Form follows Function

A million years ago, I wrote my master’s thesis on the contra dance – an early American dance form like the Virginia Reel. I examined how the choreographic structure of the dance – long lines of participants dancing with and then past each other – actually led to the social mixing that was the dance’s earliest function…as a matrimonial matchmaker.

Basically, you had to dance with whomever came down the line – and then you moved on to the next person, again and again. It was a very democratic choreographic form, which is one reason it took root so well in Colonial America.

So why I am mentioning this? Because form follows function, too, at board meetings.

Last night I was at a board meeting that was too large to fit around one table. Terrific, you might say – that group has great attendance!

Well, yes, great attendance – but not great participation.

Board members sat at two separate tables, facing the executive director. One by one, board members would rise to deliver reports, then retreat again to their seats. Some people even had their backs to the person delivering the report, by the accident of the seating chart.

This group was doomed before it even started.

So what’s the answer, besides change the furniture?

Well, first off, change the furniture. Or change the configuration of the furniture. Or move from two hours of 1-person reports to small group breakout discussions. Or sweep the reports off the table into a consent agenda and spend the time discussing the potential long-term impact of a new program direction. Or the ins and outs of an environmental scan…

Somehow, this group needs to break free of the tyranny of the seating arrangement. To make the furniture follow the function of vigorous participatory dialogue – instead of having it predetermine a stilted, formal affair.

Time for the Trees

I was at a one-topic board meeting last night.

And, natch, the topic was fundraising.

The board deftly dispatched some legal issues, financial trend-spotting, and new program development in a half-hour – and took 5 minutes to recognize and thank the executive director for an extraordinary leadership effort in opening a new afterschool center.

Then, with 1.5 hours to go, the board settled in to the question: “What are we going to do to raise money in the next 4 months?”

And without much sidetracking – except to look back at the benefit’s results, and to look forward to potential fundraising activities for the next year – board members rolled up their sleeves.

The result? Plans for a wine-tasting with a take-home fundraising packet…a summer Hamptons house party…a general appeal to parents led by board volunteers…one-to-one calls to select major donor prospects…and the formation of an advisory council to further the organization’s fundraising reach.

Pretty fruitful for one board meeting, yes?

Now there are two elements of note in this tale. One, is the use of a dashboard for pretty substantial areas – finance, legal, new program development – which allowed the board to quickly digest the issues, see where the organization stood, and ask particular questions without having to go through the whole story.

Which gave it more time for the details.  The proverbial trees, in the forest.

Because Two, is that the dance is in the details – and in the relationship between the fundraising committee and the board as a whole.

Sure, the fundraising committee could have come up with these or similar ideas on its own, but then the board wouldn’t have owned it.

But in order not to get lost in each detail, when the discussion got too nit-picky the chair was able to relegate continuing the conversation to the committee to work out the particulars.

In other words, the board came up with an idea, took ownership over it, and then asked the committee to come up with a plan. And, board members got home in time to tuck their kids into bed.

Sounds like a win-win, yes?

Are Individuals Giving Again?

I was talking recently with a fundraiser from across the country who noted, in passing, that during the recession individual donors have held onto causes near and dear – but haven’t embraced new ones.

For us here in New York City, that was certainly true through the free-fall economy of 2008-2009.

But we’ve been finding that, starting last Spring, individuals are giving again – to causes both new and old.

Well maybe New Yorkers are more adventurous (aren’t they always?)…or maybe the economy here in New York hasn’t bottomed out as deep as the rest of the country…but Cause Effective’s clients have been gaining new donors recently in droves.

This doesn’t mean that the nonprofit economy in New York is in rosy shape – the recent State cuts and upcoming City ones are almost insurmountable for many nonprofits – but it does mean that in this neck of the woods, putting effort into reaching and attracting new individual donors is likely to pay off.

In fact, we’re working with a number of nonprofits who were reluctant to go down this road before…and didn’t have to. Now they have to, and while their boards are certainly nervous about fundraising, we’re seeing more and more board members willing to go over this cliff – because it’s clear to them that the old ways of doing business are not viable nor sustainable.

For organizations that have a lot of fans and have never asked them for support, the combination of a strong public presence and board members much more motivated, is pretty potent. Once we help them identify those folks, equip their askers with the right stuff, create structures for cultivation, etc. – they’ve got a lot of people ready to give.

Behavior Mod…For Board Fundraising Success

At Cause Effective, we’ve been thinking a lot recently about how people modify their behavior, and how to use this knowledge to move toward a climate of higher board fundraising function.

One of the things neuroscience is teaching us is about how the brain works. It turns out that to successfully change behavior it’s actually easier to form a new habit – to carve a new neurological pathway – than to break an old habit. That is, to build a new habit in place of an old one rather than to re-pattern an old neurological pathway. So, too, with any kind of behavioral change – it’s easier to create a new pattern than to alter a deeply-entrenched habitual old one.

But what does this have to do with fundraising?

A lot – in how we approach changing (or building) board behavior.

Instead of berating board members for not giving in enough names for the appeal – or any names – and getting fixated on changing that behavior – this means pretending as if your board delivers, and then asking them for something they CAN give. Like asking them to write thank you notes, two per board member – something small, something they can “bring home” for you.

Acting as if you have a board that delivers, and then asking them for an easy lift, to start to change that definition around… is a way to change the underlying assumption about success. That they, themselves, are succeeders.

Think about the level of board fear – hey, staff fear too – about “asking for money.” Think about what a difference an attitude of confidence could make.

I believe that it’s our job to find and name success – those “wins” that tell us that we, as committed individuals who care a lot – can get there.

When board members feel like they’re successful, then success breeds success, and fosters the courage to put forth more effort to achieve greater success. And boy is this true in fundraising, that mountain of calcified board resistance and fear.

In establishing a climate where board members are successful at fundraising, we’re talking about naming a change as small as a board member attending an end-of-year student graduation party and bringing one friend (in other words, bringing someone who’s a potential donor, maybe even a potential board member). It’s up to us to connect those dots – to take a single board action and make it make sense as board success in fundraising.

But even more then that, it’s also up to us to create these small successes. By asking board members to do tasks that are doable, like two thank-you calls; or bringing one couple to the annual event as their guest.

And then congratulating them on it, because nothing says accomplishment like recognition from one’s peers. Having a board member themself describe to their fellow board members what they did reaffirms their own definition of themself as someone who brings in donors. It transforms that simple act – inviting someone somewhere – into a definition of themselves as (the beginning of) a rainmaker.

And who doesn’t want a rainmaker on their board?

SO this is what we need to find – those tiny instances that auger change. Our job in partnering with, nay managing, our boards – in fundraising and in other areas as well – is to find those little moments that are the beginnings of the transformation we’re looking for.

Watch the success, name the success, encourage the success… reproduce the success.