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March 2004

Finding the Right Volunteer Leader
By Nike B. Whitcomb, CFRE

Volunteer leadership seems harder than ever to obtain, yet there are some tried and true as well as innovative ways to find the right leader for your fund raising effort.

1. Make a list of the qualities you are seeking.   This should include willingness to give, a commitment to your cause, the time to do the work, connections to others of affluence and influence.  

2. Determine how much time will be needed from the Chairman. Typically, the chairman recruits the chairmen of each division; leads all the meetings of the Campaign Steering Committee -the division chairmen and other volunteers as appropriate; and oversees campaign implementation.   Often for smaller non-profits, the Chairman also cultivates and solicits one or more of the major donors.

•  Recruitment of the Division chairmen is usually a matter of a few hours. A letter with an explanation of the cause and the need, followed by a phone call to set up a face-to-face recruitment meeting (the call often ends up as the 'close' for recruitment), then the meeting.   Most campaigns have four divisions: Advance (board, campaign teams, staff); Major Gifts (top 10 gifts); Leadership Gifts (next 30-50 gifts); and Patron gifts (all the rest).  

Therefore, the job of recruitment is likely to take up to five hours over a period of two-three weeks .

•  The Campaign Steering Committee meets monthly for the duration of the campaign - for a minimum of an hour, sometimes as much as half a day.

•  Campaign Oversight usually takes about an hour a week for small campaigns , and as many as four hours a week in the early stages of larger campaigns, with diminishing need for the Chair's time over the course of the campaign.

•  The Cultivation and Solicitation Process is similar to the recruitment process in terms of the time required.   A letter describing the need is sent first, followed by a phone call to set up a face-to-face meeting, followed by one or more face-to-face meetings.   Individual donors are usually handled in a single meeting; corporate donors may take two to three meetings as you work up the chain of command; foundations may require a phone call of personal visit prior to proposal submission, and an occasional site visit once the proposal review process has begun.  

The Chairman may need to spend 1-3 hours per prospect on the assignments he/she takes on.

3. Create a succinct description of your cause - the '25 words or less' paragraph that tells people who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. In marketing parlance, this is called the 'elevator speech' - short, and to the point, easy to remember.   Most of us in the non-profit world can't get by with slogans like Nike's, 'Just Do It,' or Coca-Cola's, 'Coke Is It.' The marketplace is too crowded and we haven't enough funding to get our brand out there, visible and instantly recognizable.   Your 'elevator speech' is your best chance to get the attention of your audience, so make sure it gets the job done.

4. Determine the time line for the chairman's job. If you are planning a capital campaign with a goal of $5 million or less, the job will likely last about 18 months.   Campaigns with larger dollar goals, campaigns that are phased, or campaigns that are regional or national in scope may take a minimum of two and up to five years to implement.  

5. Identify Your Prospects for Campaign Chairman.   If you are planning a capital campaign and have had a feasibility study conducted, names of potential chairmen should have been identified. In fact, some of the leadership prospects may even have indicated their willingness to serve, which will be a big help in this process.  

If this is an annual campaign, the prospects will likely come from last year's committee list, or from one or more of the successful solicitations conducted in a previous campaign.

The non-profit's CEO, the Board President, the Development Chairman and the Development Officer should meet to review this list. Discuss each prospect candidly.   Look at the giving history of each - personal and corporate; identify their connections to your cause; discuss the pluses and minuses of each potential candidate.   Identify who can be part of the recruitment team for each one and prioritize the list - 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th choice.

The dilemma for small agencies with small to medium size goals is to attract the attention and commitment of a person of affluence and influence.   Often, those people have attached themselves to more high profile causes and efforts.   For this reason, having a list of multiple prospects for the role of the chair makes good sense.

6. Look at the Rest of the Organization Chart.   The consideration of who will chair your campaign is critical, but so are the decisions for the other volunteer leaders. At the same time as you are considering prospects for the chairmanship, look at all the names brought up in the study, or from past annual campaign endeavors. Discuss who is the best fit for Advance Gifts, Major Gifts, Leadership Gifts, Patron Gifts.   As with the chairman's slot, brainstorm 4-5 names for each position.

As part of this discussion, determine whether co-chairmen may be a helpful strategy.   This is particularly good if you have a statewide, regional or national effort, because you can divide the 'territory' into more manageable pieces.

7. Send a Letter or Make a Call to Set Up an Appointment. Start with your Number One choice and move forward quickly. This is NOT a task that can be accomplished by phone.   It is also something that requires at least a thirty-minute appointment so all the pros and cons can be presented and discussed.  

Provide the top candidate with material that showcases your organization - annual reports, program brochures are great choices.

  -Bring a copy of the feasibility study to leave

behind;  

  -Bring information about previous fund raising successes, so the chair will know that you are a viable, forward-thinking organization with solid potential for success;

  -Bring the timeline and 'job description' so the candidate will know what you are asking;

  -Bring the Organization Chart so you can show the prospect that you have thought through all the needs for top volunteers.

Just as in a solicitation call, plan what each participant on your team is going to do and say.   One of you should talk about the organization's history.   Another should talk about the possibilities that you are hoping to realize through this campaign and the difference a successful campaign will make.   Share the job description and explain how the timeline is expected to work.   Ask for input on the Organization chart - for the preliminary division of your campaign as well as for the volunteers you've identified.

Be sure to explain that part of the Chairman's job is recruitment of the divisional chairmen.

Explain the kind of assistance you will provide through your agency (this usually includes clerical support to prepare and send letters and make phone calls on behalf of the chair, although often volunteers will be willing and able to do this on their own).

Ask for the prospect's commitment to chair your campaign .   Tell them why their participation will help ensure success. Ask for a decision within a specific timeframe.

Wait for their answer.  

The agonizing part of this entire process waiting for the response.   If your prospect already knows about your agency and its accomplishments, and if he/she has been interviewed through a feasibility process, chances are better than 50/50 that the answer will be positive.   There can, however, be a delay before you learn the response.   Sometimes a week, sometimes several weeks will elapse.   In the interim, stay calm.   If more than a week has gone by with no word, touch base with the prospect to make sure you have provided all the information necessary for the decision.  

If the answer is no, move to the next prospect on your list and follow the same procedure.

If the answer is yes, then provide support to the Chairman to get the division chairmen recruited - a letter of introduction/ explanation, materials, just as you did for the chairman. Set a goal for achievement of this recruitment process.

8. Set the Meeting Schedule. Work with the chairman to set a schedule for meetings of the Campaign Steering Committee, for rating and screening of the Advance and Major Gifts Prospects, and for review of campaign materials.

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