Ep. 149: 10 Reasons Why Your Board Isn't Helping You Fundraise
EPISODE 149
10 Reasons Why Your Board Isn't Helping You Fundraise
About the Episode:
You keep hoping your board will step up and help fundraise. They say they will. But when campaign crunch time hits, you get silence. Crickets. And you're stuck doing it all. In this episode, I walk you through the real reasons your board isn't fundraising — and it’s not just because they’re busy. From fear of rejection to outdated event mindsets, I unpack the top 10 blockers (with real-world examples), and most importantly, how to turn things around. You’ll walk away with practical steps to re-engage your board, shift your leadership energy, and activate their networks for your next campaign. This one’s a boardroom must-listen.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The top 10 reasons board members avoid fundraising
Why high-achievers fear fundraising more than you think
How to reframe board expectations (without begging)
Scripts, examples, and small asks that actually work
What your board really needs from you as a leader
Why "we need $100k" isn’t a campaign — and how to fix it
Turning one board win into a cascade of collective momentum
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here! https://christinaedwards.krtra.com/t/xKuLs6tOiPZa
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Fundraising is about inviting someone into a purpose. It's about alignment.”
“We need to shift the mindset to offering and showing your board examples of donor joy.”
“Most of your campaign's traction will be built on micro wins, these small, repeatable acts of visibility, connection, endorsement from your board members, using their networks to leverage awareness for your cause.”
“Rejection hits hard, especially for high achievers. If you have a high-achieving board, it's almost as if they will be more adverse to this.”
“Part of the success journey is that you'll hear some no's and keep going.”
“Sometimes you don't need to replace the board member; you just need to re-anchor them.”
“You are the fundraising leader. Your board should be taking your direction, not vice versa.”
“Donors are consumers. Consumers are donors.”
“When you're not sharing your wins, your board is not seeing you as a fundraising leader.”
“When you come with that leadership style, you'll see much more success.”
“When you start addressing each one of these 10 reasons, something beautiful starts happening in your board, and you start to see the board win.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Connect with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 0:25You're doing the work, you're showing up, and you've got that big campaign coming up, and you think this is going to be the time my board finally steps up and helps me fundraise? They say, they they say, yes. They say, yeah, yeah. We've got you just let us know what you need, and then when it comes to crunch time, they're gone crickets, nothing. If you're like so many other nonprofit fundraisers and executives, you've been in this same loop again and again and again, and that's what we're going to dig into today, is what's actually keeping them from taking that action, and what are those small changes you can make to engage your board. Now, this episode was inspired by a Tiktok series that I did recently where I actually did 10 days of 10 reasons why your board isn't helping you fundraise and what to do instead. And that idea just kind of dropped in where it's a common thread that I'm seeing a lot lately, hearing a lot lately, from nonprofits where, you know they've got great board members, or they've got well meaning board members, and they've got a big revenue goal, they want to hit a big campaign coming up, and there's a disconnect happening. There is a disconnect happening between the staff side and the board side on engagement. And there's a lot of frustration that comes from that disconnect. Okay, so we're going to right side that for you today, and this is really something that if you want to do this work deeper, I highly recommend joining one of my programs inside the sprint method. That's where you're going to learn the skill of community fundraising. If you have not mastered that skill and you are an earlier stage nonprofit, I highly recommend joining that program, inside the purpose and profit club, that is my group coaching program that is much more like a growth accelerator. We go into this even deeper, where we are engaging boards to fundraise. We are engaging boards to be part of your social street team.
Okay, so let's dig in to today's list. Let's start with reason number one, why your board isn't helping you fundraise. This is a big one. So even for the C suite executive, even for the big player in your community, they don't know how. They don't know how. Even the most seasoned lawyer, even the most seasoned financial expert, right? These big titles, anesthesiologist, doctor, just because they have an expertise somewhere, does not mean they are an expertise everywhere, right? If I took my most favorite pediatrician and I said, I'm going to need you to raise a million dollars for this organization, she would be shaking in her boots. That is not her zone of genius. That is not her expertise. And so when we, when we meet people with a mismatch, and you're assuming they'll be good at this, because they are excellent in their career. There's the mismatch, there's the disconnect, and then they're not speaking up and saying, actually, how do I do that? Actually, I feel like, if I do that, I'm just gonna be like, bugging my friends and my family, and that feels terrible. And even though I am the executive of this huge firm, that idea of offending my friends and family is scary. Okay, so step one, realize that that's what's going on in the background. That's the resistance, okay? And don't just assume, because somebody has a high level career, they're very, very successful, that that's going to translate into fundraising. Okay? So what you need to do there is reframe it. Fundraising is about inviting someone into purpose. It's about alignment, not arm twisting. So we teach board members how to confidently connect their story to the mission. And then the Ask flows from there.
Reason number two, they think fundraising equals begging. Now it's actually not their fault. They think this because they've probably been on the receiving end of some bad fundraising, right? They probably had that experience that was a turn off for them, so this internal narrative shuts down a ton of participation because they're thinking, Oh, that one time that person would not leave me alone, that one time that that organization would not stop calling me right? They're thinking of that, and it shuts down a lot of participation. They picture it being awkward, needy, transactional. They imagine. In themselves, pestering people instead of inspiring them. So we have to flip that for them. And I would call it out. Hey, you might think that I'm asking you to do this. I'm not. It's actually this over here. So we need to shift the mindset to offering showing your board examples of donor joy. When was the last time you did that, letting them read an email from a donor that said, thank you for letting me be a part of this. It's not about guilt. It's not about begging. It's about generosity.
Reason number three, big one, listen in, lean in for this one. They think it's going to take a lot of time. They hear fundraise, and they think, oh my God, I don't have time to take this on now. I have to help plan this gala. Host the 5k the silent auction with the hand painted vases and the dry chicken and the cheese tray. I don't have time for this. I hate planning events anyway. I'm not good at this. And the and the nose kind of start flooding in, right? They think it's going to take a lot of time they think fundraising is this huge endeavor, and not to minimize what you do, but what we're asking them to do is not that. Okay. So what you actually want to break down for them is little bite sized steps of what you actually need. And here's what I mean. Share this link with three friends. Share this link with three friends, write a two sentence testimonial, send this campaign to your company. Slack those three actions. If every board member did that, you would see an increase of funding period, full stop. Share this link with three friends, write a two sentence test testimonial and send this link to your company, Slack. Most of your campaigns. Traction won't come from big, flashy lifts. You know. It won't be the big thing that took, you know, days and hours and months to create. It will actually be built on these micro wins, these small, repeatable acts of visibility, connection, endorsement from your board members, using their their networks, to leverage awareness for your cause. That's what we train street teams to do. That's what we have an entire program inside the club to put your organization through that track so you can build that out. So when they give you time objection, you need to make sure that they are very, very clear. Oh, would you be willing to text three friends right now for our, you know, spring appeal campaign? Here's the link. Here's done for you copy. How about that? Because the truth is, a text takes, I don't know, 60 seconds max to send. So you need to drill in and go a little bit deeper when people give you the time objection.
Reason number four, and this is a big one. I keep saying that, but this is really, really important, no matter the type of person on your board again, whether they're seasoned professional small business owner, a national recognized speaker, an author, a doctor, a lawyer, all the big ones, right? They are afraid of rejection. Why are all of those people who are superstars in their careers, afraid of rejection? Because we all are. It's part of the human experience. No one likes to hear, no no one likes to hear. That's a terrible idea. No one wants to hear no thanks, right? And so they're naturally, we are hardwired to shy away from any sort of rejection, and so it makes sense that they would be, they would be scared of it. Rejection hits hard, especially for high achievers. So if you have a high achieving board, it's almost as if they're going to be more adverse to this. So you have to be prepared for this. Your board is full of people who may be used to winning, leading, succeeding, not used to this. So when they think about somebody saying no to their ask, they freeze they would rather avoid it altogether than feel that embarrassment. So step one here is going to be to normalize rejection. Show them the conversion stats. I would love for you to do that. If you were to sit down in your next board meeting and say, you know that $100,000 that we brought in extra year over year last year. Drill into it and say, you know, $50,000 of it came from this gift, you know, and the remaining 50k came from these five donors. Okay, let's say, let's say we were able to parse it out like that, if you could zoom out for them, and say, I actually had a pool of 25 people. You. Who said various yes, no, and come back to me some other time. In order to get these six people to collectively say yes, which raised that additional 100k you have to show them that the 100k was built on yeses and was built on no's. They don't know that they think you had a donor meeting, and the donor said yes, and you secured the $50,000 gift, and then you hit repeat and repeat and repeat. They don't realize that you have a process to build yourself up, and you're part of your donor pipeline. Process is that you're going to hear nos, you're going to hear nos, and they won't stop you. So you have to model that for them, showing them the conversion stats, letting them know this isn't about 100% yes, it's about momentum. And we use donor psychology. We use fundraising confidence to, you know, weave that inside our programs to shift that fear. That's how we inside of the club and the sprint method shift that fear so that when you hear the nose, you don't go into freeze mode. And that's a skill you build. And that is a skill that nine out of 10 board members simply don't have. Simply don't have. Let's think about the surgeon. Let's think about the the orthopedic surgeon, right top of their field. She is a rock star surgeon. She is not having to, like pitch surgeries and say, I'd like to do your surgery. I'd like to do your literally, people are coming to her saying, My knee hurts. Will you please do my surgery? Right? She's not used to having that level of rejection. Now, tons of high stakes in her career. I'm not I'm not diminishing that. What I'm saying is this just as a muscle and a skill that most board members don't have unless they've done this, they've done this, and honestly, unless they're in sales, unless they are, there are certain niches where they would have encountered this before, but not many, not many. So you need to normalize it, and you need to show them that that's part of the success journey. Part of the success journey is, dear board member, you're gonna hear some no's and keep going. You're doing an awesome job.
Reason number five. Reason number five, they're not mission connected. So this looks like when you know that board member who's just been like, not responding to emails, as much, a little more disengaged, a little quieter, not as excited, as they once were in meetings, in attending meetings, and just generally, like, you can kind of just feel the disengagement. You can feel it like, like the the air coming out of a tire. It's like, but like they once had it, they once had it. Sometimes it's that. Sometimes it's the newer board member, which who hasn't been on boarded very well. But in both instances, they're not mission connected. So some members, for some board members, for example, could have joined because they were asked by you. They were asked by a friend. They were recruited. Some joined for the status right for the resume builder, some were just, let's be honest, especially if you're a younger organization, warm bodies because you needed to feel fell a set. I see all of that in the mix. And most likely, in those cases, you didn't onboard them to the mission, and now you're expecting them to fundraise for the mission, for something for which they don't actually feel emotionally connected to. It's very sterile, like they get the mission, but they don't actually feel connected. So here's what to do, here's what to do. Invite them into the Why have them attend a program? Pair them with a staffer. Maybe that staffers, you ask them what story or stat stuck with them most simply, just doing that will change everything for their mission alignment, for their mission engagement, Mission connection. Sometimes you don't need to actually replace the board member. You just need to re anchor them. Okay? I
I'm pretty obsessed with reason number six, because reason number six is one of the backbone foundations to what I teach, in order for you to create a successful fundraiser. Now, many of you are out there are creating fundraisers and fundraising all the time and not hitting your goals. And the reason is there's no campaign to plug into. There's no campaign to plug into, and that's because you're just saying, Help us fundraise. Help us fundraise. Christina, we need to raise $350,000 this year. We need to raise $800,000 this year. We need 100k this year. That is not a campaign. That is an annual goal. You with me, and so there's nothing for them to plug into. There's actually no meat of a campaign, no story, no hook, no nothing. And so it translates to them as a vague request when there's no clear goal, no story, no urgency, no hook, it's easy. For them to say, I'll do it later, not now. This isn't just a board problem, by the way. This is a campaign design problem or lack thereof. So what do you do? Number one, before you ask them to fundraise, you need a campaign. Otherwise you are driving, going for a Sunday drive with no destination. You are just driving with nothing plugged into your GPS. Okay? That's why we teach plug and play campaigns in both of our programs. So if you're still trying to figure out how to raise 10k consistently in your fundraisers, that's what we teach in the sprint method, where you'll master community fundraising if you're scaling to more complex campaigns with ambassadors, board leadership, major gifts, that's what we teach in the club. Okay, either way, you should be able to answer, why should I help? Right now, your board member needs to know the answer to that question. And bonus, so do your potential donors? Donor prospects. Okay, so they need to plug into a campaign.
Reason number seven may be a little spicy, but you need to hear it. You're playing the wrong role. Too many EDS and fundraisers are acting like assistants to the board instead of strategic leaders. You know, you're tiptoeing around them, you're waiting for permission. You're accepting. You know, let's just revisit this as an okay thing to say when you have that big goal and that that program with a wait list of 152 people, and you're accepting, let's just revisit this next meeting. No, because you're afraid of being too pushy, and they sense that, so they won't take fundraising seriously, because you're not owning it. You're not holding holding them accountable. So what to do here is to shift the power dynamic. And this doesn't happen overnight. This happens in steps. This happens in I want you to think about like turning around a ship, right? It's not like you turning in the middle of traffic, right, in a car. Turning around a ship takes a little bit longer, and that's what this is when you're shifting the power dynamic. So step one is to stop positioning yourself as the please help me staffer. You are the fundraising leader. Your board should be taking your direction, not the other way around. And this is a sidebar, but this is worth noting. When you're in that meeting and you have that board member who, out of the blue, not on the agenda, not relevant to the fundraising campaign you've got planned and just told them about says, You know what we should do? My friend Brad just told me about this gala his friend attended, and they raised a bajillion dollars, and we should plan a gala. And instead of saying, Oh, that's interesting, yeah, and then having a 30 minute discussion about a gala that is not in your strategic plan, that is not in your agenda, and that is not in line with your current budget or goals. You need to say interesting. Noted. I'm going to bring us back to this campaign that we have coming up in July, and that's what we're going to talk about. And you bring them right back, you bring them right back. That's the energy. It's not rude, but it is holding them exactly to the purpose and the goal of that meeting, that campaign, that goal, to the direction that you're in charge of bringing and kind of hurting them towards.
Reason number eight, they're stuck in the past. Listen, they want the gala. They want the golf outing. They think direct mail is the best thing ever. And you, you're over here, holding, waving, trying to show them faster, frictionless ways to raise serious money. And it's a disconnect, right? And they keep bringing you back to the good old days, or they bring you back to what worked 25 years ago. Now, I'm not anti Gala, I'm not anti golf outing, I'm not anti direct mail. I am anti all slow fundraising, and all of those are slow time heavy and very cost heavy. Okay, and so when your fundraising strategy doesn't include campaigns that are low cost, low time, it's a problem. It's a problem. So here's what you need to do. You have to lead a culture shift. Show them how donor behavior has changed. Donors are consumers. Consumers are donors. We are the Amazon generation. Like it or not, we order something at 8pm many of us get that thing by noon the next day. Okay, so the golf outing isn't bad. It is the long game, it is the slow game, it is the tedious game, and it is the expensive game. We have to re meet donors where they are right now, right now, and that's what this campaign is doing. That's what you're going to show them. Okay, so we want experiences that feel immediate, personal and easy, because when we don't have those. We don't have fundraisers for those. We are excluding a group of people who, by the way, don't play golf, who aren't reading their mail, who don't want to go to the dry chicken Gala, right? We're excluding so many people, particularly younger generations. You really want to push back on that the gala isn't wrong, but it's not the only way, and it excludes 80% of the people who want, who want to help now, but will never attend the black tie event. So we really need to rethink it, and ultimately, you're the boss, applesauce, and it's love that you love the gala. It's not in the plan this year. So here's what we're doing, and here's where we need your help. Here's the campaign, and then you get them excited for the campaign. Speaking of which, speaking of getting them excited for the campaign.
Reason number nine, this may be a little bit of an ouch. They don't see you as a fundraising leader. I know that one hurts, that stinks, but it's real when they see you as just the programs person or the ops person or the comms person, the steward of stories, but not the driver of revenue, they will not prioritize fundraising for you. This is an energetic thing. This is a you stepping into your power thing when they think they know how to fundraise better than you, but you are actually the one in the freaking CRM calling the donors. You were the one planning this incredible campaign, and they're dismissing it. It starts with you stepping into your energetic power, stepping into the leader. I know you are letting them know, and part of this is you've probably been diminishing your successes. They need to hear about that 50k gift you just secured. They need to hear about the 30 new recurring donors. You just ran an email only campaign for because you joined our course easy emails for impact, and you launched an email campaign that brought in 30 new recurring donors, right? They need to hear this, these things. And when you're not sharing your wins, they're not seeing you as a fundraising leader. So step one in seeing you as a fundraising leader is actually showing them. And you may say, Well, that sounds really braggy. Okay, we'll brag or you may say, Well, I don't have anything to brag about. I call bullshit. You have something to brag about because you're here, you're listening. Your organization is growing. There are people donating to it. Find a win. So what to do? Show them your strategy, walk them through your last campaigns. ROI, yes, once they see your leadership and through a data and vision lens, they'll stop ignoring your fundraising calendar and start taking direction, which weaves in beautifully to our final reason,
And final reason why your board isn't helping you fundraise. There's no accountability. What gets measured gets done when? If there's no expectation that board members contribute, have revenue goals through giving, sharing, inviting, influencing, then most of them will do nothing. If you think back to when you were a child and you had chores to do, like unload the dishwasher, do your laundry, put away your laundry, if those chores were set. To you once, and then there was no accountability from your parents to do them. I know me. I'm not doing them. Who am I? Why am I doing them? I'm seven years old. I don't want to unload the dishwasher. Right? When you have that accountability, one of Did you, it's time to unload the dishwasher, clean dishes. Here it is, right? You start to develop the habit. The next layer of that is reward, right? Acknowledgement, hey, thanks for unloading the dishwasher. Now we have clean forks. Did you notice we were out of forks? Now we have clean forks. It literally is that simple. Is taking that and extrapolating it out for adults. Okay, so really important to set the expectation, and also to step again into your leadership, into your power of of holding them accountable. And that may not be the most fun part of your job. I get it. It sucks, right? It sucks. You have to hold another adult accountable, who said, I will totally do I will totally make those calls. I'll send those emails, and it's very clear they haven't then it is your job to hold them accountable, creating that structure, creating that accountability, picking up the phone. This is what we help members do inside the club. We help them build these board engagement plans so that their board is set up for success, so that they can't have their board members say, Well, you never dot, dot, dot. You're like I did here. It is right here for you, right? And so that you have also the inner self confidence, the inner self trust, to say, I've got to call Joe. And you know what? It's not going to be the most fun conversation to hold Joe accountable here. But this is work worth doing, and this is part of how this is part of the path of hitting our campaign goal. And Joe's not wrong, Joe's not bad. Joe's not getting a time out. But I'm gonna check in with Joe, and I'm gonna see why he didn't do a damn thing that he said he was gonna do, and I'm gonna see if we can get him the tools he needs, if he has a question if maybe he's had something going on personally, and let's just get him back on track. Right, when you come with that leadership style, you're going to see a lot more success. And the other cascade effect of all of these reasons that I love is when you start to right side this right, when you start addressing each one of these 10 Reasons, something beautiful starts happening in your board is you start to see the board win, and when one board member wins, they start talking about it, right, like the good gossip, right? And they start sharing their wins. They're like, Oh my gosh. I oh my gosh. I hit my goal. I just booked the executive director a meeting with this business we've been trying to secure, or I hit my 5k goal. This was so fun, it wasn't even that hard, right? They start sharing wins, and that cascade effect is contagious among the other board members. And then we even see the disengaged board members put their little heads up, and suddenly they're like, Well, I'm going to make some calls, right? I'll help. What did Sally do? Okay? I can try that, right? And it starts to bring the best part, the heart and soul, back to the board. So if your board is disengaged, if your board is well meaning, but keeps taking you off path, if your board says yes, but doesn't take any action, I want you to go through these 10 steps. Okay? I hope this was helpful. I can't wait to see you in the next episode. In the meantime, I highly recommend joining our waitlist for the club for when we open up this summer, the club is our growth accelerator. This is perfect for organizations who are really, really ready to scale up their funding. If you're not sure what's what program is right for you, you can always book a free discovery call with me to find out more. I'll see you in the next one.