When Board Members Lead…

It’s a delicate balance.

You want a board dynamic where board members are shooting forth ideas, taking initiative, signing on and signing up. Especially in fundraising.

But sometimes what they suggest isn’t practical, is way off the mark, or just simply won’t work.

Well, that’s easy enough to deflect by suggesting your board members engage in some feasibility outreach – talking to a few of the people who’d be critical to the successful implementation of their idea. Surveying the intended targets – it’s a great way to involve board members in hearing the lay of the land directly from the horse’s mouth (and in the process getting board members talking to donors/intended donors). Misconceptions fall by the wayside, and you’ve done nothing in the process to discourage board members’ enthusiasm (and sometimes they even get a better idea once they hear where prospects are really at!) .

But sometimes it’s not that board members are coming up with bad ideas – it’s the manner in which board members leap to action. Like the board member who takes on leadership of the development committee and comes to the next meeting with a fully-fleshed out fundraising plan for the rest of the board to take slots in.

That wouldn’t work if the staff simply handed a fundraising plan to the board to carry out – and it won’t work either if one board member merely gives assignments to the rest of the board members.

Ownership begets responsibility – word that were burned into my brain from my first nonprofit fundraising job. Those who are involved in coming up with an idea are the ones who feel most responsible for implementing it successfully. We take that to mean that board members have to have a hand in developing their fundraising plan of action – but sometimes the dynamic goes deeper. It’s board member(s) – not a board member. Process is a (not the only, but a) determinant of outcome.

The moral – don’t sit back in relief once you’ve got a take-charge fundraising committee leader, and assume that all will go well from here. Keep watching that dynamic – cause one leader and 12 passive not-quite-followers is better than a whole board of balking-fundraisers – but you’re not there yet.