Enabling Volunteers to Do the Right Stuff

Once a development officer told me, "I’ll be damned if I’ll follow up with board members. They’re adults and said they would do these things. So they should just do it."

Well, that person isn’t going to make it as a development officer. Such naïveté. Such arrogance.

Competent development staff help their board members to carry out fund development work. Effective CEOs competently enable their boards and board members to do governance. And excellent leaders enable their staff to learn and develop and succeed.

I wrote about enabling in the first edition of my book, "Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last."