Boards and Volunteers

Nonprofit and fundraising staff can help or hinder board development in your organization, and staff support for board members is embodied in 10 points.

Tailor the board size and function to the needs of your organization — not to needs or agendas of individuals. Craft the right size, with the right systems and procedures in place, support the board with the right orientation and training, engage board members in strategic decision making, and lay out their fiduciary role — including fundraising. Then, be sure that you are connected to your board as a whole and individually — and let your board, and your organization, soar!

A strong board is an essential ingredient in an organization fulfilling its fundraising potential and its public trust. Here are some steps to avoid a bobblehead board.

Get out of the office! Leave the safety of your cubicle, and join the vibrant world of business networking. This remains a largely untapped gold mine for development and special-event professionals from nonprofit organizations. Business networking provides an open-ended opportunity to cultivate your own connections to facilitate success with your events.

It is imperative that you understand board chair dynamics. Never take this responsibility for granted. Your organizational success as an executive depends in part on the progress of the volunteer board you help guide. Enjoy the experience, and embrace the ever-changing challenge.

Volunteers and staff usually need warming so that they can effectively make a gift request. They need baby steps. We all need to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. One step at a time. One win at a time. Building confidence and growing to even greater things. Here are some steps to warm up staff and volunteers to effectively secure gifts.

We need younger and engaged volunteers on nonprofit organization boards. Many boards do not have or enforce term limits, and the average age of many board members is over 50.

While we won’t solve all the problems volunteers face in 2014, there are things we can all do — for volunteers at our organization or if we want to volunteer — to make the experience more fulfilling for the volunteer and more beneficial for the organization. While there are many good resources available for learning the secrets of volunteer management, following are just a few that have been most elusive in my own experience.

Give me a list of 20 things to do and I might shut down. Give me list of five things to do, with clear instructions and a timeline, and I can excel.

Go into each meeting prepared with a formal or informal agenda, a sense of timing and desired outcomes.