The Nonprofit FAQ

Can there be a separate board dedicated to fund raising?

A reader wrote to NONPROFIT in January 1999: Our nonprofit environmental coalition is considering establishing a board-level entity separate from our Board of Directors to focus exclusively on fund development. (Our board is comprised of folks who represent our member groups and therefore have their own fundraising agendas.) Members of the 11- or 12-member "Board of Trustees" would be community leaders capable of giving or raising major gifts and helping to set our fundraising policies. Have other nonprofits done this? Has it been successful? Michael L. Wyland replied with some advice: Yes, other groups have done this and been successful. Be sure that your board of directors members and the proposed committee members all understand the role of the committee (fundraising for the group) and do not suffer from a lack of commitment or perceived conflict of interest. Your board members may: 1) see the fund development people as "stolen away" from their (the board member's) constituent organization; and/or 2) attempt to recruit these people to serve their constituent organization, depriving you of or compromising their fund development capabilities. Define the relative roles in advance and be sure that all parties agree with (or at least won't interfere with) the plan. Putnam Barber, editor of the Nonprofit FAQ, added: I'd steer away from the term "Board of Trustees" though. That title has a specific meaning (or should have) that focuses on people who have accepted responsibility for managing existing assets, especially financial assets (as in "trusts"). Along with the need to clearly delineate the different responsibilities of the two groups, there also needs to be an open channel of communication between them. That might most easily be achieved by designating a formal liaison role for a member of the governing board, who would sit with the fundraising group and make help to align plans and goals for both groups smoothly.