When training boards (and sometimes staff) on fundraising, I often refer to the passion versus fear equation or line.
Often, I’m asked to help a board get past their fear of fundraising. There are tools to address their fear.
But there’s another side to the equation: passion.
Imagine two intersecting lines. One is fear of fundraising. The other running from the lower left to upper right is passion for the mission.
My maxim: when a board member’s passion for the mission exceeds their discomfort/fear about fundraising, they will raise money.
Lowering the blue line (e.g. their level of fear) is one way to make that happen.
But the other is to increase their passion so they’re further to the right on the orange line and thus more likely to have their passion exceed their fear.
After all, people do things they’re scared of all the time if their desire is strong enough. How many of us remember how fearful they were the first time they asked someone out on a date!
So how do you increase a board’s level of passion for the mission:
- Make sure board meetings aren’t entirely dry affairs focused on finances.
- Find opportunities to have the board members experience the positive benefits the organization is generating. That could be meeting people who’ve been served, experiencing a location saved, etc.
- Make this collective: do an exercise where board members share their “personal story” of why they’re involved. They will feed on each other’s passion — not just their own.
- Create a sense of teamwork and camaraderie: to the extent they are passionate for their fellow board members, that will also count.
None of this discounts the importance of training as a tool to help board members past their fear. But don’t forget the passion side of the equation.