Don’t Forget to Ask the Board

02 Nov Don’t Forget to Ask the Board

3 November 2026

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

Ask a Board member to give this week.

Do you ask your Board members to make an annual gift? Or do you “assume” that they will “get the message?”

Do you present your Board members with opportunities to make a difference that are tailored to their personal reasons for serving? Or do you send them the same appeal letter (or email!) that everyone else gets?

Do you ask your Board members to give more than they gave last year? Or do you ask that they “give again” or “give generously?”

In short, do you treat your Board members as if they were major gift prospects – by cultivating their interest and asking in person? Or just trust each one to “do the right thing” by the end of the year?

If you read between the lines in the above, you will see right through to the biases I hold.

You should ask. You should tailor the ask to what you know they are interested in. You should ask them to give a specific number based on what they gave last year. And you should treat them every bit as well as you treat your major gift prospects by cultivating their interest and asking in person.

All right – I’m out this far – might as well keep going …

• Ideally, the (in person) ask should be made by the Board Chair who has him- or herself already made their own commitment to set the example;
• The ask should be inclusive – one ask to include membership renewal, Fall appeal, Giving Tuesday, Gala sponsorship – all of it;
• The amount requested should represent a modest increase from what they gave last year (everything is going up; why should our support levels stay the same?);
• This is not a Give or Get number – it’s a Give number;
• The case for giving is based on the support it provides to the mission of the organization they love and the example it sets for others – both;

I’m seeing two common practices that I consider mistakes. The first is a Board Chair or Executive Director announcing at a Board meeting that everyone should make their gift by the end of the year so that we can say we have 100% Board support. This is a mistake because it sends the message that how much they give doesn’t matter. How much they give does matter because of the example it sets for others. Put it this way: if we can’t convince our Board leadership to give $250, or $1,000, or $5,000, or $10,000, how will we convince anyone else?

The second is to simply send the Fall Appeal to the Board and expect them to respond like everyone else. This is a mistake because not everyone does respond. Many organizations I see don’t have 100% Board participation. The common denominator for most of them is that the only mechanism for soliciting them is the Fall Appeal.

How much should Board members give? Well that depends, and it will be different in different places. Here are several factors to keep in mind:

• Board members who collectively give less than 10% of the budget or campaign often have trouble raising the budget or campaign goal. Board members who collectively give more than 20% inspire other donors to give. Collective Board member giving can be influenced by recruitment (hello, term limits), by increasing the size of the Board, or both.
• Any 12-month giving data report pulled from the CRM should include the names of every Board member. But – I don’t think there should be a threshold minimum expected from any one of them. Everyone should give, but not based on some arbitrary standard.
• Time is not the same as money. We need Board members to contribute time and money – both. There may be exceptions to this based on professional expertise (eg. legal services), but only if there is a corresponding expense item that is being offset by the in-kind service.
• $20/month is not too much to expect from most Board directors, and $250/year is the minimum I look for in fundraising program assessments.
• $20/week ($1,000) is not unfair to ask from most Board members.

A couple of other things to consider: I think the best time to ask Board members to give is in the late Winter – January or February. A Board member who commits $1,000 for the year would be able to give $100/month beginning in March. But if you didn’t ask last year in January or February, and you are just now thinking about approaching Board members, it’s not too late. Ask them individually and for very specific amounts.

And this: Board members should not be asked to buy tickets to organizational events any more than staff should be. They should be expected to attend organizational events and to work – because they are Board members!

What’s your plan for soliciting your Board members this year?

Cheers, and have a great 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.

Photo by Jurrien Brondijk courtesy of Pixabay.