Your Board Will Fundraise

Leverage Your Board Members’ Asking Styles for Better Fundraising Results

Are your board members tired of hitting up everyone for donations? Do they say “I’ll do anything but fundraise”? Do they fear fundraising because they don’t know how to do it?

Good, strategic fundraising isn’t about hitting up everyone for transactional gifts. It’s about building relationships for the long run. Relationships that are between the donor and the organization, with the board member as an ambassador.

Since good fundraising is based on building authentic relationships, and your board members certainly know how to develop relationships, they can be great fundraisers. To be effective they need to embrace their personal strengths and feel confident about what they bring to the table. Enter the Asking Styles.

The Asking Styles are based on how people interact and how they think. There are four Styles: Rainmaker, Go-Getter, Kindred Spirit and Mission Controller, each with different core strengths. Of course, your board members all have at least a bit of all these traits, but some are more prominent or more central to how they maneuver through life.

One way to look at the Styles is through the question each of your board members asks as they carve out a way forward:

Navigating COVID

Now think of your board and how it has navigated the pandemic. Your board has grappled with critical decisions about program, staff, mission and more, and it’s likely board members of differing Styles took on different roles during the discussions:

Rainmakers: “Let’s be strategic here. The goal is to stay afloat and continue to make an impact while being prudent. Are we stronger if we trim now or if we wait and see?”
Go-Getters: “We can pivot. When one door closes another opens. Let’s take advantage of this moment to reevaluate what we’re doing and head in some new directions.”
Kindred Spirits: “Our participants and staff come first. What can we do to continue to help and employ them? What else do they need? We must do whatever we can during this perilous time.”
Mission Controllers: “Let’s take a step back and think this through. I know it seems perilous right now, but if we start making reactive decisions we’ll be at risk. Let’s take a look at the numbers and plan out three different scenarios.”

Just as your board members bring different skill sets and perspectives to their governance, they bring those differences to their fundraising. By honoring those differences and meeting your board members where their strengths lie, they can become the strong fundraisers you need.’’

Who They Cultivate and Solicit

For example, though your board members should not “hit up” everyone they know, where they can open doors to people in their network who could genuinely get excited they should be encouraged to do so. And based on their Asking Style, they will approach their network differently:

Rainmakers: Look strategically at their circle of influence, especially their professional network. They do so as part of their overall strategy for building relationships and creating synergies in their lives.
Go-Getters: Cast the net wide. For them it’s “all for one and one for all.” They enthusiastically approach everyone to jump on the bandwagon.
Kindred Spirits: Are very, very select and avoid most people they know well. For them it’s all personal, which makes it tricky.
Mission Controllers: Systematically and objectively look at their network, establish a plan, and go to work.

How They Tell Their Story

As we’ve established, because strategic fundraising is about building strong relationships with donors, your board members must be their authentic selves. That means telling their unique, authentic story. When they tell that story – make that case for support – they’ll be compelling.

To tell their authentic story, they need to use the vocabulary and information that resonates personally. Everyone has a different story to tell:

When your board members cultivate and solicit the right people and tell their authentic stories, they will be amazing partners in developing the resources your organization needs to fulfill its vision and have the greatest impact.

To find out your board members Asking Styles, have everyone take the Asking Style Assessment at Find Your Asking Style.

Then, at your next board meeting – virtual or in-person – have everyone discuss their results and share their two greatest strengths as fundraisers. Also carve out time for board members to practice their unique story, identifying how their Asking Style has influenced it.

Here’s to a board of enthusiastic ambassadors.