| I’ve been on nonprofit boards, and I’ve also been on staff. Staff usually think first, of what will pacify boards. Second, they ponder how they can get boards to do useful work.
All too rarely do staff ask themselves, “What do board members want? How can we make serving on our board an experience that people will prize, and never forget?”  Author June Bradham The great advantage of June Bradham‘s book The Truth about What Nonprofits Boards Want is that it places board members front and center. By interviewing current and former board members at several large nonprofits, she finds out what makes them resign from boards and what makes them stay. In brief:
At the end of the book, I was wondering about these questions:
Do you have an answer for any of those questions? |
Hate Fundraising but Love Making Friends? This Book’s for You
What if joining a nonprofit’s Board meant doing things you love?
Author Hildy Gottlieb
Hildy Gottlieb thinks that’s what it should mean. If you’re on a nonprofit Board of Directors and find fundraising next to impossible, run out and get her book Friendraising: Community Engagement Strategies for Boards Who Hate Fundraising but Love making Friends (2nd edition). You’ll be glad!
Very few of us find it a thrill to ask people for money (and they are mostly on staff, not on the Board). But many of us like to:
- Learn more about how our favorite organization changes lives
- Have coffee with a friend and catch up on what we’re doing
- Write a letter to the editor
- Interview a local leader about community needs
- Have a party!
We in the nonprofit sector sometimes shy away from the things we love. We have the puritanical attitude that if we’re having fun, we must not be doing the right thing. It’s time to get over that–for ourselves and for our our Boards.
The 89 strategies that Hildy suggests in Friendraising are not frills. They are necessities! Each of these enjoyable activities is also vital for building the relationships that bring you suggestions, volunteers, partners, and money.
The book includes brainstorm sheets that will help Board members think of people–and not just “rich people”–they could be turning into friends of the organization, and sample questions to ask. It also offers many charming examples from Hildy’s own experience creating the first Diaper Bank in the country. Her stories will inspire you and show you that you, too, can strengthen your organization by doing the things you love.
Friendraising is the biggest part of fundraising. Share on X As a Board member, this book will help you find a way to make friends for an organization that suits your personality.
If you’re an Executive Director or a Development Director, you can use it to help your Board members become excited, active, and proud. Then “the ask” will be up to you, and it will be easy…because you’ll be speaking to a friend.
Share of Mind, Share of Heart, by Sybil F. Stershic: a review
Sybil Stershic
Sybil Stershic wants you Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: the employees, volunteers, and Board members of your nonprofit organization. In her new book, Share of Mind, Share of Heart, she explains the top two reasons why.
“Your service is your brand.” Think about it: there are a lot more points where people touch your organization than just the newsletters and emails you send them, or the social media you want them to see. Every time a client or stakeholder walks up to your reception desk, calls on the phone, takes advantage of a service, attends an event, or volunteers for one of your programs, they are forming their impression of your agency.
That means that the people who represent your organization the most often are not the Executive Director, the Communications Director, the Development Director, or the Board chair. They are the employees and volunteers who face the public every day.
“Connection is the key.” People who work at your agency for love or money must feel connected to the mission of the organization (and know how they are helping to move you forward). They must connect with your customers (or clients) to stay dedicated to a high level of customer care. They want and need to connect with other volunteers, and with employees. Indeed, that may be the reason they came to work for you in the first place. It certainly will be key to keeping them coming back for more.
Stershic calls this concept “internal marketing.” The term focuses attention on the fact that employees, volunteers, and Board members are also customers, and they need to be motivated to keep buying what you’re selling: the good name of your organization.
What happens when employees don’t feel valued? They disengage and leave the organization. Or worse, they disengage and stay.
Don’t let this happen to you! Share of Mind, Share of Heart is full of examples, tips, and “action plan starter notes.” The book is slim enough that you can read it through in a couple of hours, then go back and put the suggestions into practice that best fit the way your agency functions now. That will help you make your organization a better place to work, improve your customer service, and at the same time, communicate to the world what you are all about.