Your Development Committee Should Have Something to Do

Dear nonprofit executives and professional fundraisers,

I have sat through enough Development Committee meetings to know the script.

The Development Director pulls up the fundraising report. Year-to-date revenue gets reviewed. Everyone talks about how the gala is doing. There is an update on grants. Somebody asks how year-end is looking. A board member suggests a company the organization should “reach out to.” Everyone nods thoughtfully.

Then the meeting ends. See you next month!

And I have a question: What exactly did the Development Committee do?

Because receiving an update about fundraising is very different from participating in fundraising. Too many Development Committees have slowly become audiences for the Development staff they are supposedly there to support.

If you have assembled a group of board members specifically around fundraising, please give them some fundraising to do.

Your Development Director Does Not Need Another Reporting Meeting

Development staff already spend an enormous amount of time reporting.

They report to the Executive Director. They report to the board. They prepare dashboards. They update campaign results. They track grants. They forecast revenue. They explain why one line is ahead of budget and another is behind. They prepare reports about reports they already reported.

Then the Development Committee meeting arrives, and we use most of it asking Development to tell us what Development has been doing.

There is absolutely a place for reporting. A committee responsible for fundraising should understand the organization's financial position, fundraising performance, pipeline, upcoming campaigns, opportunities, and risks. Board members need enough information to exercise oversight and make good decisions.

But that information should lead somewhere.

If the Development Director spends 45 minutes explaining everything happening in fundraising and the committee spends the final 15 minutes saying, “Let us know how we can help,” we have created another reporting structure rather than a working committee.

And “let us know how we can help” is where fundraising participation goes to die.

Put the Pipeline on the Table

Imagine a different Development Committee meeting.

The Development Director still provides an update, but it takes ten minutes instead of forty-five. Everyone receives the dashboard in advance. Committee members arrive already knowing where revenue stands and what campaigns are coming.

Then you get to work.

There are six prospective corporate partners the organization wants to cultivate. Does anyone have a connection?

Three longtime donors have not given this year. Who knows them? Who could make a stewardship call before another appeal goes out?

The year-end campaign launches next month. Which committee members will participate in peer-to-peer fundraising? Who will contribute to the board match? Who can provide a testimonial? Who has five people they are willing to personally contact?

There is a donor event coming up. Which prospects should be invited? Who will greet them? Who will follow up afterward?

A major donor has expressed interest in a particular program. Who from the board could join the next conversation?

Now we have a Development Committee meeting.

The fundraising information still matters. We are simply using it to produce fundraising behavior.

Stop Measuring Board Engagement by Solicitation

Part of the problem is that many organizations still have an incredibly narrow definition of what board fundraising participation looks like.

Someone says “board fundraising,” and everybody immediately pictures a board member sitting across from a donor asking for $25,000.

Half the board breaks into a cold sweat.

This is exactly why we developed Queer For Hire's Five-Role Model of Effective Fundraising Boards™. Board members can contribute as Solicitors, Donors, Stewards, Ambassadors, and Friend-raisers. Most people naturally gravitate toward some of those roles more than others, and an effective board needs participation across all five.

Your Development Committee should understand that better than anyone.

Maybe one committee member is incredible at opening doors but hates making the ask. Great. Give them prospects to help identify and relationships to initiate.

Maybe another genuinely enjoys donor conversations and is comfortable soliciting. Wonderful. Get them into the pipeline.

Someone else remembers everyone's birthday, writes beautiful notes, and loves calling people to say thank you. You have a Steward sitting right there.

Another board member seems to know half the city. Friend-raiser.

Someone is deeply connected to the mission and can talk about the organization everywhere they go. Ambassador.

The committee becomes much more useful when you stop asking everyone to fundraise identically and start organizing the work around how people can actually contribute.

Give Them Something They Can Finish

One of the easiest ways to make a Development Committee ineffective is to give it vague responsibilities.

“Support fundraising.” “Engage donors.” “Help with the gala.” “Identify prospects.”

Those sound like responsibilities until you try to figure out whether anyone actually completed them. A useful committee assignment has an owner, an action, and a timeframe. Before the next meeting, Patti will make an introduction to the company she identified.

Marvin will call three donors to thank them for their recent gifts. Krista and two committee members will host a Mission Briefing for five prospective supporters. Every committee member will identify three people they could invite into the year-end peer-to-peer campaign by October 30.

Now the next meeting has somewhere to begin. “What happened?” That question is dramatically more useful than, “Does anyone have any fundraising ideas?”

And when someone does not complete an assignment, you learn something useful. Maybe they need support. Maybe the task was poorly matched to their strengths. Maybe expectations were unclear. Maybe they simply did not do what they agreed to do.

Accountability becomes possible when the action was clear in the first place.

Your Development Committee Is Also a Bridge to the Rest of the Board

A strong Development Committee should make board fundraising easier for everyone else.

That does not mean committee members personally do every fundraising task. They can help create the structure that allows the full board to participate.

They can help identify appropriate fundraising actions. They can model participation. They can celebrate board members who make introductions or steward donors. They can help reinforce expectations. They can notice when someone is struggling and find another way for that person to engage. They can bring fundraising opportunities into board meetings and help translate strategy into specific actions.

This matters because Development staff should not have to personally chase fifteen board members every time something needs to happen.

The Development Committee can become a group of internal champions who help carry fundraising participation across the board.

And that changes the dynamic.

Instead of Development constantly pushing fundraising toward the board, board leaders begin helping pull their peers into the work.

That is Culture of Philanthropy.

Coming Up!

This is one of the reasons I'm so excited about an upcoming session Queer For Hire is presenting at the Lehigh Valley Nonprofit Impact Conference.

Our Advisor on Culture of Philanthropy, Maggie Schutzler, will be joined by three leaders from our client, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center: Executive Director Krista Brown-Ly, Board Chair Marvin Webb, and Fundraising Committee Chair Patti Bruno. Together, they'll present Fundraising In Action: Activating Board Strengths for Fundraising Success.

I love the composition of that panel because these are the perspectives that have to come together for board fundraising to work.

Executive leadership has a role.

Development has a role.

Board leadership has a role.

The Fundraising Committee has a role.

And the rest of the board has a role.

Queer For Hire has been working with Bradbury-Sullivan to create clearer expectations around those roles and give board members practical ways to participate. The Five-Role Model helps identify how people can contribute. The Board Fundraising Matrix helps map those strengths across the board. Our Fundraising In Action™ Dashboard turns those strengths into tangible actions that can actually be tracked.

The tools matter. But the bigger shift happens when people stop talking about board fundraising as an abstract responsibility and start deciding what everyone is actually going to do.

That's what Maggie, Krista, Marvin, and Patti will get to unpack together in November.

And yes, I am particularly excited that the Fundraising Committee Chair will be sitting on that stage.

Because the Fundraising Committee should have something to say about fundraising beyond, “We received the Development Director's report.”

Look at Your Next Agenda

Pull up the agenda from your last Development Committee meeting.

Seriously.

How much of the meeting was spent receiving information?

How much was spent identifying opportunities?

How much was spent discussing actual donors and prospects?

How much was spent assigning actions?

How much was spent following up on commitments from the previous meeting?

And when the meeting ended, did every committee member know what they were responsible for doing next?

If you cannot answer that last question, start there.

Your Development Committee does not need another hour of fundraising updates. Give them enough information to understand what is happening, then put something on the table they can actually move forward.

A donor to steward. A door to open. A relationship to cultivate. A campaign to activate. A board member to engage. A commitment to fulfill.

Your Development Committee should leave every meeting with something to do. Otherwise, you could have just sent an email. 

Sincerely,

Queers

Queer For Hire provides fundraising support to Queer nonprofits, LGBTQIA+ cultural competency to straight-led organizations and corporations, and individual coaching for Queer professionals.

Learn about our Fundraising Services <here> – we’ll lead or support your fundraising efforts, whether you need general support or want to focus on raising money from and for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Learn about our Fundraising Trainings <here> – we can coach your board, staff, and fundraising team on how to fundraise and how to engage LGBTQIA+ donors.

Learn about our other services <here> or our resources <here>.