Boards / New York City Fundraising Consultant / Donor Perspectives / Individual Giving / Major Gifts / Moves Management
Over the past decade the ubiquitous “Give or Get” policy has defined the approach of securing a financial commitment from your board members. Each board member is asked to personally contribute and/or raise an identical amount of funds. However, the threshold set, say $5,000, may be too high for some and too low for others. It’s not based on the real consideration of your board members past giving, or their capacity to give, their potential.
When you find that a board member truly “gets” what your organization is doing, loves it as much as you do, and has the capacity to give more, it is time to supplement your “give or get” policy and ask for a Gift of Significance.
To prepare to talk with your board member, you need to first calculate what a Gift of Significance represents for them. So, here is the method.
In most cases the donor’s giving history to your organization, joined with the informal rating of peers and colleagues; and their past giving history to other organizations carry the most weight in assessing what to ask them for.
Have asked board members for a Gift of Significance? If so, how did it go? Please share your comments on the blog.
Do you want to get your board members to make a Gift of Significance? Click here to order Laurence’s most recent book: ’The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution.’ Chapter 3: Tuning Up The Board for Effective Fundraising Performance covers this topic.