Board Member Engagement Techniques

Nonprofit Executive Directors -- you've got to help your Board help you. Even the most high-functioning, engaged Board can't intuit your needs or help you in a vacuum. Some ideas to try: 💡 In your monthly operational updates, include a specific ask of specific committees, the whole board, and/or specific board members (one that is in line with their duties and responsibilities, of course). 💡Ask individual Board members where their sweet spot is when it comes to networking and fundraising -- maybe it's tabling at events, writing thank you cards, taking donors out for coffee, or even cold calling-on local potential brand sponsors -- and then give them the tools they need to succeed (training, donor pitch decks, social media toolkits, email templates, etc.) 💡When you encounter a major challenge, don't just try to muscle through it on your own -- tell the Board how they can help. Asking for help is part of strong leadership. And in the midst of all the 💩 coming out of the White House right now, a team effort is more important than ever. 💡Be open and transparent in your 1:1s with the Board Chair -- create a thought partnership with them. Hire a coach for joint coaching if this relationship needs strengthening or reinvigorating. 💡Be very clear and honest about what needs more budgetary investment, where you may have to go significantly over budget on expenses, etc. -- they cannot properly fulfill their duties or support you if you're always trying to paint a rosy picture to "keep them happy". 💡Aim to have a 1:1 with each Board member twice per year. Getting to know them (and they you) will better help you harness each other's strengths and interests and shore up each other's blind spots. 💡Thank your Board members regularly and authentically for their time and efforts, and tell them what is working and what have been the effects of their work. This will strengthen your relationship with them and help them better understand (and strategize on their own) where to invest their time and $$$.

Your board orientation process is setting up new members to fail at fundraising. Here's why. You hand them a binder full of bylaws, financial statements, and committee descriptions. What's missing? Everything they actually need to succeed at fundraising. Your new board members aren't failing because they don't care. They're failing because you haven't equipped them. The organizations with highly engaged fundraising boards don't just have better board members. They have better onboarding processes. Pull out your board orientation materials right now. Look for these critical elements: Clear fundraising expectations with specific examples. Personal impact stories they can share immediately. Concrete language for talking about your mission. Practice sessions for making connections. If these are missing, you've found your board engagement problem. The most successful organizations I work with transform board orientation: They include donor panels where board members hear directly from supporters. They provide story banks with ready-to-share impact examples. They offer relationship mapping exercises to identify connections. They create personal fundraising plans for each board member. Your board members didn't join to become fundraisers. They joined to advance your mission. But they can't help you fundraise if you don't give them the tools to succeed. Stop blaming your board for fundraising reluctance. Start fixing your orientation process. Because in fundraising, board engagement isn't about motivation. It's about preparation.

Asking board members to "just give or get $X" solves 0% of your fundraising problems. 8 better approaches that actually work: 1. Stop treating all board members the same: Create individualized engagement plans based on skills and networks 2. Replace "give/get" with "engage/connect": Measure relationship-building activities, not just dollars 3. Provide specific language for outreach: Most board members don't know what to say 4. Create "fundraising light" opportunities: Host small gatherings, make introductions, share content 5. Celebrate relationship milestones, not just gifts: New meetings and meaningful connections deserve recognition 6. Train on storytelling, not solicitation: Compelling stories open more doors than direct asks 7. Make it competitive (in a healthy way): Gamify outreach activities with team challenges 8. Share specific stories of impact: Give them emotional ammunition for conversations What's working with your board fundraising efforts?

A few weeks ago, I was talking with an ED in my program who was running on fumes. She felt like she was carrying the entire organization on her back — fundraising, strategy, operations—and her board? Just… there. They showed up to meetings… They nodded along. But they weren’t ACTUALLY helping. They weren’t leveraging their networks. They weren’t stepping up as thought partners. They weren’t fundraising… And it left her feeling completely alone. The problem? She was treating her board like an audience instead of a team. Board disengagement usually isn’t about “bad board members.” More often, it’s about lack of clarity, expectations, and meaningful engagement. Here’s what I told her: Want your board to step up? Make it easy for them to engage. ✅ Clarify their role. If they don’t know what’s expected, they won’t engage. ✅ Shift meetings from updates to strategy. Stop reporting—start problem-solving. ✅ Show them their impact. Board members need to see how their involvement makes a difference. ✅ Be specific about support. Instead of “help with fundraising,” ask them to host cultivation events in their home. Remember: You don’t have to do this alone. Your board should be your biggest allies — how can you set them up to be what you need them to be?

“Noses in, fingers out” is a bad board proverb. Over the years, I have seen this phrase repeated as a guiding principle for boards. The philosophy: Boards are meant to govern, not manage. Their role is to guide strategy, ensure accountability, and support leadership rather than run the business themselves. But in practice, “noses in, fingers out” can prevent boards from offering the kind of constructive support CEOs actually need - especially when things are not going as planned. Too often, board engagement defaults to performance assessment. But if the goal is long-term value creation, boards must also view themselves as developmental partners to the CEO. This requires a different mindset - one rooted in vulnerability, openness, and shared ownership of the unknowns. In practice, this means moving from broad oversight to deep partnership in the areas that matter most. It means the board chair sitting down with the CEO and asking, “Are we engaging in a way that truly helps you perform at your best?” If the CEO responds, “I have this,” and performance does not improve, then a decision point is near. But if the CEO says, “I have some of this, but I need help in other areas,” that is not a red flag - it is an invitation to co-create, coach, and iterate. Help can take many forms: weighing in earlier on strategic direction, rather than reacting to a finished product, or supporting a CEO to troubleshoot execution approach when the strategy is sound but results are lagging. In the best boardrooms, engagement with the CEO is not defined by hierarchy, judgment, or distance. It is defined by trust, candor, and a shared commitment to building something better. While no CEO wants board members to act like management, they want engaged board members who offer ideas, and wisdom and are true sounding boards along the journey.