In my role as consultant I often find myself facing the BIG THREE obstacles that keep Boards from moving ahead. These are three statements that I keep hearing from Board members that can really put a damper on a board meeting.
1. We’re in a recession so we can’t raise more money.
2. We are the best kept secret in town.
3. We don’t know anyone to put on the Board.
The greatest joy I get as a consultant is to challenge those statements.
1. The Recession: The agencies I am working with are raising more money than ever, because they are focusing on donor cultivation, particularly new donors. Those who are seeing their levels of support drop are in a rut, doing the same things year-after-year. Effective fundraising is a retail effort, focusing on the donors, not their money. People will not give until they really committed to the agency’s mission and believe that their gift is making a difference in someone’s life. We all too often stress statistics rather than stories. One good, moving story, told first-hand, about how the agency’s service has changed a life, is more valuable than a page of impressive statistics. My job becomes helping the board understand that to effectively raise money they must reach as many people as possible with how what you are doing is really important, and how they can help make a difference.
2.The Secret: We will always be unknown until we clarify our brand and our message. Board members are our ambassadors, out in the community spreading the word. Yet ask each Board member what they are saying when they explain the agency to others, and you will wonder if they’re all talking about the same agency. We must spend time with the board members clarifying their ‘elevator speech’, that is, what can they say in as long as they are with someone on an elevator. Generally, it’s one sentence. Make sure they agree on what that one sentence, that powerful sentence, should be. Then rehearse it, and send it out into the world. That’s the first step to spreading the word. Remember, we can’t really tell our agency’s story unless we can get someone to listen. We need to rehearse that ‘hook’.
3. Board members: Do you ask Board members to reach out to potential board members only to hear them say, “I just don’t know anyone?” It’s often a futile exercise. A much better approach is to take time at a Board meeting to do a board assessment. List the skills and other resources you need on your Board. Determine what skills and resources the current board members bring. Then try to fill in the gaps. It’s much more productive to ask, “We need someone to help with our publicity; who knows someone in the marketing or PR business?” Or, “We all seem to live in the same area and know many of the same people; who knows people who live in…, or works for an accounting firm, or who is Hispanic, etc.?” As people struggle collectively with these questions, new names will emerge that were previously hidden. It’s worked time and again.
Another route is to explore your donor list. Find out who has been supporting your agency and develop a plan to reach out to them. Don’t just contact people when you want money from them. Treat them as friends. Let them know what’s going on. Invite them to see the programs in action. You will find that sometimes the gold is in your backyard, not in those hills far away.
That’s the joy of being a consultant. I can share my successes and give hope to those on the board who are worn out discussing budgets, funding, and listening to what happened in the past (reports) rather what needs to happen in the future (strategies). Sometimes it takes an outsider to make this happen.
Tags: agency, board, consultant, nonprofit consulting, obstacles, Recession, Strategic Plan, Strategic Planning, strategies, the secret