So many nonprofit board members are enthusiastic and well-meaning but too often they back out of their commitments. Bet you have run into this problem!
And I have been on the other side too, as a board member. In the heat of an exciting discussion, I suddenly found myself making personal commitments. Then later, in my office, I thought better of those ideas and was not so very enthusiastic about them.
In nonprofit organizations, it’s hard working with volunteers, who actually don’t HAVE to do anything anyway. You simply can’t MAKE volunteers work. That’s why I always say that we are in the motivation business.
You have to be able to motivate and charge up your board members and volunteers if you want them to be productive. It’s a rare nonprofit volunteer who can keep herself fully pumped up with excitement and enthusaism all the time!
Here’s my secret weapon in motivating my volunteer committees. And it’s an old standby of teamwork and leadership theory: PEER PRESSURE.
Here’s the most important thing to know about board members: they never, repeat, never want to look bad in front of their peers.
In fact, if for some reason you should inadvertently embarrass a board member in front of the group (or if another board member does so) – it’s likely they will never forgive you.
I remember a board meeting I was attending last summer. The chair of the development committee publicly called a certain committee to task for not coming through on their fundraising event, when all the other board members had done so.
Ooooh boy. Those were fightin’ words. We had a behind the scenes uproar later because those board members were embarassed and angry. We are still picking up the pieces of this one!
So if peer pressure is the best way to motivate your nonprofit board members, how do you employ this?
Lots of ways:
1. In the meeting packets for every board meeting, include a list of board members and the actions they have taken on behalf of the organization since the last meeting.
2. In your meetings, go around the table with everybody reporting in on their accomplishments. I can guarantee you that there will be a flurry of work right there at the last minute so that everyone will have something to report. They don’t want to look bad in front of their peers!
3. Publicly praise the board members who are pulling through. Send emails out to everyone lauding accomplishments. And in meetings, hold up the high-performing board members as examples and honor them.
4. Send emails out with lists of board members and their “to-do” commitments so that everyone can see who has committed to do what.
5. And when you have a board member who is lagging on his or her promises, just call them up and ask them if there is any way you can help them. You’ll then have a friend as well as a board member!
What are your favorite ways to motivate your own board members?
May 18th, 2010 at 11:03 am
What I’ve often found effective is to create board level fundraising teams, whether for in-person or phone solicitations. Let’s face it, it’s hard to ask for money by yourself, it’s easier if there’s a team of two.
For phone solicitations one of the board members has usually had an office with multiple phones that can be used after hours to make the soliciation calls, (Since these are board members, they’re usually calling people they know, it’s not cold calling).
For the personal visits, the teams have usually been two person teams because you don’t want to overwhelm the potential donor.
Regards,
Bill Huddleston
The CFC Coach
BillHuddleston1@gmail.com
P.S. The team of volunteers approach also works very well with workplace giving, such as the Combined Federal Campaign, and since most events are during the day, a team of retirees who volunteer to help your non-profit’s fundraising effort is a great method that also leverages the amount of staff time needed to conduct an effective campaign.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:50 am
Your ideas for praise are excellent. Encouragement – especially your specific examples – always works.
But I worry about the way board members are so often related to by staff as if they are adolescents. If you didn’t know these were board members, it reads very much like a teacher talking about high school students, who knows the way to manipulate their behavior by using peer pressure.
It may have short term effectiveness, but in the end, this is a paradigm that will bring nothing but trouble. It keeps the very people who actually make the big decisions about the organization (hiring and firing the CEO, approving the budget, merging, moving, or closing, etc.) in a position in which they are presumed not to be able to function. When the crunch comes, which it inevitably will, will they be able to function as the organization needs them to? Not if they’re a bunch of high school students corralled by peer pressure.
This is a conundrum, since the workings of the board are not your job – raising money is. But i do think a larger view of the board as very high functioning people will ultimately serve any nonprofit, because they’ll be high functioning people when you relate to them that way.
Alexandra
May 21st, 2010 at 11:05 am
Alexandra, thanks for your excellent and smart insight. I agree that too often board members are treated as fourth graders by the staff. It takes education and empowerment with key information to mould them into effective leaders. But many staff members and nonprofit CEO’s may rather keep them passive and in the dark. But a bored board will not help in fundraising or in any other area. So you end up getting the nonprofit board that you deserve.
May 25th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Great read. I work with many, many boards and find that most want to and become successfully engaged when communication becomes more specific about what needs to be done and how they might be supporting reaching agreed upon goals. Here’s a post of mine: Your Board do you love them or? It has some additions to Gail’s list: http://bit.ly/a2qjHt