What will your organization look like, ten, twenty, fifty years from now? There’s no sure-fire way to predict the future, but building an endowment is the best way to secure it. And by adding legacy giving into the mix, it’s possible to build your endowment while also meeting your annual campaign or membership dues drive needs. But to make legacy giving work, it needs to be baked into the organization’s culture. And in non-profits, culture is often heavily influenced from the top: the Board.
Board leaders are essential partners in building endowments and advancing legacy giving. So, without their engagement, it can be very difficult to encourage an organization to start prioritizing an after-life giving campaign. But it’s not entirely the board’s fault: with so many organizations working around challenges like board turnover, a lack of education on building endowments, and feeling like there are other more pressing tasks, it can feel hard to break through the noise.
At the Life & Legacy Conference in April, Natasha Dresner, JCamp 180 Consultant, shared some insights lay-leaders and endowment-building professionals alike can use to engage their boards for better collaboration in endowment-building efforts. As an organizational development consultant of 30 years, member of the JCamp 180 team for 20 years and a BoardSource certified governance trainer, Natasha knows that at camps, synagogues, JCCs, schools, and beyond, taking the steps to develop a collaborative approach with leadership is vital to organizational long-term success and vibrancy.
“When we talk about government versus management, (board versus staff/lay leaders), roles and responsibilities, and how boards and staff partner while also staying in their respective lanes, we have to separate the forest from the trees. It’s the board’s job to see the forest. It’s the staff or lay leaders’ job to see the trees. So, if the board isn’t seeing that big picture – that to have a healthy nonprofit, it needs to encompass philanthropic strategies including endowment and legacy giving – there's no one else who will.”
Here are her tips for identifying what’s holding back a successful collaboration – and how to change it.
Tip 1: Understand the role of the board and how endowment plays in
- Read up on the legal duties and responsibilities of a nonprofit board. Beyond literally following the law and filing taxes accurately, it’s also a nonprofit boards’ duty to ensure effective planning, adequate financial resources, and good governance. Being reminded of these core duties and responsibilities can help start a conversation about the board’s responsibility in prioritizing legacy and endowment building, and making it part of their comprehensive funding efforts.
- Remember: People join boards because of the love and passion they have for their organization’s mission and impact. Don’t be afraid to tap into that emotional reality when starting or re-starting a conversation.
Tip 2: Determine what you can change – hearts and minds, behaviors, or systems
- Robert Gass’s “The Wheel of Change” offers a new change model for sustainable and transformational change that requires an understanding of the wheel’s three components and the power of those parts being accessed together. These include:
- Heart and mind: A sense of shared purpose, vision, beliefs, emotions, and belonging. Ask: Are there any limiting beliefs and assumptions that may hinder change?
- Behavior: A set of norms, communications, habits, and skills. Ask: Does everyone understand how they need to act to help implement change?
- Systems: An understanding of structures, strategies, processes, and technology. Ask: Are existing organizational structures and processes set up to work with proposed changes?
- This model takes a systemic approach to change, in which changes in one domain perpetuate changes in the other two, creating a virtuous cycle (if changes are indeed positive). The model aims to create profound and lasting change.
Tip 3: Identify your allies
- There’s power in numbers, as well as in strategic partnerships. Determine who in the organization – staff, lay-leader, or board-member – may be interested in pushing on this issue with you. Make a plan for how to collaborate using each of your sets of expertise and skills. Be strategic in finding good storytellers who exemplify authenticity, transparency, and a bold vision for the future.
Tip 4: Identify your superpower
- Think through your own abilities and capacities, especially in reference to the Wheel of Change. Knowing which portion of the work most resonates with you or most excites you will help you plug in more effectively. If used strategically, this is a powerful tool. Utilize your own momentum and energy to carry your plans to fruition. Lean into it in everything that you do.
Tip 5: Build your 30/60/90 plan – and identify your next step
- Think through everything from the first four tips and combine them with a list of key assets and key obstacles. From there, identify two key priorities for the next 30, 60, and 90 days. Don’t forget to center your superpower and your allies.
- Now write down the very first step you’ll need to take to get moving.
Organizations and leaders that can bring these five tips together will have a chance to not only transform their communities for the long-term, but to also use new tools to build up the organization’s confidence to approach new challenges and think strategically well into the future.