How To Recruit Your
Volunteer Fund-Raising Team
 Volunteers are the
lifeblood of a development operation, and trustees are the most important
volunteers of all. The trustees approve an organization's budget and they must
accept personal responsibility for raising called-for contributed income. They
are expected to set the pace in giving, recruiting other volunteers, and
soliciting major donors.
Too often I have been
engaged as a consultant only to have the executive director of the organization
or chair of the board of trustees tell me, "Our board doesn't raise money.
You'll have to look elsewhere for fund-raising leadership." That's when I
tell them they have to change the makeup of the board. A board must include
individuals capable of leading a major fund-raising campaign. There is no
greater strength in a fund-raising campaign than a board ready and willing to
lead. There is no greater weakness than one which sees fund-raising as someone
else's responsibility.
Leadership is the key
element in determining the goal or deciding whether you should even conduct a
fund-raising campaign. Be it this year's edition of the annual fund campaign, a
first-time attempt to raise endowment, or a first-ever fund-raising effort,
leadership is what will make or break your campaign.
At its best, a truly
responsible and effective board will produce a volunteer development
organization along these lines:
BOARD OF TRUSTEES > DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE > FUND-RAISING
CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP (Annual, Endowment, Capital, Sponsorship &
Underwriting, Governmental) > SOLICITORS
The board chair sets
the tone for the organization and its volunteers. Other trustees look to the
chair for leadership, and the chair has primary responsibility for volunteer
leadership commitment. However, a development director may have an even more
meaningful relationship, on a day-to-day basis, with the chair of the board's
committee for development, in that they collaborate on the planning and
execution of all the organization's fund-raising campaigns.
The Development
Committee
The development
committee has basic responsibility for overseeing and advising on the
organization's fund-raising activities. Its main duties are to:
- Set policies, priorities, and goals for fund-raising programs for
the current fiscal year
- Review the ongoing performance of each campaign
- Review campaign achievement versus its objectives
- Identify and rate all major prospects for support
- Recruit key volunteer leadership and solicitors for the
organization's fund-raising campaigns.
Chairs of development
committees, like development directors, must resolve the various contributed
income needs of the organization without exhausting its base of support. The
best development committee chairpersons are able to see the job in its
entirety. They have broad vision. They don't fall in love with one fund-raising
idea, campaign, or concept at the expense of the overall development effort.
My preferred development
committee chairperson is a general managerial type with a strong marketing
background. Ideally, this chairperson is something of an alter ego of the
development director. I have been my most successful when my development
chairpersons and I shared the same fund-raising vision. In a sense, the best
development chairperson is a leader whom a competent development director is
able to lead. The development chairperson has clout within the community that
the development director is unlikely to possess, while the latter has
fund-raising knowledge that is probably outside of the development
chairperson's purview. The partnership between the development chairperson and
the development director works best when the professional develops the ideas
and then gains the agreement of the volunteer leader, who uses his or her clout
to get cooperation from the board and other volunteer campaign leaders.
Recruiting Leadership And
Solicitors For Annual, Endowment, Capital, And Sponsorship & Underwriting
Campaigns
Non profits with strong
development operations also may have committees for ongoing fund-raising
endeavors such as the annual fund, endowment, capital, and sponsorship &
underwriting campaigns. The chairs of these campaign committees also sit on the
development committee. Most of the members of the secondary committees will be
trustees, but volunteer fund-raising leaders who are not trustees are also
included.
Sometimes, recruitment
of the chair of a campaign (annual fund, endowment, capital, sponsorships &
underwriting) occurs simultaneously with the development of the campaign plan,
and in some instances the chair is involved in the planning process. However,
it is best to contact a prospective chair with a job description and a campaign
plan in hand. There are two distinct advantages to proceeding in this order.
First, control of the planning process is left in the hands of the person who
has responsibility for raising an organization's contributed income.
Presumably, this person is a professional development officer or has extensive
fund-raising knowledge and experience. Such a person should be better equipped
than the volunteer leader to develop a realistic and effective plan.
The second advantage to
having a plan prepared before recruiting a campaign chair is that it speeds the
process of recruitment. A well-prepared plan shows a level of commitment and
professionalism on the part of the organization that should be attractive to
the person being recruited. It prevents a prospective chair from putting you
off by saying, "It sounds good, but why don't you get back to me when you
have a game plan, and then I'll take a hard look at doing it."
Well-conceived campaign plans in hand at the very start of the chair
recruitment process provide the information prospective chairs need to
determine whether they have the desire and time to commit to a campaign.
The Chain Of
Command
The primary
responsibility for recruiting a campaign chair falls to the chair of the
organization's board of trustees. If he or she is unable to do it, then some
other trustee should take responsibility. If that is not feasible, then the
organization's executive director must do the recruiting. In the ideal
scenario, the board chair will collaborate with a committee on development and
the organization's executive director and its development officer to generate a
short list of campaign chair candidates. From that list the committee on
development, working with the development officer, will choose a prospective
campaign chair. It is then up to the board chairperson or, if there is such, a
trustee having a special relationship with the candidate to make the
recruitment contact.
Often, a trustee of the
organization will be recruited as the campaign chair. There are times, however,
when someone other than a trustee may be better suited to run a campaign. The
chair of a campaign needs to have leverage and clout proportionate to the
amount of money to be raised. It is the chair who will recruit other key
players and who is likely to be called on either to solicit or help solicit the
largest donors. Even with a good plan, a campaign that has inappropriate or
insufficient leadership will be doomed.
Division Leadership For
Individual, Corporate And Foundation Gifts
Once a person has signed
on to chair the campaign, he or she then recruits campaign division chairs
(Individuals, corporations, foundations) and, if needed, a campaign co-chair.
The division chairs then recruit the team captains, and the team captains
recruit the solicitors. In each of these stages, the pool of recruits can come
from the contacts of the person doing the recruiting or the organization's
volunteer base (usually it's a combination). However, the stronger the
relationship between a campaign chair and the division chairs, between a
division chair and the team captains, and between a team captain and the
solicitors, the greater the likelihood of success, because the campaign will
benefit from the team's interlocking feelings of personal loyalty and
responsibility. The only weakness of teams organized along these lines occurs
when there is a break in the chain. If the captain of a team of solicitors is
unable to continue in that leadership role and no one on the team wants to step
up and become captain, it is almost impossible to transfer responsibility for
the team to a new captain and have it work at the same level of efficiency.
Given the potentially positive results that can arise from encouraging
volunteer leaders to recruit the people who will report to them, it's worth
risking that occasional downside.
In the ideal campaign no
more than five persons report to any position, which is why we make provisions
for vice-chairs at the campaign and division chair levels. Although there will
be exceptions to this rule, keep in mind that campaign leaders and solicitors
are volunteers. The fund-raising campaign is not their only priority. Never
saddle a volunteer with an excessive amount of work or management
responsibility.
When it comes to
fund-raising campaigns, you need an attainable goal, a plan for getting to that
goal, and the tools to execute that plan. But in the end, the success or
failure of a fund-raising campaign hinges on leadership, and that leadership
starts on your board.
Those are my views on
the subject. What are yours? I welcome your comments and suggestions:
tony@raise-funds.com
Addendum: Defining The
Volunteers' Jobs
The first position that
needs to be defined in an annual, endowment, capital, or sponsorship and
underwriting fund-raising campaign, is that of the chair of the campaign. This
person is the linchpin of the campaign. It is the chair who recruits others for
leadership positions, sets the tone for the campaign, opens doors to major
givers, and, when necessary, cracks the whip.
Campaign Chair Job
Description
The campaign chair's first major responsibility is to
recruit a committee consisting of the chairs of the major divisions of the
campaign (individuals, corporations, foundations), other needed leadership,
and, if needed, a co- chair. The campaign chair leads the committee in rating
and evaluating major prospects already known to the organization; in
identifying, rating and evaluating major new prospects; and in setting
appointments with major prospects and soliciting their donations. The campaign
chair has overall responsibility for executing the campaign plan and functions
as the campaign's chief operating officer, running scheduled meetings of the
campaign volunteer team and calling additional meetings as needed.
The campaign chair is the public spokesperson for the campaign, making
statements in the media and urging participation on the part of prospective
donors. The campaign chair reports to the chair of the board of trustees
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After the campaign chair
in the hierarchy of volunteers come the chairs of the campaign divisions. In
annual, capital, and endowment campaigns, the effort is usually broken into at
least five divisions:
- Major corporate and business gifts
- Smaller corporate and business gifts
- Foundations
- Major individual gifts
- Smaller individual gifts
Each of these divisions
may be divided further according to your needs. Corporate and individual givers
are separated by size of gift, while foundations, because there are usually far
fewer of them, are treated as a single group. In dealing with corporations it
is important to categorize by size of the desired gift, not by the size of
corporation, for it is not necessarily the largest corporation which will make
the biggest gifts.
Division Chair Job
Description
The division chair's initial major responsibility is
to recruit a cadre of persons who will function as solicitation team captains
and, if needed, a co-chair. The division chair has management responsibility
for all fund-raising efforts within the division. He or she assists the team
captains in recruiting solicitors, runs scheduled division meetings, calls
additional meetings as needed, assists in contacting and soliciting prospects,
and keeps the campaign chair informed of the division's progress. The division
chair reports to the campaign chair or co-chair.
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Solicitation team
captains are the taskmasters of a fund-raising campaign. They see that the
actual work of soliciting prospects gets done in a timely manner.
Solicitation Team Captain
Job Description
The solicitation team captain's first major
responsibility is to recruit a team of five or six solicitors. The team captain
has responsibility for managing the team, seeing that all prospects are
contacted and solicited in accordance with the campaign plan and schedule;
assisting solicitors in their efforts; and keeping the division chair informed
of the the team's progress. The team captain reports to a division chair or
co-chair.
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Solicitors make the vast
majority of requests for contributions. They are the frontline
"salespeople" of a fund-raising campaign.
Solicitor Job
Description
The solicitor's primary responsibilities are to
contact assigned prospects, present the case for support, answer questions, and
request a suggested donation. Ideally, a solicitor will be assigned five
prospects. The solicitor reports to the team captain and keeps him or her
informed of progress.
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Note: Additional resources are available on my website relating to
solicitation kit materials. You may access them by using .pdf and/or .html
methods as follows:
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