40+ Ideas to Light a Fundraising Fire Under Your Nonprofit Board Members

10/1/2021

Inform, guide, motivate, and recognize your board members and watch them become your fundraising heroes!

Grab your pumpkin spice latte!
Fall is in the air.

That means fundraising season is right around the corner. Many nonprofits (most?) depend on giving season (and Giving Tuesday) to raise a significant chunk of their annual funding. In 2020, U.S. nonprofits raised $2.47 billion dollars. What was your piece of that ‘pumpkin’ pie?

Let’s talk 2021! Is your staff prepared to make the asks, attend the events, mail the collateral and try some Facebook fundraising ads? What about your board members… are they fired up for fundraising season?

So often, nonprofit fundraising efforts are facilitated and driven by staff members. What’s wrong with that? Well, have you considered how to leverage the power that each of your board members bring to the table? Chances are, there’s a ton of leverage there, including relationships, clout, high-level thinking, connections, strategic thinking and more.

You can inform, guide, motivate, and recognize your board members and watch them become your fundraising heroes (seriously call them that, they’ll like it). To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of 40+ ideas, broken down into categories, to help you get the job done!

40+ Ways Empower Your Board Members for Fundraising Season

Inform

Hold a fundraising season kick-off dinner
Give board members the option to give rather than fundraise
Share 2021 Giving Tuesday Stats
Stay in touch on fundraising goals and progress
Share: How Nonprofits Build Donor Trust – Be Transparent
Train on new fundraising software (like Bloomerang)
Ted Talk: 3 Ways to Be a More Effective Fundraiser
Provide best practices for fundraising asks
Review: 7 Tips on Asking for Donations
Invite them to sign up for Movie Mondays, weekly fundraising advice videos

Guide

Create compelling fundraising collateral board members are proud to give
Use fundraising progress visuals (enter the colored-in thermometer)
Develop dashboard style reports to drive results
Use board meeting time to brainstorm potential donors/prospects
Provide easy-to-use phone call scripts and email templates
Role play at board meetings to master organizational talking points
Encourage board members to introduce potential donors to staff for follow-up
Ask a board member to join you at lunch to observe a fundraising pitch
Ask and remind board members to share social media fundraising posts

Motivate

Invite a motivational speaker to a board meeting
Make fundraising a friendly competition
Ask a client (someone that benefits from your mission) to tell their story
Watch: Don’t Underestimate the Ripple Effect of What You Do
Touch their hearts with visuals of the service you (they) provide
Ask each board member to share their passion for your organization at a board meeting
Share weekly motivational quotes to keep your fundraising goals top of mind
Watch: Simon Sinek, Empathy - Best Speech of all Time
Offer prizes (donated items of course)
Ask them to memorize and recite the organization’s mission
Watch: Make an Impact – Inspirational Video

Recognize

Tout achieving board members on social media
Send them hand-written thank you cards
Make them swag that say ‘fundraising hero’ with your logo
Announce successes at board meetings
Allow board members to make thank you calls to help them build relationships
Recognize engaged board members at events
Highlight board member of the month (of the week) in newsletters
Give them opportunities to promote their own companies if applicable
Ask them to say a few words of thanks to donors at your next event
Offer a sponsorship to board members who match donations

How does this list strike you? Don’t feel overwhelmed. Remember that fundraising is not comfortable for most people, including your board members. Use this list to support them through the fundraising process. Make it easy and fun for them, touch their hearts, and give them some love. And don’t forget to shoot us an email and let us know how it’s going.

Happy fundraising season!

How Blue Fox Can Help

As we are an accounting firm, we would be remiss to ask if your financials are up-to-date and prepared for giving season? It’s difficult to plan where you’re going if you don’t know where you are now. That’s why our team of nonprofit gurus created this resource to help you get organized: The Ultimate Nonprofit Finance Checklist for Giving Season (it’s free to download).

As always, if your team could use assistance in your back office, just ask for help! Blue Fox services range from standard bookkeeping and payroll services, to coaching and consulting, to comprehensive virtual CFO services.

Let's review my financials before giving season