable for the job, say seasoned board members.

Recruiting trustees without giving them a clear understanding of what is involved is one of the key reasons non-profit boards so often fall short when it comes to fund raising, experts say.

“What I have seen for years — and I’ve been guilty of it, too — is saying to someone you really want on your board, ‘Oh, you don’t have to come to board meetings. You don’t have to do this, you don’t have to do that.’ And, son of a gun, they don’t,” says Ms. Weisman.

Prospective trustees should be aware not only of how much time would be required but also of how much money they would be expected to donate and how much they would be expected to raise.

Having board members with prestigious jobs or vast wealth or good connections does not automatically translate into more money for an organization.

“We’ve all seen lots of exam ples of boards that have invited wealthy people to join because they think somehow by magic the person’s going to part with his or her money, but it doesn’t always happen that way,” says Barbara Taylor, senior associate at the Academic Search Consultation Service in Washington and a co-author of The New Work of the Nonprofit Board. “Just because they’ve got it doesn’t mean they’re going to give it to you.”

Being less than candid can also lead to embarrassing moments. Neil Williams, an Atlanta lawyer who chairs the board of the American Symphony Orchestra League, remembers a woman who was recruited to a board some years ago without being told what kind of contribution or fund-raising commitment would be expected. Not until she took her seat on the board did anyone broach the subject. “She was stunned,” says Mr. Williams. “And within two months of coming on the board, she said, ‘I need out.’ ”

To be sure that there is complete understanding, some boards develop “statements of expectations,” similar to job descriptions, which spell out every detail of board membership, from giving at a certain level to attending all meetings and coming prepared.

“People respond well to that because it sends out good messages about the seriousness of the board,” says Ms. Taylor.

She also likes to ask prospective board members where the organization stands on their list of charitable priorities. If it falls third or fourth, she says, the charity should probably appoint the person only if he or she has a history of giving a good deal of attention to several boards at once.

Steve W. Batson, vice-president for university relations at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, suggests making one additional request of prospective board members before asking them to join: Encourage them to participate in hands-on volunteering, whether it is helping to clean up a river or working at a fund-raising walkathon. Doing so, he says, will show them what they’ll need to do when they join the board — and make sure they understand the work of the organization.

One reason that some board members are told too little about their responsibilities is that they are recruited as part of a hasty process to fill positions — not a deliberative effort to find the best people. Kay Sprinkel Grace, a Newport Beach, Cal., consultant and author of Beyond Fund Raising, says that charities “often recruit in desperation,” thinking of it “as a six-week project.”

Ms. Grace suggests that charities instead appoint a standing committee that takes suggestions for good candidates year round and then urges those candidates to participate in the organization.

Having prospective board members get involved on committees, on advisory councils to the chief executive, or as speakers at institutional functions offers a trial run. “Not everybody comes in knowing a whole lot about the organization, but you want to find out if the person is capable of becoming really attached,” says Ms. Taylor. “That’s really the key to it more than fund-raising ability or even personal wealth.”

The Seven Hills Foundation in Worcester, Mass., which provides housing and other assistance for the disabled, has two boards — a 16-member governing board of directors and a 35-member advisory board of trustees. The board of trustees has just two formal meetings a year, and members sit on committees but have no legal or fiduciary responsibilities.

Anyone who is asked to serve on the board of directors must first spend at least one year on the board of trustees, getting to know the organization through committee work and special projects.

Charities should choose board members at least as carefully as they choose staff, say experts.

Spending the extra time can also help insure that new board members have joined because they are committed to the group’s mission, not because they are trying to enhance their resumes. Beware of people who “collect boards” with the notion that board membership will bring them prestige or impress a future employer, says Ms. Taylor.

That is not to say that being on more than one board at one time is a bad idea for someone who is fully engaged and has the time, she adds. “A lot of people think that belonging to multiple boards means you’re going to give short shrift,” says Ms. Taylor. “The nice thing about multiple board memberships is that you may be able to help people learn from your experiences in other settings. You may be able to say, ‘On the hospital board, this is how we solved that problem.’”

Ms. Taylor does caution against recruiting someone whose fund raising for another organization might present a conflict of interest — someone, for example, who would be tapping into the same pool of donors for two charities.

When Mr. Batson, of Georgia Southwestern State University, lived in Charleston, S.C., he was raising money for the local college at the same time he was chair of the planned-giving committee of his church. “I was bumping into the same potential donors for the church that I was cultivating at the college,” he says. “I found that I had to back off the church committee.”

Being on more than one board can also be costly, says Ms. Weisman, who now runs Board Builders, a St. Louis group that provides consulting advice to non-profit organizations.

“Every time I ask a friend for money, I personally incur a debt,” she says. “If I ask a friend of mine for a capital-campaign gift, my friend will be on my doorstep asking me to donate to another charity. So if I’m recruiting a board member, I don’t necessarily want someone who’s on five other boards and can’t ask more than one person.”

Many people are reluctant to sit on boards because they don’t want to ask their friends for donations. But what they often don’t realize — and what non-profit leaders do not always make clear enough — is that they may greatly enhance an organization’s fund raising without having to ask for a single cent from friends and colleagues.

“A lot of people don’t know that fund raising is more than just going out and saying, ‘I want a million dollars from you,’ ” says Ms. Taylor. “And in some respects, I think a lot of fund raisers would argue that’s the least of it.”

Ms. Grace recalls a well-connected woman who was asked to join the board of the American Library in Paris. The woman said she would be delighted to join, adding that she would help out in any way she could — except by raising money.

She did join the board, and when each member was asked to submit a list of prospective donors, the new trustee was one of the few who complied. Her list contained not only names but also addresses, phone numbers, and pertinent information about each prospect.

“She was of that elegant old school of always dropping the personal note saying, ‘Don’t know if you saw this article about the American Library’ or ‘Gee, I hope you can come to this event if you happen to be in Paris,’ ” says Ms. Grace. “She never spoke to them about giving, but she engaged them, she got them excited about the library, she kept them informed. And she did more to raise money than anyone else on the board.”

In recent years, more and more charities have recognized that recruiting trustees with diverse backgrounds can help expand the reach of fund-raising efforts. Experts advise mixing people who can offer lists of potential donors with those who are good at writing proposals and those who like to organize special events. They suggest that in addition to getting a mix of talents, charities should recruit a balance of men and women, young and old, and whites and minority-group members.

To help charities get a better cultural cross-section of the population, about 70 United Ways have developed programs called Project Blueprint, which train blacks, Hispanics, and Asians to serve on non-profit boards. In some cities, the training includes sessions on fund raising. Graduates are expected to serve at least one term as a board trustee of a charity that United Way supports and to make a donation to the charity. However, some United Ways are willing to refer people who have already served their required term to organizations that are not recipients of United Way aid.

Many groups are also trying to diversify their boards by adding current and former clients or their relatives. While such people may not have the means to give large sums, they may have potent stories to tell of how the charity has changed their lives.

But recruiting clients or their relatives can be a trickier way to give balance to the board, especially for health organizations where clients may have disabling medical problems. Some groups make a joint appointment of the client and a family member, so the client can participate without hindering the work of the board.

When it does work out, a charity’s clients, or relatives of clients, can be some of its most vocal supporters and effective board members, even if they cannot afford to make a significant financial contribution.

The Seven Hills Foundation recruited the father of one of the organization’s clients to be a trustee. He sometimes accompanies David Jordan, the chief executive, to lunches with potential donors, where he tells his own heartfelt story.

“His son is 32 and is profoundly physically and intellectually challenged,” says Mr. Jordan. The son now lives in a small group home run by Seven Hills, and the parents are deeply grateful to the organization. So far the charity has received two $10,000 donations that Mr. Jordan attributes directly to the board member’s willingness to relate his experience.

“That would have been incredibly difficult had I done it alone or with my professional staff,” says Mr. Jordan. “Having someone who can tell an honest and compelling story can be much more valuable.

“I have always encouraged boards I have been associated with to have not only the wealth but also the heart. That is the best type of philanthropy.”