by Jini Stolk
Should each board member make a personal donation to your organization? Yes. How much should they give? From each according to their ability…
I’m not sure why anyone would want to join an arts board without being excited enough about the work to want to personally support it, and bring friends, family and acquaintances to share the joy. I’m also not sure why an arts organization would want anyone to join their board who’s not passionately connected to their art and vision.
A board member doesn’t have to have great personal wealth to make a great contribution. The most important thing organizations can do is help their board members identify how they can best use their skills and energies to build resources and support.
Cynthia Armour wrote insightfully about Creating Fundraising Savvy Boards for Creative Trust. Finding the Right Development Officer for Your Organization describes the type of person who would be comfortable, even enthusiastic, about building a board’s success in giving and raising funds. BoardConnect’s checklist on The Board’s Role in Securing Philanthropic Support defines the role board members might play in an individual donations strategy.
I really like Buddies in Bad Times’ Personal Fundraising Worksheet for Board Members. It’s specific, easy to understand, and – what’s the right word? – unscary. It lists 14 ways to contribute to Buddies’ development activities, including: becoming a monthly donor, inviting prospective donors to shows and events, assisting in cultivating donor prospects at events, signing thank you cards, directly soliciting donations, selling tickets to fundraising events, and finally, making connections with potential corporate partners and attending meetings with high-level donors. The last two options on the Worksheet are left open, allowing board members to come up with their own ideas!
Simone Joyaux is also in favor of creating a menu of choices for board members’ involvement in giving and raising funds, and offers a clear strategy starting at the board prospect’s nomination interview.
More:
Few of us will encounter someone whose extraordinary generosity results from a brain injury, but The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Giving published about a year ago in the Atlantic talks about the clear consistent link between generosity and happiness and its neuroscientific roots!
