A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members

Engaging and informative, this practical guide to fundraising contains valuable insights that nonprofit boards need to succeed in raising money in today's dynamic economic environment. While written expressly for board members, this useful handbook also provides advice to executive directors and advancement staff on how to partner with your board to build an unstoppable fundraising team.

A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members shows you how to raise more money by building board leadership and skills in fundraising. This book covers it all—the board's leadership role in fundraising; how to organize and train your board to raise funds; building a team with board and staff; raising funds for operations, major gifts and capital campaigns; how to ask for gifts; plus a guide for conducting a board retreat that will lead to fundraising success.

• Demystifies the ask by providing a straightforward guide on how to ask for, and close, gifts
• Features case studies, real life examples, and checklists in an easy to reference format
• Offers sample materials for a board retreat on building the successful fundraising team
• Also by Julia Ingraham Walker: Nonprofit Essentials: Jump-Starting the Stalled Fundraising Campaign

Entertaining, practical, and easy to use, this book will become a must-read for all board members, executive directors, and staff who want to build an effective fundraising team.

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

About the Author xxiii

1 Board Leadership in Fundraising 1

A Challenging Economic Environment 1

The Board’s Leadership Role in Fundraising 2

Building a Fundraising Board 8

The Fiduciary Role of the Nonprofit Board 12

Summary 19

2 Setting the Pace with Board Giving 21

Giving and Asking at the Board Level 21

Develop a Plan for Board Giving 28

Prepare for Your Fundraising Role 33

Summary 42

3 Getting Ready to Fundraise 43

Define Organizational Needs 43

Strategic Planning and the Board 45

Fundraising for Current Operations 48

Planning for Comprehensive Campaigns 52

Getting Organized for Fundraising 56

Training Board Members to Fundraise 62

Summary 68

4 Building the Team 69

Who Is on the Team? 69

How to Hire: What to Look for in a Chief Advancement Officer 78

Standards for Staffing and Cost per Dollar Raised 87

Fundraising Consultants 89

Summary 96

5 The Annual Fund 99

Raising Money for Operations 99

Annual Fund: Setting the Goal 100

Annual Fund: The Moving Parts 103

Making the Case for the Annual Fund 110

Galas and Fundraising Events 114

Leadership Annual Fund Programs 114

Summary 128

6 Major Gifts and Mega-Gifts 131

An Introduction to Major Gifts 131

Who Are Our Prospects? 136

Major Gift Prospects: What to Look For 139

Cultivation 144

Transformational Gifts: Giving at the Top 148

Summary 159

7 How to Ask for and Close a Gift 161

Preparing for a Successful Call 161

The Five Elements of the Successful Ask 165

Common Issues in Negotiating and Closing Gifts 172

Summary 182

8 Getting Ready for a Fundraising Campaign 183

An Introduction to Fundraising Campaigns 183

Setting Realistic Goals 192

Campaign Structure: Phases, Timetables, and Gift Tables 198

Summary 208

9 Fundraising Campaigns 209

Campaign Leadership Roles 209

Board Leadership in a Campaign 215

Campaign Volunteer Structure 218

Making the Case 226

Campaign Recognition and Pricing 229

Summary 239

10 Additional Sources of Giving 241

Giving from Foundations 242

Corporate Philanthropy 248

Planned Giving: Add to Your Fundraising Toolbox 251

Stewardship Programs 263

Summary 267

Appendix 269

Materials for a Board Retreat on Fundraising 269

Materials for a Board Training Exercise on Fundraising 289

Glossary of Basic Fundraising Terms 297

Index 303

JULIA INGRAHAM WALKER has been active in fundraising in New Orleans and the surrounding region for over twenty-five years. She served as vice president for advancement at Tulane University, where she directed a successful $250 million campaign. For the past twelve years, Julia has worked as an independent fundraising consultant on a regional and national basis. While her specialty has been consulting on capital campaigns, she became very active in a variety of rebuilding efforts in the calamitous post-Katrina period in New Orleans. Her clients include a diverse array of local, regional, and national nonprofits, including independent schools, charter schools, animal welfare organizations, museums, parks, and arts and cultural organizations. She was named New Orleans Outstanding Fundraising Executive by the Association of Fundraising Professionals for her work at Tulane and is the author of three other books published by Wiley. Julia's ongoing work with numerous nonprofit boards inspired her to write this guide for board members.

A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members

Raising money in today's increasingly competitive environment requires tapping the energy and enthusiasm of every one of your nonprofit board members. For your mission to succeed, you need to roll up your sleeves and be a part of the fundraising process. Destined to become the standard in the field, A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members helps you transform yourself from a passive board member into an active member of the fundraising team who is ready and able to tap into all the philanthropic resources available.

Channeling author Julia Ingraham Walker's more than twenty-five years of fundraising and consulting experience to help nonprofit board members and their CEOs maximize donations, A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members shows you how to cultivate your own personal fundraising skills to experience greater fundraising activity, improve donor satisfaction, and achieve higher fundraising goals. You'll learn how to ask for donations at the board level, train board members to raise funds, hire a chief advancement officer, review the ins and outs of fundraising galas, prepare for a successful call, and so much more.

Complemented by a companion website that augments material covered in the book, A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members arms board members and chief decision makers with new strategies and techniques that have been proven effective with other boards and their executive directors, including:

• Building an active fundraising board
• How the board's fiduciary role has transitioned in recent years
• Preparing for playing an expanded fundraising role on the board
• Strategic planning to identify organizational needs
• Recommended roles for board and staff to build a strong fundraising team
• Training options to improve board fundraising skills
• How to find transformational gifts of $5 million and more
• A step-by-step guide to make a successful solicitation call for a major gift
• Fundraising campaigns: preparing for them, setting realistic goals, and volunteer structure
• Corporate and foundation giving
• How to develop and maintain relationships with donors over the long term

Board members can no longer sit back and idly expect donations to roll in. It's time for you and your fellow board members to play a leadership role in securing a greater share of the billions of resource dollars available to nonprofits, with the skills and guidance found in A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members.