The Timothy Group

What if Your Board Tells You to Raise More Contributions?

Imagine after all your work to put together a budget for next year, your Board members reaction is: rather than raise fees quite that much, or decrease expenditures quite that much, they charge you, the director, to raise more contributions. What do you do?

First, don't panic! Don't just assume that there is only one answer; that you have to add this to the list of things you already do. Consider the range of options open to you. There may be more than one choice, or possibly a combination of options. And don't get angry at the Board, just yet.. It is the job of the Board to set policy and to ask the CEO to implement that policy. But that doesn't mean you have to do all the work yourself.

The likely range of options you can choose from includes: you become more involved in fund raising; hire staff to do the job; employ a consultant; or turn to volunteers. Probably the best choice will involve some elements of each. Let's look at the choices. But first:

Think About the Plan

One of the first things you should think about is the general nature of the situation. How much must be raised? Is it a lot more than you've raised in the past, or a small increase? For what purposes? For operations, capital items, or endowment? Will the support likely come in a small number of large gifts, or many smaller gifts? What strategies fit your culture: personal solicitation, telephone calls, mail appeals, fund raising events, product sales, planned giving? Each requires a different kind of staff support. Are there some methods you feel you can do, others you would not want to do? Will the donors be individuals, businesses, foundations, churches, or a combination of these? Having at least some beginning thoughts about these parameters will help you make the choices below.

1. Increase Your Involvement in Fund Raising

   One of the first things you should think about is the general nature of the situation. How much must be raised? Is it a lot more than you've raised in the past, or a small increase? For what purposes? For operations, capital items, or endowment? Will the support likely come in a small number of large gifts, or many smaller gifts? What strategies fit your culture: personal solicitation, telephone calls, mail appeals, fund raising events, product sales, planned giving? Each requires a different kind of staff support. Are there some methods you feel you can do, others you would not want to do? Will the donors be individuals, businesses, foundations, churches, or a combination of these? Having at least some beginning thoughts about these parameters will help you make the choices below.

2. Hire Staff to do the Fund Raising

   If you decide that you will not make major changes in your work to take on the added fund raising, you may decide to hire staff to do the job. If so, be sure you have developed a general plan for fund raising. That should include a job description for the fund raising staff person. The job description should guide the search for a staff person. Don't start with a person and try to fit a job to them or force them into a job for which they are not talented. Here too, you may want to use a personality test to determine if your candidate is a highly creative, sole solicitor, who will not be good at reporting; or an administrative type who will generate endless fine reports, but never get out in the field to do fund raising. Once you have selected the person, take the time to explain the plan to them. Don't assume he/she will create it alone. With the plan in place, develop objective reporting standards of both output (how many meetings with donors) and outcome (how many dollars raised?). Require a weekly report that shows you what was done on these measures. Staff can write all kinds or reports that fail to address the important measures. Take the time to go over the report with your staff person. Don't let them get isolated and feel like this work is not important to you. If you do hire staff, don't assume that you will not have to do any work in fund raising. You will have to give direction. You will have to give the new staff person relevant background on donors. You will need to carry the relationships with the top ten donors, and be visible upon occasion with others. You will also be the person reporting to the Board on the implementation of the plan.

3. Out Source the Work

   There are a number of places you can turn to have others do fund raising work for you. There are direct mail firms, event planners, grant writers, and media resources. My advice to you is not to feel like you can avoid the whole matter of fund raising by turning to an outside source. You will have to work with the direct mail agency to determine the frequency of solicitation, the content of those appeals, the segmentation of your donor base, and analyze the results of each mailing. You can't just let the vendor do what they want. This is true with any kind of vendor. You will have to set the parameters for an event planner or things may get out of control. You can waste a lot of money and paper in grant writing if you do not realize that 90% of the reason you will get a foundation grant is because of the personal relationships between your constituents and the foundation decision makers. It takes time to promote this relationship building. Don't ever send out 100 proposals and then do nothing, hoping you might get one grant. You will be damaging your reputation in the foundation community. Be sure to analyze the cost of using an outside vendor.

4. Use a Consultant

   You may want to use a consultant to help you in a number of strategic areas. But use a consultant correctly or you will waste precious resources. The best ways to use a consultant are to help you prepare the plan, help determine what kind of staff is needed, help guide the implementation of the plan, help you select from potential staff candidates, review the fund raising program outcomes, help overcome obstacles, and train staff and volunteers. While a consultant may serve as your fund raising staff for a short time (while you find your own) it is generally not a good idea to use a consultant as your staff for a long period of time. You want your staff to develop donor relationships and develop skills that can serve you for the long term, not disappear when the consultant is gone.

5. Involve the Board

   Every Board member position description (you have one right?) should indicate that all Board members will do three things with regard to fund raising: give an annual gift that is appropriate for them, become involved in some way in the fund raising program, and help your ministry network with new friends. If they won't do these three things, you can get angry, tell them their directive to raise more money will not work, or use a consultant to tell them that and spare your own neck. Since our heart and treasure are often in the same place, Board members must give annually. It is more important to be able to say that 100% of the Board contributes annually than that the combined giving is a large amount. Some foundations will ask you about this. If the answer is less than 100%, your proposal may be dead in the water. Not all Board members can do the same thing, but everyone should help out in the fund raising program in some way. Maybe it is to solicit a gift in person, make a phone call to thank a donor, or invite friends to your fund raising dinner. Let each do what is natural. But don't come to the Board and ask everyone to sell the same number of tickets or all volunteer their time at an event. People are different. Use their strengths. Also, keep the Board informed with monthly reports of fund raising outcome. Quarterly is too infrequent. Hopefully, they will see the totals build.. If not mid-year corrections can be made. If. they are not doing their job, the President can chide them. Keep fund raising on the front burner.

6. Increase the Use of Volunteers

   Aside from Board members, many fund raising strategies work best if volunteers work along with staff. In major donor solicitation volunteers can help you network to their friends. In events there are many roles volunteers can plan. Volunteers can make telephone calls. They can even help qualify planned gifts prospects. But volunteers must be supported by staff. At first it may seem like using volunteers consumes more time than it saves. But keep at it. The tide will turn.

I hope that one of more of these ideas will work for your camp or conference center.

SIDE BAR

If your camp/conference center is linked to a denomination(or regional conference, or church), you may have some special restrictions and opportunities. Reflect on the direction your camp-denomination relationship has been going. Have you been getting closer or moving in opposite directions in terms of service, organizational relationship, or financial support? If you want to get closer, spend more time talking to denomination volunteer and staff decision makers. Get your Board members involved in these relationships. Let denomination leaders know of your challenges and plans. Have them come out to camp to meet. Some denominations have central fund raising staff. Will they solicit on your behalf? Others may endorse your request to churches for support. Perhaps they can help publicize your challenge. Ask them for specific people that you may approach who have an ability to give more than their church is ever likely to challenge them to give. Maybe they will promote planned gifts for your long term financial needs. If there is an opportunity here that is uniquely yours, pursue it.