Working With Your Board (When You Are Not in Charge of It)
What a board is for, what to ask of it in year one, and how to brief a chair or committee without overstepping. For the fundraiser who reports to the ED and still needs the board to help.
Through the Faith-Based lens
A pastor or clergy member on your parish council or ministry board is not just another trustee: they often chair the body or sit with authority the lay members do not have, and your reporting line runs through them in a way that is spiritually loaded as well as organizational. The give-open-thank-ask ladder still applies, but a clergy member's reluctance to ask directly is common and rarely worth fighting; find the lay members who will thank and open doors, and let the pastor bless the effort rather than run it.
Continuing education
1.00 points
Volunteer Involvement · Leadership and Management
Learning objectives
- Explain what a nonprofit board is responsible for, where fundraising fits, and why a first-year fundraiser's relationship with the board runs through the executive director.
- Prepare for and conduct a working relationship with a board chair or development committee that is useful to them and safe for you.
- Brief a board in one page and offer each member a small, specific fundraising role suited to what they will actually do.
- Analyze a first-year conflict between a fundraiser and a board and identify the moves that resolved it.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 16 min
Video lesson
What a board is for (and what it is not)
I Pause · Leadership and Management
- 18 min
Field guide· PDF
Working with a chair or committee without overstepping
II See · Volunteer Involvement
- 16 min
Template· DOCX
The board briefing one-pager and the year-one ask menu
IV Invite · Volunteer Involvement
- 14 min
Case study· PDF
Case study: the new hire and the board that wanted a gala
IV Invite · Volunteer Involvement
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Fundamentals & Ethics
How Fundraising Works
The map you weren't given: where the money comes from, why people give, and what a development program is made of.
Major & Principal Gifts
Your First Donor Conversations
Scripts, practice, and nerve for the conversations that fund your mission: discovery visits, thank-you calls, and your first ask.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
The Annual Fund, Explained
Appeals, segments, and the giving calendar: how recurring annual revenue gets built, one season at a time.