How to Help Trustees Overcome Their Fear of Fund Raising

Charity executives often complain that their board members won’t help raise money. One big reason for the problem: Many trustees fear rejection.

Non-profit officials would be surprised to discover how nervous it makes some board members to seek donations, says Burke Keegan, a fund-raising consultant in Corte Madera, Cal. She recalls a phone call from a man who had been appointed head of the board fund-raising committee at a prestigious San Francisco institution, which she declined to name. “Do you make private calls?” he asked sotto voce.

The man paid Ms. Keegan with his own money to visit his office for several confidential, one-on-one lessons in fund raising. “He was really scared,” says Ms. Keegan. “He thought he was the only one who didn’t know how to raise money.”

To overcome such fears and to encourage board members to get more involved in raising money, fund raisers suggest these strategies:

Start small. Some non-profits find it best to pick out two or three trustees and ask them to solicit donations first. Other board members will want to follow their lead after they see that it is possible to succeed.

Jane Warner, former executive director of the St. Louis chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, chose two board members and asked them to help her play host at parties and other social activities for potential donors. Gradually, she began asking the board members to tell people at the events about their work with the arthritis group, but she did not push them to ask for money until later.

One of the board members, a physical therapist who simply talked to a potential donor about her work with the Arthritis Foundation, was thrilled when the person made a gift of $500,000 soon afterwards, says Ms. Warner. It helped the physical therapist and her colleagues on the board understand that fund raising doesn’t have to be difficult, she says.

“I told them that it wasn’t like they had to go to lunch with a stranger and ask for $50,000 over dessert,” says Ms. Warner, now vice-president of chapter relations at the Arthritis Foundation headquarters in Atlanta. “When they understood that you meet with a person three, four, even ten times before asking, it became much easier.”

To allay the concerns of board members, Ms. Warner told them to think of fund raising as a romance. “When you go on a first date, how often do you ask someone to marry you?” she says. “Not very often. When you do ask someone to marry you — or make a big donation — both parties are often interested in the same thing by that point.”

Don’t start with one-on-one solicitations. Participating in other kinds of fund-raising efforts may build board members’ fund-raising abilities.

The Fort Collins, Colo., affiliate of Court Appointed Special Advocates, a nationwide program that helps abused and neglected children deal with the legal system, asks its board members to make presentations about CASA to community groups instead of asking for money. Board members give 20-minute talks at meetings of local civic and church groups. Staff members approach the groups for a grant or donation at a later date.

The Fort Collins CASA has received a total of $2,000 from a local men’s club since a board member gave a presentation to the club two years ago.

Board members become more knowledgeable about CASA by making the presentations, and their appearances help them gain confidence, says Tedi Cox, executive director of the Fort Collins group.

Many charities ask their board members to write personal notes on direct-mail letters. Hospice Care of DC asks its board members to add a personal note to annual-fund appeals that go to people they know. Donations are 30 per cent higher, on average, for appeals that contain the notes, says Anne Towne, executive director of the hospice.

Allow staff members to set an example. Board members sometimes feel more comfortable if a charity’s staff members have tested a fund-raising idea before getting trustees involved.

Ms. Warner of the Arthritis Foundation says she had to prove that she could get money from corporations before her board was willing to solicit business donations. The board members were reluctant to help raise money for a special event, which involved getting companies to put up $5,000 each to sponsor a car in a “Mini Grand Prix” race. The race is a popular event at many Arthritis Foundation chapters, but the board members at Ms. Warner’s chapter “didn’t think this would work,” she says.

But, she adds, “after I went out and found a number of companies to buy the cars, several board members influenced their own companies to buy them.”

Develop written materials. Some board members find that taking materials, such as brochures and outlines, with them on fund-raising calls helps decrease their anxiety.

This month, board members at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago started using an outline to help them guide the conversation and answer questions during visits to potential donors.

The 14-page document, which can be left with donors, summarizes the history and mission of the clubs, described the types of programs, and provides such statistics as the number and type of young people served.

Board members “need tools like this, and everyone who’s seen the outline feels comfortable with it,” says Robert Hassin, president of the group. “We had two board members use it already, and they called and said they felt more comfortable with it.”

Set a minimum goal for trustees. Many non-profits have adopted written policies that require their board members to “give or get” a minimum amount of money each year. Regional chapters of the Arthritis Foundation, for example, require board members to donate or raise at least $250 to $3,000 annually, says Ms. Warner.

But such requirements “can be counterproductive,” warns Fisher Howe, a Washington consultant who leads workshops for the National Center for Nonprofit Boards. A minimum requirement, he says, could keep some trustees from giving or raising more than the minimum. It can also, he says, “undermine the very spirit” of non-profit boards by making a gift of money, rather than service, the primary requirement for membership.

Put fund-raising plans in writing. Some non-profits ask their board members to submit documents that detail how much money they plan to raise during the year. At the beginning of each fiscal year at the Baltimore Opera Company, for example, trustees fill out a form listing how much they plan to give the opera, the individuals and corporations that they expect to solicit during the year, and the amounts they will request from each. The practice grew out of the opera’s policy that each trustee must donate or raise at least $10,000.

After the forms are completed, “we ask them to meet with us for assistance,” says Leslie Marqua, the opera’s director of development. Some trustees who are inexperienced or afraid to ask for money, she notes, don’t have enough potential donors on their lists or have no idea how much money to ask for.

Give feedback to board members. Baltimore Opera trustees receive quarterly “report cards” on their progress toward fund-raising goals, says Ms. Marqua. She uses each trustee’s goal and list of prospective donors to write the reports, which list the trustees’ prospects and any contributions to date, including in-kind gifts.

While time-consuming, the report cards help keep trustees focused on fund raising. “It’s easy with 31 trustees for individual solicitations to fall through the cracks,” Ms. Marqua says. “I know they read the report cards because with everything they think is not right, I hear about it immediately.”

Encourage competition. In March, a trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago challenged his colleagues on the board by promising to donate $1 for every $4 they raised from corporations by June 30. The goal is to raise $700,000 from area companies.

Already, “we’ve seen more activity” among board members, says Mr. Hassin, the group’s president. “Board members are coming in and identifying corporations they want to solicit. Normally, staff has to go to the board.”

Abolish board fund-raising committees. Some fund-raising consultants say that it is a bad idea to have a standing fund-raising committee on the board. They say it may perpetuate some board members’ fear of fund raising because they do not have to ask for money unless they are on the committee.

“If you have a fund-raising committee and run out of money, everyone blames the committee, when in fact it is everyone’s job to raise money,” says Ms. Keegan, the California-based consultant. Other consultants say that development committees work well, but only when they help to get all board members in the activity of raising money.

Ask one board member to oversee fund raising. Rather than giving all of the responsibility for fund raising to a committee or one or two people on the board, some charity officials recommend electing a board fund-raising chairman each year. That person then monitors and coordinates the money-raising activities of all the other board members.

The board of Battered Women’s Alternatives in Concord, Cal., is dropping its long-standing “resource development committee” in favor of a fund-raising chairman and a written policy that requires all board members to participate in fund raising, says Rollie Mullen, the executive director. The fund-raising chairman will make sure that other board members are adhering to the policy, she says. And with a limited term, that person will not get burned out on fund-raising duties.

Get advice from consultants. Some non-profits pay a fund-raising consultant to help them train board members to raise money. While consultants’ fees can end up costing a charity many thousands of dollars, brief meetings with a consultant may be affordable for smaller groups.

Board members from the Lawndale Community School, a private school that serves poor kids in Chicago, got some valuable pointers in just two hours with a consultant. Maree Bullock, a fund-raising consultant with Alford, Ver Schave & Associates in Chicago, helped steer board members away from their plan to have a golf tournament to raise money.

“Maree pointed out that these are very labor-intensive,” says Bill Cargill, president of the board. She also pointed out that the school did not have a wealthy constituency, an often necessary ingredient for events featuring upscale sports like golf.

Send board members to workshops. Some management-assistance and other groups offer low-cost workshops to improve the fund-raising abilities of non-profit board members. Among them:

• The National Center for Nonprofit Boards in Washington offers “Board and Staff: the Fund-Raising Partnership,” a four-hour workshop, in various cities. The cost is $90 for members of the center and $120 for non-members; some discounts are available. For more information, contact the center at 2000 L Street, N.W., Washington 20036-4907; (202) 452-6262.
• A workshop called “Boards and Fund Raising” is offered regularly by the Support Centers of America, which has facilities in 16 different cities. The cost varies from $45 to $90 per person, depending on the size of the charity’s annual budget. For more information on the workshop and the nearest Support Center, contact Support Centers of America, 2001 O Street, N.W., Washington 20036-5955; (202) 296-3900.