I'm taking everything I've learned and developed over the past 10 years of working with schools and nonprofits and I'm teaching it to 75 people - I have lots of seats open! HELP ME FILL THEM. If you're not interested, please let others know.I will teach folks a new way to think about resource development (money, student enrollment, community partnerships, building awareness), then share the knowledge you need to put these concepts to work, and then give you a big binder and electronic versions of tools and templates you can use (case statement, elevator pitch, student enrollment strategies, communications tools like Facebook, website, flyers for anything, scripts, applications for grants, and much more).
The cost for my seminar is: PAY WHAT YOU CAN OR WANT and attend one or both dates as well as join us for networking.
Click here and request registration paperwork or hit the BUY NOW button on my blog. To learn more about what I'll cover and to read or hear testimonials from some of my clients, visit my website or my You Tube Channel.
Now, on to sharing my secrets for inspiring your board members to be walking billboards for your organization.
Understanding How to Inspire Your Board Members to be Active Ambassadors
FIRST - It's About Confidence
Are your board members out there tirelessly promoting your organization? I guarantee you don't really know the answer to this question. Whenever I do a seminar for board members, and I ask them, "How many of you are confident and comfortable sharing your organization's story?" only one-third of the hands go up. Your board members are the guardians of your organization, but most of them are NOT PROMOTING your organization. Here's the thing though. They will never admit it because they think they should know how to do this.
Over the past 10 years of working with nonprofits, schools and churches, I've learned that there is a lot of guilt on boards. It's crazy, because here are people who volunteer outside of their jobs and families to offer their time, support, money and advice to a cause for which they have much passion. They get onto the board often with little training and orientation and you can tell they're ready to get to work. After a few meetings of soaking in everyone else's wisdom and perspectives, they are really feeling ready to go. But then after a few more meetings, many board members begin feeling unsure about what to actually do to help outside of attending meetings and blessing the budget and activities of the director. Eventually, many of them begin to feel ineffective and like they're not making a contribution.
What often happens on the other end - the staff end - is the director begins to make assumptions about a lack of commitment to the organization. I have found that this just is not the case. Through many board engagement projects and confidential interviews with board members, I have found the issue to be one of a lack of direction, training and tools than anything else.
A Real Story - Connecting Youth, Inc. (Milwaukee)
A few years back I was brought in by the executive director of a small nonprofit called Connecting Youth who needed help engaging the board in the organization's work after quickly growing operations. This awesome organization is a group home for teens that can't be adequately served in foster care. After my first meeting with the board and staff, even I fell under the spell of making assumptions about whether the president of the board was committed. I really thought to myself, "This person is probably going to have to leave."
When we started clarifying the organization's mission, developing a compelling vision for the future and outlining three clear priorities and a committee structure to achieve them, you could just feel the difference in energy and motivation. As part of our project, I asked the board members to personally invite some folks to an information session for the purpose of recruiting some additional board and committee members. While just five people came, all five jumped in and got involved. The really awesome story is the professional woman who was invited by the board president not only recruited her daughter to serve on the board (she had marketing expertise), she mailed in a $1,000 check after just that one meeting. This was a HUGE donation for them. With some clarity and tools, this board president was really able to share the story and make connections.
Another Real Story - Eastbrook Academy (Milwaukee)
My last posting about board engagement is one of my most popular blogs. I thought about this again recently as I started working with my new awesome client, Eastbrook Academy, a school that has one of the most amazing stories ever. This school started 16 years ago with just a K4, K5 and 1st grade, and this year their first high school graduating class will graduate from college. They have a 100% high school graduation rate, 100% college acceptance rate, PLUS they are racially and economically diverse, with one-third of their students qualifying for free and reduced lunch and a large portion of their students coming from wealthy suburbs paying private tuition. Families that choose to go there state that they don't have to choose between diversity AND student achievement - THEY GET BOTH.
Anyway, this school is kind of shy about promoting itself. They have quietly known that they are doing something really awesome, and their recent accreditation brought accolades from the accrediting association. But they're still kind of shy, and it's my job to tell them how awesome they are and to teach them how to engage the rest of the world in their amazing story.
In the short time I've been there, there are already getting more results just by encouraging them. They just held their annual event, which had been on a downward trend for various reasons. Three weeks before the event, I provided the board members with a script and they signed up to make some personal calls to invite people to come to the event. That made all the difference. When the board president went to his company for sponsorship, he said all he had to do was write down some of the achievements of the school and the company said yes right away. They exceeded their goal!
SECOND - Two Tools for Building Confidence
A past board member of Eastbrook Academy admitted that one of the reasons he left the board was because he didn't know how to share the story. I'm so glad he admitted that. You can have all the passion in the world, but if you don't know what to say, then you don't share.
There are three tools that really help your ambassasdors share the story:
- Professional Case Statement. Click here to go to my first blog posting about developing case statements.
- Elevator Pitch. Click here to go to my blog posting about developing an elevator pitch.
- FAQ (frequently asked questions). This is another great tool to have available to consistently address common questions that come up. Click here to send me an email for a sample of an FAQ document.
THIRD - Professional Nagging and Support Bring Credibility
Years back I read something about all the research that was done on all the millions companies spend on professional development programs for their employees. Unfortunately, the research showed that most of that money was probably being wasted because there were no long-term changes in behavior and results. The research did however identify the difference in what did bring lasting results and that was followup and support.
We all intuitively know that changing behaviors and habits is really, really difficult. We know that the majority of people who want to lose weight end up putting it back on, many people who try to quit smoking don't succeed until many attempts. Just think about how unrealistic it is to expect people to expertly manage their time after going to a weekend seminar. Or expecting harmony in the workplace to go up after sending employees to even a six-week program on how to have difficult conversations. Without the followup and support from a manager, real change is unlikely.
So even when you provide your board members with a beautiful case statement and elevator pitch, likely not much will happen - even though they're all motivated and excited about their new tools. They may have every great intention, but when they get out there your board members will get stuck. And remember, they won't tell you - they're too embarassed.
I recommend these three follow-up steps to build the confidence and ensure your board members become active ambassadors for your organization. If they do, you will definitely see new results.
FIRST - Build in time to report back to each other on how it's going. You could add a regular agenda item called "Community Engagement" or "Relationship Cultivation" or "Sharing the Story." During this time, board members can share their experience of using the case statement and elevator pitch and what results they're experiencing. How many new people have they shared the story with for example. I like to actually add a little competition to the mix. Set a weekly goal for the board members when it comes to sharing the story with new people.
SECOND - Capture all new relationships in a tracking. Your board members should know that when they have a meaningful conversation with someone that they are to ask them if it's okay to contact them in the future or put them on the mailing list (this is in the elevator pitch). This contact information should be passed along to the person who is in charge of the relationship tracking so there is immediately a next step for this relationship. To get a sample elevator pitch, click here and send me an email.
THIRD - Celebrate success to build more confidence. I can't believe how often organizations downplay their successes. My client just exceeded their goal for an event, and the email that went out from the fund development director was very professional and detailed, but it did not scream - WE EXCEEDED OUR GOAL! The fact that the board members actively made personal phone calls was something that was new and their efforts resulted in more tables being sold at the event, more attendees and a brand new donation! THIS IS AWESOME! Celebrating your successes is important for lots of reasons, but most importantly for helping your board members know that THEY MADE A MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTION. When they see that, they will be happy to do it again.
Your board members are your most important tool for inspiring others to get involved in your organization. I often remind organizations and board members that it's NOT the job of the fund development director to raise money. It's her or his job to drive the fundraising plan and to empower as many people as possible to share the story, make connections and cultivate relationships. The organizations that take this to heart have more donors than they can handle.
As always, I love to hear your own success stories.
Please consider coming to my seminar or helping me promote it. I've got a week and a half to fill my 75 seats. With a price of PAY WHAT YOU CAN and a guarantee that you'll receive inspiration and knowledge and materials worth thousands there are lots of organizations that can benefit.
Deb
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