Five Year-End Jobs for Board Members That Don't Involve Asking for Money

Ask an executive director what they want from the board at year-end and you'll usually hear some version of "help with fundraising." Ask board members what they hear when you say that, and many will tell you they hear "go ask your friends for money."

That gap is the problem. Most board members who resist fundraising are resisting the ask, not the work. Plenty of them would gladly help if someone told them exactly what to do, when, and what to say. Below are five specific year-end jobs, with a timeline and scripts, and none of them requires anyone to sit across a table and request a gift.

Board fundraising problems are often clarity problems

In the 2017 edition of BoardSource's Leading with Intent study, chief executives gave their boards a C on fundraising, and board chairs gave themselves only a C+. Fundraising was also the area most often named as a priority for improving board performance.

The same report found something more useful. When fundraising expectations were clearly spelled out during board recruitment, 52% of chief executives said their boards were actively engaged in fundraising. When expectations weren't clear, that dropped to 12%.

That's a recruitment finding, but I think the lesson carries over to year-end. "Please help with the year-end campaign" gives a board member nothing to do on Tuesday. "Please write a two-line note on these 25 letters by November 14" does.

Imagine an animal shelter with a $1.1 million budget, about 2,000 active donors, one development director, and a board of 12. If each board member does the five jobs below, the shelter gets 12 early gifts, about 300 personalized appeal letters, two dozen notes to networks the shelter has never reached, and 120 thank-you calls. Nobody has to ask anyone for money face to face.

Job 1: Give first, and give early

This is the one job that touches money, but it's their own gift, not an ask.

Ask every board member to make their year-end gift by mid-November, before the appeal goes out. Early board gifts let you write "every member of our board has already given" in your appeal and on GivingTuesday, which is December 1 this year. And if a few board members can give more, you can pool their gifts into a match for GivingTuesday or the last week of December.

Set this up at your October board meeting, and have the board chair make the request. A peer's expectation usually carries more weight than a staff reminder.

Script for the board chair: "I've already made my year-end gift. I'd like all of us to give before November 15 so we can tell our donors the board is fully behind this. If you'd be willing to put part of your gift toward a match for December 1, let [staff name] know this week."

Job 2: Write notes on appeal letters

A short handwritten note on a printed appeal is one of the simplest ways to make a mass mailing feel personal, and a note from a volunteer reads differently than one from someone paid to raise money.

Hold a signing night in mid-November, after the letters are printed and before they're mailed. Give each board member 20 to 30 letters, starting with donors they know. Provide pens, sample notes, and pizza.

Sample notes (two lines is plenty):

• "Sarah, your support helped us get Max adopted last spring. Thank you for being part of this. Tom (board member)"
• "I've been on this board for three years and this is the best year we've had. Glad you're with us. Linda"

One rule: the letter does the asking, so the note only says thank you and shows a real person is paying attention.

Job 3: Send one personal note to their own network

Every board member knows people your organization has never reached. They don't have to ask those people for anything face to face. They can tell their friends why they serve and point them to your giving page.

Ask each board member to send one email or post on GivingTuesday (December 1) and a second, shorter one between December 28 and 31. Write a draft and ask them to rewrite it in their own words, or it will sound like your marketing department.

Draft for board members to adapt:

"Friends, for three years I've served on the board of [Shelter]. Last year they placed [number] animals in homes, and I've watched staff stay late to save animals other places wouldn't take. Today is GivingTuesday, and our board is matching gifts up to $10,000. If you've been looking for a place to make a difference locally, this is one I trust: [link]."

Yes, that's still an invitation to give. But it goes to their own people, in their own voice, with no one-on-one conversation required, and many board members who would never make an in-person ask will do this. To help them think through who's in their network, the 50-Name Exercise is a good October homework assignment.

Job 4: Make thank-you calls

Give each board member 10 donors to call in December, ideally people who gave in the last week. Many calls will go to voicemail, which is fine.

I'd be careful about how you sell these calls, though. A large field experiment by economists Anya Samek and Chuck Longfield, covering roughly 500,000 new donors at public television stations, found that thank-you calls had no measurable effect on donor retention. Fundraising professionals surveyed beforehand had predicted a big lift.

I don't read that as "stop calling." I read it as "don't expect a scripted call to do the work of your whole donor experience." Much of the value of a board call is what the board member learns. Someone who has talked to ten donors comes to the January meeting knowing why people give, and that changes how a board thinks about fundraising.

Script: "Hi, this is [Name]. I'm on the board at [Shelter], and I'm calling to say thank you for your gift this month. I'm not asking for anything. I'm curious, what made you decide to give this year?"

Voicemail: "Hi, this is [Name], a volunteer board member at [Shelter]. I just wanted to say thank you for your recent gift. It means a lot to us. No need to call back. Have a great holiday."

Ask board members to send you one line about each conversation for your database. If a call surfaces a donor with real interest and capacity, that's a natural opening for the kind of board involvement described in how board members can support major donor fundraising.

Job 5: Tell you why they serve

This is the easiest job, and it's often skipped. Ask every board member to write three or four sentences in October answering one question: "Why do you give your time to this organization?"

Use those answers in the appeal, in December emails and social posts, and as the starting point for each board member's network note in Job 3. They're often more persuasive than anything staff can write, because they come from someone who isn't paid to say it.

Give them a nudge: "Don't tell us what we do. Tell us the moment you decided this mattered to you." That question tends to produce stories about a particular dog or a particular afternoon, which is exactly what you want.

The year-end board calendar

• October board meeting: Present all five jobs. Collect "why I serve" statements by Halloween. Ask for early gifts and match commitments.
• By November 15: All board gifts in. Confirm match total.
• Mid-November: Signing night for appeal letters.
• December 1 (GivingTuesday): Board members send network notes. Announce the board match.
• December 2 to 31: Each board member calls 10 donors. Staff sends call lists every Monday.
• December 28 to 31: Short second network note.
• January board meeting: Ten minutes of board members sharing what donors told them on calls.

Make it easy to say yes

Your part is removing friction. Send lists instead of "think about who you know," drafts instead of blank pages, and dates on everything. Then report back in January so board members see that their notes and calls were part of the result.

Before your October board meeting, write a one-page handout with these five jobs, the dates, and the scripts. Ask each board member to initial the jobs they'll take on. A specific list is much easier to say yes to than a general plea for help. Over time, that's how a board starts to see fundraising as shared work, which is what building a culture of philanthropy really comes down to.

If you'd like help planning the rest of your year-end campaign around your board's role, the year-end fundraising course covers planning and running a year-end campaign from start to finish. See if it fits where you are.