Gail Perry from Fired up Fundraising shares her secret formula and tips to get your board members more active in fundraising!

1. How to Get Your Board Members
Engaged and Active in
Fundraising
Gail Perry MBA CFRE
@gailperrync #firedupFR
www. Firedupfundraising.com gp@gailperry.com

2. Who Am I?
25+ years
Blogger, coach, consultant
Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill fundraising
Author “Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Board Passion into
Action”
AFP Fundraiser of the Year
International speaker and workshop leader
#firedupFR
@gailperrync
Gail Perry

3. Three Steps to Engage Your Board
Members in Fundraising:
1. Get them fired up!
2. Educate them: redefine fundraising.
3. Give them easy jobs that don’t involve
“asking.”

4. Special Resource for Wild Apricot!
Workbook: Enlist Your Dream
Team Board!
http://www.gailperry.com/resources-wildapricot/

5. Did Somebody Say the “F-Word?”
Are Your Board Members Literally
Afraid of Fundraising?
”

6. The Tin Cup Syndrome?

7. Fundraisin
g =
Begging?

8. Do Your Board Members Imagine
Fundraising = Rejection?

9. 9
Fundraising = Cold Calls?

10. Step 1:
Get Them Fired Up in General!

11. Is This Your Board?

12. Is This Your Board?
Is This Your Board?
Is This Your
Board?
Or Is this Your Board?

13. Is This Your Board?
Is This Your Board?
Is This Your Board?
13
Is This Your Board?Boring Meetings = A Bored Board

14. A Board Member
Deserves a
TERRIFIC Experience!

15. Fire Up Your Board
Where Does The Money Go?
• A panel discussion or interview
format.
• Why does it cost so much?
• Program by program.
• How much does it cost per
person?
• Story about someone whose
life was changed.

16. Fire Up Your Board
10 Terrific Questions to Discuss with
Your Board
1. “Why do we even need private contributions anyway?
2. “Why does it cost so much?
3. “Where exactly does the money go?
4. “Why does it take so much staff to do this work?
5. “How many kids are we helping in this program?
6. “About how much does it cost per person helped?
7. “What else do we really need? And how much would that cost?
8. “How many kids are we missing? What happens then?
9. Can you tell me a story of someone whose life was changed thru our
work?
10. “What would we do if we had an additional $100k? (or $50k, or $500k or
million – whatever is relevant to your budget size.)

17. Fire Up Your Board
Mission Moments: Give Board Members a
Direct Personal Experience

18. #5 Give Them Social Time
Fire Up Your Board!
Give Them Social Time

19. Down Time Together is Essential
Social Time For Board Members
Builds
Trust and Collegiality

20. Ask Board Members Why They
Care!

21. The Mingle Exercise:
An Amazingly Powerful Tool
I’d like to
learn what
to say.

22. Why Do I Care?
1. “Find a partner.
2. “Introduce yourself.
3. “Tell them why you care
about our organization.
4. “Listen to them tell you.
5. “You only have 30 seconds
each.
6. “When I call out, find another
partner.

23. Why Do You Care About Our
Organization?

24. Practice the Elevator Speech
What To Say

25. The “Why”
not the
“What.”

26. Spread the Idea Virus
Sneeze Wherever You Go!
This is how board members can become
“sneezers,”
spreading the BUZZ wherever they go.

27. The Elevator Speech:
How To “Be”
• Energetic
• Enthusiastic
• Authentic
• Honest
• Personal

28. 28
Your Own
Energy
is Infectious!

29. If you are all about money,
where will your energy be?

30. Nothing great
was ever
achieved
without
enthusiasm!
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

31. The Elevator Speech:
Turn It Into A Conversation
What
are your
impressions?

32. The Fundraiser’s Kiss of Death
• Being boring!
• Talking too much!

33. Three Steps to Engage Your Board
Members in Fundraising:
1. Get them fired up!
2. Educate them! Redefine fundraising.
3. Give them easy jobs that don’t involve
“asking.”

34. Steps in the Fundraising Adventure
THANK THANK
THANK AGAIN
CULTIVATE AND
INVOLVE
ASK FOR
SUPPORT
IDENTIFY
PROSPECTS

35. Many Roles for Board Members
TIME AND ENERGY INVOLVED
in each step of the cycle

36. The Soft Sell School of Fundraising
The Relationship is More Important Than the Ask
High intention
Low pressure

37. Fundraising Strategies
Cost Per Dollar Raised
Fundraising EVENT 50%
ANNUAL FUND 25-30%
MAJOR GIFT OR CAPITAL
CAMPAIGN
5-10%

38. Would You Like to Be An
Ambassador?
Fundraising? “YETCH!”
Ambassador?
“What fun!”

39. How Can You Follow-up with a
Donor?
1. Visit a site?
2. Meet top staff?
3. Lunch to discuss?
4. Advice visit coffee?
5. A meeting or event?
6. Something specific to
your friend’s personal
interest?

40. Fundraising 2.0:
Where the Easy Money Is in
Fundraising Today

41. Are We Losing or Gaining
Donors?

42. Fundraising’s
Dirty Little
Secret:
Waaaay Too Much
Donor
ATTRITION

43. 43

44. In our surveys, less
than 45% of
fundraisers
knew their current
donor retention rate.
Do you know your retention rate?

45. 45

46. How much $$
from people
who have
not renewed
their gifts?

47. Three Steps to Engage Your Board
Members in Fundraising:
1. Get them fired up!
2. Educate them! Redefine “fundraising.
3. Give them easy jobs that don’t
involve “asking.”

48. Easy Fundraising Jobs:
1. Host Sizzling Tours
• Board members
invite their
FRIENDS
• Board member
welcomes
• Call the next day:
“What were your
impressions?”

49. Easy Fundraising Jobs:
2. Host Small Socials
• No solicitations!
• Plan your
followup—
or don’t do it!

50. The All Important Follow Up Card
Name: _____________________________________
Address: _____________________________________
Email: _____________________________________
Phone: _____________________________________
What most interested me about your organization was:
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
I would like to:
1. ______Join your mailing list
2. ______Hold a small social or tour of my own
3. ______Make a contribution
4. ______Volunteer
5. ______ please call me at __________
6. Other _____________________________________

51. Easy Fundraising Jobs:
3. Thank You Phone Calls to
Donors
Donors received a thank you phone call from a board
members within 24 hours of receiving the gift.
The next time they were solicited, they gave 39% more
than the other donors who did not receive a call.
After 14 months, those called were giving 42% more.
Donor Centered Fundraising, Penelope Burk

52. Easy Fundraising Jobs:
4. VIP Prospect Game
Who are 10 funding
sources who could
catapult our
financial future?

53. Easy Fundraising Jobs:
5. Advice Visits
If you want money
ask for advice;
if you want advice,
ask for money.

54. Advice Visit Success
I had an "advice visit" today with a very prominent
woman in the community who on the spot offered a
$10,000 challenge grant!!
What's even more amazing is that she did not want to
schedule the meeting because she said her foundation
had no money to give us!
~Linda Frenette, Community Music School, Raleigh NC

55. Advice Visit Success
“I've been having a great time contacting various business
leaders asking for their coaching/opinion on making the
Grand Canyon Chapter of the Red Cross a success.
I briefly outline the reasons I serve on the board, what the
Red Cross does in our community, and ask what
successful practices they have seen on other charitable
boards.
The response is great. They are interested in the Red
Cross and want to have on-going dialogue! It's about
relationships...... Thanks again, Gail
~Karen Mildenhall, Chair-Elect Phoenix Red Cross

57. Special Resource for Wild Apricot!
Workbook: Enlist Your Dream
Team Board!
http://www.gailperry.com/resources-wildapricot/

58. Many More Resources at
FiredupFundraising.com
Top 10 Things to Understand About How Fundraising Really Works Today
5 Clues Your Fundraising is Headed Downhill
Why Board Members Love Advice Visits
Does Your Organization Really Support Fundraising? Take This Simple Quiz
Easy Elevator Speech Exercise for Your Board
Show Me the Money: How To Move From Friendraising to Fundraising
How Major Donors are Changing and What To Do About It
20 EASY Ways Board Members Can Cultivate Donors
10 Easy Ways Board Members Can Raise Money
12 Ways to Liven Up Your Board Meetings —and Your Board
Fired-Up Fundraising NEWSLETTER
Gail Perry MBA CFRE twitter: @gailperrync
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