| by Cynthia M. Adams, CEO, GrantStation
The Advisory Board Work Session
Part Eight
We didn't have a great turnout for our organization's Advisory
Board work session, called to further outline the steps needed
to develop a successful endowment campaign. Perhaps the attendance
was low because it was an afternoon during the work week,
or it could merely be symptomatic of the chronic problem
with any board: they dislike asking other people for money.
Two of the Board members were out of town, so we knew they
wouldn't be able to attend. But those who did attend
(five of the nine Advisory Board members, the organization's
Executive Director, and one staff person) were all very engaged
and enthusiastic.
We took care of some business, and then launched right into
the endowment discussion by going through the Memorandum
of Agreement (MOA) with the local community foundation that
offered to administer the fund. This MOA had recently been
approved and signed by the organization's Board of Directors.
A motion was made (and passed) to recommend a name for the
endowment fund, based on the survey we had conducted earlier.
A second motion was made to establish a designated fund
in the name of our friend who had recently passed. This motion
generated quite a bit of discussion, and we decided in the
end that we did not want to establish a designated fund after
all. Rather, we wanted to start a “society” to recognize
donors that make contributions of $5,000 or more to the endowment.
This proposal seemed like a much better idea; the society
would be considerably easier to manage than a separate designated
fund. The second motion (which passed) was amended to read:
To recommend to the Board of Directors the establishment
of the (name of honoree) Society for any donor who makes
a single gift of $5,000 or more.
To commemorate this new society, one of our Advisory Board
members sent over a set of beautiful broadsides that had
been published in honor of our friend's passing. He donated
one to the organization to frame and keep, and five additional
copies to present to the first five major donors.
The next order of business was to discuss the endowment
campaign. Not everyone understood what we meant by a quiet
campaign, nor why we should take this approach. So we spent
some time talking about the pros and cons of launching a
full-fledged public campaign at this time as opposed to conducting
a quiet campaign with a discrete goal.
As we've discussed earlier, there are several factors that
favor a quiet campaign, including the fact that though the
organization is over 30 years old, it does not have a good
membership/individual donor tracking system. In fact, their
system is virtually worthless when it comes to pulling any
type of reports. This lack of a reliable donor tracking system,
in combination with the relatively new Advisory Board, which
is still determining its role, suggests that the organization
is not yet ready to launch a public campaign.
Having talked this through, the group went on to discuss
a timeline for the quiet campaign (we decided to give ourselves
until July 2008) and re-confirmed our goal of $100,000. It
was time for those of us attending the meeting to make our
pledges. It was surprisingly fun. We went around the room
and everyone said what they felt they could pledge at this
time. We raised $20,000 on the spot. One-fifth of our goal!
Then we talked about how to use these pledges to leverage
the additional $80,000.
Although we had earlier decided against writing a formal
case for support, it became clear we would need to develop
a talking paper with bullet points to guide each of us as
we approach others for gifts through the quiet campaign.
So, we discussed what needed to be in the talking paper.
The talking paper for the quiet campaign will include:
- Our goal: to raise $100,000 by July 2008.
- Description of the quiet campaign (i.e. we're only asking
a few special people to help us launch this newly established
endowment).
- Recognition of those that donate at least $5,000 as Founders
of the Endowment.
- A list of specific items the organization is working
on today, and what it expects to do in the coming years.
- A step-by-step procedure for the collection of pledges.
I volunteered to develop this talking paper, so you can
see a sample here.
Our final discussion was about who we should ask and for
how much. We all knew three or four people we wanted to personally
ask, but we would need to review their giving histories with
the Executive Director before contacting them. We need to
be cautious not to step on the toes of the Annual Major Donor
Campaign which runs through the end of the year, and is the
main fundraising effort of the Board of Directors. Coordination
is the key, particularly between now and year-end.
When we adjourned, we all felt fairly confident that we'd
made a good start.
Next week, we'll look at our solicited gifts for the quiet
campaign as we close this portion of the series. |
