The Buck Stops Where? Funding Your Non-Profit

“Fundraising report?” says the Board Chair at the monthly board meeting. “We have a movie night coming up where we hope to raise $1,500 for the organization. How is everybody doing on ticket sales?”

While this conversation is going on at the Board level, the Executive Director is holding her head and doing what we call “the Van Gogh Scream," that silent open mouth scream (from the painting by Edvard Munch). The organization needs about $30,000 to make up for lost individual giving this year. A movie night won’t cut it. The Board happily moves on to other items on the agenda, cheerfully unaware they are three months away from doom if they don’t get off their duffs.

Most of the time, board members don’t raise funds because, frankly, they don’t know how, and fundraising structure isn’t in place. Here are three things every board member should know about fundraising:

1. It is your job to manage fundraising. In Oregon, it is the responsibility of the board of directors to oversee the organization’s financial affairs – including making sure there are enough funds to deliver the organizational mission.
2. The board should have a fundraising plan, just like a business would, that is tied to an annual budget for the coming year (or two). The plan should identify funding gaps and costs of new organizational programming, and how the gaps and programs will be funded.
3. The board can delegate fundraising tasks lots of ways – to a committee, to an outside fundraising source, to the Executive Director or other key staff. Remember: no matter who you delegate the tasks to, the Board of Directors is responsible for fiscal management and the protection of assets.

In small organizations, we find that most friction and finger pointing occurs between staff and the board over fundraising. With a good funding plan in place and financial gaps targeted for the coming year, as well as a plan on who will do what in the organization to meet the demands of a budget shortfall, the tension will subside and keep energies focused on moving forward. And the Executive Director won’t have that, you know, silent scream look.