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A Real Life Approach to Endowment Building

by Cynthia M. Adams, CEO, GrantStation

Tying off Loose Ends: Opening Pandora's Box
Part Seven

Before we held the Advisory Board work session, we decided to have an Endowment Working Committee meeting to determine the best use of our time once the session began.

At the committee meeting we reviewed the results from the survey I had conducted in order to select a name for the endowment fund. We then crafted two motions, one to formally adopt a name for the fund and a second to establish a designated fund within the endowment to honor the dear friend whom we lost several months ago.

We also took time at the committee meeting to draft an agenda for the Advisory Board work session, which included:

1. Present update on establishing the endowment (distribute a copy of the MOA with the Community Foundation)
2. Present the motions recommending the name for the endowment and the establishment of the designated fund
3. Determine a short-term financial goal for the endowment's quiet campaign
4. Discuss who should be asked and for how much:
   1. Review statistical analysis of donor base
   2. Develop a list of who will ask whom for money
   3. Develop talking points for soliciting donations
5. Review endowment pledges from the Advisory Board to kick off the quiet campaign
6. Discuss how the endowment might affect major donor fundraising, and how to address this issue with the Board of Directors

It was an interesting committee meeting. While I had thought the meeting would only take about thirty minutes, it actually took much longer. (Doesn't everything?) As we reviewed the survey results, crafted motions, and set the agenda (including the date and time for the work session), questions and issues arose that I hadn't foreseen:

1. Should we publicize the quiet campaign in any way?
2. Do we need a fully developed case statement to run this campaign?
3. How do we handle thank you letters? Who is the appropriate writer of the thank you note – the organization's Executive Director, the President of the Board of Directors, the Board Member who asked for the gift, the Community Foundation?
4. How do we handle anonymous gifts? Should we recommend an anonymous gift policy to the Board of Directors?

Each of these relatively straightforward questions had to be carefully considered.

In a way, we felt as if we'd opened Pandora's Box. The more work we did, the more questions popped up. It seemed clear we needed to make decisions, and develop solid recommendations, as quickly as we could. No procrastinating (or how would I ever get this series written?)!

We decided not to formally publicize this quiet campaign, and not to develop a professional case statement yet. Instead, we would focus on those donors we knew were willing and eager to make lead gifts. We decided to draft talking points to help guide the people who will be making the “asks” and to distribute them at the Advisory Board work session.

The talking points will include the fact that these donors will constitute the “founders” of the endowment, and that these “lead gifts” will form the foundation for launching our public endowment campaign next fall. In addition to soliciting a contribution, we will ask for testimonials to use in our campaign materials.

We developed a protocol that could be adopted by our organization (and the Community Foundation that will house the endowment) to thank our donors. We also came up with a simple design for the thank you notes.

We also decided to recommend an anonymous gift policy for adoption by the Board of Directors. That draft policy reads:

Anonymous Donor Policy
(Name of organization) exercises special caution to protect the identity of donors who wish to remain anonymous. The names of anonymous donors as well as other identifying information are withheld on gift reports and all other documents unless legally required. Employees or volunteers who work with confidential material necessary for the cultivation, solicitation, and/or accounting, of donors are informed about the confidentiality of an anonymous donation and asked to respect such requests.

There was also continued discussion about how this quiet campaign would or would not impact major donor fundraising that is part of the organization's ongoing funding strategy.

Having met for well over an hour, we decided our work was finished for now. At this point, we felt prepared to pursue the establishment of this new endowment fund. The next step was the Advisory Board work session set for early the following month.