My Time Should Count (I’m an Attorney!)

05 Mar My Time Should Count (I’m an Attorney!)

5 March 2024

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

One of the more common entry points for me when working with new organizations is a Development Audit (or Assessment). The audit looks critically at everything an organization is doing to raise money.

One of the standard features of my Development Audits is an analysis of board giving. Generally speaking, we want board members to lead in giving, and I routinely measure that leadership support and report it back to the Board as a whole.

Way too often, I find board members who don’t give at all. Who aren’t, in fact, members or donors. (Many organizations have board members who don’t give before they become board members, and that’s a subject for another day.) They don’t support the organizations they are responsible for leading.

Some land trusts use a membership model where the Board is elected by the membership. Even some of them don’t have 100% board giving. Some of their board members are not actually eligible to be board members.

How does this happen? Frankly, most of the time, it’s because Board members are not formally asked. In other words, it’s not that they are saying no. It’s that the question is never getting posed. I’ll get in to that more next week.

But in more than a few cases, it’s related to the organization valuing time equally.

For example, one land trust had a Board Chair without a giving history at all.

Zip, zilch, nada.

I thought: Maybe he gives through his company – nope. Family foundation? – nope.

The Chair of the Board does not give even the $35 basic membership. So, in my interview with him, I asked him about that.

“Bob,” I said. “Your giving is conspicuously absent. What’s up with that?”

“I’m an attorney,” he replied. “I do all the conservation easements, and the time I volunteer is worth $10,000, at least, each year.”

He had a point, but it was irrelevant. Giving time to the land trust made him a VOLUNTEER. Land trusts obviously need board members to volunteer their time.  They also need board members to give money. Everyone’s time is valuable! And if an attorney (or carpenter, or banker, or investment advisor, or landscape architect, or bricklayer, or range ecologist, or anything else) donates his/her time – that’s fabulous!

Furthermore, many people who volunteer their time do not volunteer their money. They feel they “contribute in other ways.” That doesn’t make them board members.

The opposite is true, too, of course: Relatively few people who donate money also volunteer. That doesn’t make them board members either.

I pointed that out to Bob. “Consider a board member who might give their money but not their time. And when asked about not coming to meetings or serving on committees they respond, ‘I give $10,000 a year. I give in other ways. My money should count!’”

I wasn’t going to win that argument, and I knew that. So, I let it go.

I did end up suggesting that Bob invoice for his time and donate the fee back to the land trust. Doing so seems pathetically unnecessary, but it would actually do two things that aren’t trivial:

First, Bob would show up as a donor. $10,000 is enough to turn some heads in most communities. It might even inspire others to do the same.

And second, the land trust would be forced to budget for his legal work. In so doing, it would have a better sense of what the conservation business actually costs. (Not to mention that if Bob ever gets hit by the turnip truck, his “gift” would need to be replaced.)

As far as I know, Bob is still not giving any money, but he should. In fact, all board members should give something, and collectively they should give an amount that shows up against the budget. (I suggest that aiming for at least 10% of the operations budget as a good place to start.)

For the record, I am NOT a fan of minimum board donation levels and I do not particularly like “give, get, or get off” schemes. But here’s what I DO think:

• When someone like me runs a list of current donors, every board member’s name should appear on it. They should at least give $35 or $50 and show up.
• Just about anyone with a heartbeat can afford $250 ($20/month). $250 could easily be a minimum expectation for board members.
• Most people can afford $1,000 ($20/week) – doing so would inspire others to follow. $1,000 is not unfair to ask of board members.
• Board members who do not give generously themselves, or who are perceived as not giving generously, are setting an example for other donors that is difficult to overcome.

People who donate time and not money are wonderful volunteers. People who donate money and not time are wonderful donors. We need wonderful board members to do both.

Cheers and Have a Good Week!

-da

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

PPS: Parts of this post were originally published in 2016.

Photo by Natalia Kollegova courtesy Pixabay