Happy 2023 everyone! 🎇
To start off our year right, join me and Hardy Smith to discuss his book Stop the Nonprofit Blame Game. Hardy and I touch on some of the hot-button đź”´ issues like why board members don’t do what they’re supposed to do (i.e. fundraising), what the role of the governance and fundraising committees are and how board chairs manage (or don’t) in real life. This is an eye-opening interview and I hope it inspires us all to go forth and manage our boards better.
To check out Hardy’s book and other work: https://www.hardysmith.com/
Quote from Hardy “Board members tell me that they don’t feel listened to”
Episode Transcript
RHEA WONG 00:05
Welcome to Nonprofit Lowdown. I’m your host, Rhea Wong. Hey, podcast listeners! Rhea Wong is with you once again with Nonprofit Lowdown.
RHEA WONG 00:13
Today, I am talking to Hardy Smith, who is an author, consultant, and speaker, and he wrote the book Stop the Nonprofit Blame Game. So we’re gonna have a lot of fun day talking about boards, which is a hot topic that everyone wants to talk about. Welcome, Hardy!
HARDY SMITH 00:27
Thank you, Rhea. I’m looking forward to visiting with you and your guests. This will be a lot of fun.
RHEA WONG 00:34
I think so. And you know what, as we’re saying before we started, this is everyone’s number one problem. So we’re gonna get right to it. So before we jump into the content, which I know we’re all excited about, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in nonprofits.
HARDY SMITH 00:47
Yeah! What I think has made me contributing to making me successful in the work I do in helping nonprofits is I am not from the nonprofit sector. My professional background is 30 years in the high-performance world of NASCAR racing.
HARDY SMITH 01:05
Now, I wasn’t a driver, but I was a fixer, a problem solver. My job was to identify problems, and challenges that may affect the business. I make sure those problems didn’t happen. And if by chance, a problem kind of squeezed through the cracks, I darn sure better find a solution as quickly as possible.
HARDY SMITH 01:33
So now during that 30-year career in motorsports, I was working nationwide with nonprofits, associations, and chambers of commerce, all over the country as a part of my professional work.
HARDY SMITH 01:48
Also, from a personal standpoint, as well, that’s been a lifelong involvement of mine in working with community groups and nonprofits. So I bring a different mindset that NASCAR’s background is to challenge and think a little bit contrarian and be a little bit pragmatic and problem, solve, and fix it. So that’s the background that I bring into the work I do now with nonprofits.
RHEA WONG 02:17
Now, I’m gonna play a little bit of a name game. Do you know, Matt Clark by chance?
HARDY SMITH 02:23
I do not know Matt Clark.
RHEA WONG 02:25
Okay. Well, you should get connected. I can introduce you. He also was in NASCAR. And he’s a performance coach. So I think, he is a great friend. And actually, I did a podcast interview with him. So anyway, that sounds so dumb, I’m sure. It’s like when people say, oh, you’re from Canada, do you know my friend Bob?
HARDY SMITH 02:45
It’s large and I work nationwide. And it’s a large business with a lot of people.
RHEA WONG 02:50
I’m sure it is, and it’s very high pressure, and 10 seconds matter. So I understand that world, just a tiny little bit. So tell me then, given that you weren’t coming from the nonprofit world, what inspired you to write the nonprofit blame game, by the way, great title.
HARDY SMITH 03:09
Thank you very much. And all the preps go to the creative team at my publisher, Greenleaf book group, but they’re the ones that came up with that creative inspiration. The last in my career, Rhea, of working with nonprofits as a consulting business, I was conducting a training session.
HARDY SMITH 03:34
I had about a hundred nonprofit CEOs in the room. And I asked the question, what’s your number one problem? I’m thinking, okay, we’ll come up with a group problem. We’ll split into small groups, and we’ll kind of work on the problem collaboratively and together, okay?
HARDY SMITH 03:54
And I didn’t get multiple answers. I got one very definitive answer. And if you can imagine a hundred people in a room yelling out, it’s the board members. Why don’t board members do what they’re supposed to do?
HARDY SMITH 04:14
And I’ll tell you, Rhea, no exaggeration, the force of that answer from me being in front of those a hundred people really shocked me. And it caused me to take a step back. And then, so that was the first aha that there’s something here.
HARDY SMITH 04:36
And then there was a silence in the room. First, there was a buzz, then there was a silence. And they were all looking at each other. So all these individuals had figured it out. They all had the same problem.
HARDY SMITH 04:52
And it was about the board members. So that was the second Aha. So, wow! I’ve got to get into this. I’ve got to wrap my head around it. And of course, you know, anyone who works in the world of nonprofits, how much content is out there?
HARDY SMITH 05:09
How many voices of frustration are being expressed in the different chat rooms and conversations about those board members? And why don’t they do what they’re supposed to do?
HARDY SMITH 05:25
And it’s so a very common topic. There just didn’t seem to be an answer for it. So I set out to find an answer to the question, why don’t board members do what they’re supposed to do? And that project, which was a nationwide survey of board members, not professional staff, but board members.
HARDY SMITH 05:49
When the responses came in, I used open-ended questions and got back open-ended answers. And when I laid it all out, you know, on the living room floor, and started seeing all of these different answers, but the words were different, but the meaning was the same.
HARDY SMITH 06:09
The passion was the same. And then they were telling me, here’s why we don’t do what we’re supposed to do.
RHEA WONG 06:22
I’m sorry to interrupt you. But so it seems to me that this is a problem with many different flavors, right? It’s almost like saying, I go to the doctor, and I’m sick. Well, what are you sick with? You could have a cold.
RHEA WONG 06:34
You could have COVID. You could have this. So it seems like there are a lot of different symptoms under this one presenting problem if you will. So can you talk to me a little bit about that? What were the answers that you got?
HARDY SMITH 06:48
Well, it was very fascinating. And it wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen in the sector as far as advice being shared. So number one, the board members listed several top issues. And that’s what the book does. It goes through these.
HARDY SMITH 07:07
And so the book is from what I wound up with, I didn’t start out with this research with a book in mind. That kind of came later. But it’s what the book is based on. It’s the nonprofit board member’s perspective.
HARDY SMITH 07:21
What the board members told me, number one, they get extremely frustrated. And I’m talking about board members who were good board members. That they’re the board members you want, perfect board members.
HARDY SMITH 07:36
But, Rhea, they get so frustrated, and consequently turned off, shut down, and become disengaged, Rhea, number one, the organization has the wrong people on their board. And so the performers don’t like or appreciate being stuck working with a bunch of slack peers who are not pulling their weight.
HARDY SMITH 08:04
Another major at the top of the list issue was the impact of poor communications. And when I talk about poor communications, it’s not about more, you know, another email or another report. It’s the whole, how you craft your message, the platforms, and how all your messaging is being delivered.
HARDY SMITH 08:33
So let’s just say, you know, the typical nonprofit executive, how many hours of sleep do they lose worrying over that next report? That they’re frustrated because they’re having to write it. They’re also frustrated because I know, no one’s gonna read it.
HARDY SMITH 08:51
But it’s gonna suck up a lot of time on an agenda to talk about it. So here’s the thing. If I’m the nonprofit Executive Director, and I’m writing a report to you, Rhea, I’m really understanding how you prefer to be communicated with it.
HARDY SMITH 09:11
You may not want written reports in great detail with charts and graphs and examples and case studies. You may prefer like when I worked in NASCAR for Bill France, Jr. I would go into the office and his office.
HARDY SMITH 09:29
And he had asked me a question and I’d launch into this big long answer. And he’d say, Hardy, I don’t need the full weather forecast. Just tell me, is it raining? Yes or no? And then once I learned that, and then I also learned that if he had more questions, he would ask, right?
HARDY SMITH 09:48
Well, then I became much better at communicating with my boss, Bill France, Jr, the guy that owns NASCAR. So the point is that nonprofit professionals need to be better communicate effectively. Another thing that’s so important to communications is to consider timing.
HARDY SMITH 10:13
Are your board members getting this big exhaustive report in time? They’re busy people. They’re not 24-hour-a-day board people for your organization. So they may have a few hours available prior to a board meeting.
HARDY SMITH 10:34
So are you to prepare? So are you getting them your report and time, so they have time to read it, digest it, and prepare questions before the board meeting? And board members, from a communication standpoint, do not like surprises.
HARDY SMITH 10:53
They don’t want to read about a potential issue. It could be an HR problem. It could be a financial problem. It could be the fundraiser, you know, because of COVID, or some other issue, it just collapsed and had to be postponed.
HARDY SMITH 11:09
They don’t want to know about these big picture things because they read it on social media or read it in the news media or heard it from someone else. The board members want information in a timely manner. No surprises! And one final thing, go ahead. And I’ve got one final thing.
RHEA WONG 11:29
Alright! One final thing and then I have a question. Go ahead.
HARDY SMITH 11:32
You know, anyone who’s involved in a personal relationship understands how important effective communication is. Well, it’s taken me a little while, married to my wife, Debbie, for 48 years, it’s taken me a little while, we had to figure out how important is listening.
HARDY SMITH 11:53
So board members tell me and the research that I’ve done that they don’t feel listened to. And so that means you’ve got very high-value individuals. These are individuals that are probably super busy.
HARDY SMITH 12:11
They probably have a significant presence in their own professional lives and careers. But they’re willing to volunteer and serve your organization. Okay?
HARDY SMITH 12:23
So if they have thoughts and ideas, and they don’t feel like anyone’s willing to listen to them, how does that make them feel? And they don’t feel valued. They don’t feel appreciated. They don’t feel understood. So why even participate? So listening is so critical.
RHEA WONG 12:42
Hardy, I think your answer is actually the answer to my next question. The bottom line, I think, a lot of EDs want to know why their board isn’t engaged in fundraising, isn’t engaged in opening their networks, and so forth.
RHEA WONG 12:59
And I think, to your point, they don’t feel like they’re part of the team. They feel like they’re a number. They feel like maybe they’re an interruption in your day. And when you ask them to do stuff related to fundraising, you haven’t invested in order to pull out, right?
RHEA WONG 13:18
So talk to me, the bottom line, why is it that board members aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, which often means fundraising?
HARDY SMITH 13:27
Well, let me try to answer your question with a little bit of a challenge. I have a lot of fun with this so be sure to rein me in and keep me on track. How many situations exist when nonprofit professionals let that board member that new board member knows, oh, we’re expecting you to raise money.
HARDY SMITH 13:52
And when I talk about raising money, there are lots of ways a board member can help with a fundraising effort. So my comments are going to be about direct solicitation, direct ask, and it applies also direct giving at a significant level. So here’s the thing, not very many people want to ask anyone else for money.
HARDY SMITH 14:16
They just do not want to do it. That’s why nonprofits have development directors. So the executive director doesn’t have to ask anybody for money. That’s the Development Director’s job. I say that a little bit with a tongue in cheek.
HARDY SMITH 14:30
That’s why board members support development director positions in the budget, so they don’t have to ask anybody for money. So no one wants to ask anybody for money. And let’s take this back, walk it back a little further in the process.
HARDY SMITH 14:49
I always say if you want fundraisers on your board, if you want your board members to be fundraisers for Pete’s sake, get fundraising users. Alright? Get fundraisers. So in your recruitment process, and you’re looking at the candidates and you’re having that introductory, you’re developing the relationship.
HARDY SMITH 15:14
My experience tells me, it’s in the hands of that nonprofit leader that, oh, sure! We want you to be on our board, and we fully expect you to raise money for the organization. But you know what happens? We don’t bring that up in the conversation
HARDY SMITH 15:31
And that conversation, the money talk, I talked about having the money talk, and when you have the money talk, when should that happen? It should be at the very beginning of the recruiting process, right?
HARDY SMITH 15:47
So you can find out. You let them know upfront. But here’s why you don’t have the conversation. I won’t let you know that I’m going to expect you to raise money. Why? Because you might say no to my invitation to join the board.
HARDY SMITH 16:02
And now I’m stuck with a vacancy that I can’t feel. So what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna get you to the altar. And I’m gonna get you to commit to what I do. And then once you’re in, and once you’re out, you’re all in and you’re committed.
HARDY SMITH 16:20
Oh, by the way, Rhea, one of the things we expect our board members to do is a direct solicitation. Well, you’re already on the board. And you detest asking other people for money. So what’s happened essentially is a bait and switch.
HARDY SMITH 16:41
The organization knows what they want. The board member is blindsided. And in the world of marketing and advertising, bait and switch are illegal. Right? So you’re not telling the truth. You’re holding back.
HARDY SMITH 16:58
So if you want fundraisers, go out and find the people who are willing to raise money. Now, may I add one asterisk here? Good fundraisers don’t automatically make good governance board members.
HARDY SMITH 17:17
And what is the number one, you know, I’m gonna say, here’s my opinion, and they’re gonna be people in your audience say, no, no, no, no, Hardy. We have different opinions. And that’s fine.
HARDY SMITH 17:29
That’s another argument or another debate for another time. But I’m going to suggest to you, the number one responsibility of a nonprofit board, and all relate to governance, and it’s about the legalities and fiduciary responsibilities.
HARDY SMITH 17:47
And that does not include direct solicitation for fundraising. It just doesn’t. That’s my opinion. So if you want good governance board members, which you’re required to have, and you can get a combination of good governance people and fundraising people, that’s awesome.
HARDY SMITH 18:05
That’s the best. But a lot of times, I know a lot of fantastic fundraisers, it is amazing if the work that they do, they will tell you. They’ll help your organization. Don’t ever expect them to show up in a board meeting. And so here’s the problem.
HARDY SMITH 18:24
Those individuals are personally legally liable for what either does or does not happen in that boardroom. So you got to sort those things out and it’s different for every organization.
RHEA WONG 18:40
Yeah! So I’d love to jump in here, Hardy, because I think you’re saying a lot of things I want to touch on. So number one, I 100% agree with you, which is I say this all the time, clear is kind.
RHEA WONG 18:50
So if you’re expecting something from your board members, you got to let them know upfront so that they know what they’re signing up for. And if they don’t want to sign up for that, then maybe you are not meant for each other. And that’s okay, right?
RHEA WONG 19:02
I think so much of this is driven by the scarcity mindset of this fear of, I’m never going to find another person on my board. So I’m going to take someone that maybe not be a fit for me, but at least they’re a warm body, right?
RHEA WONG 19:16
Number two, and I think this is sort of an interesting point. I think a lot of, from my perspective, why board members are not “doing what they’re supposed to do” is that EDs often don’t understand what the fundraising process is and therefore aren’t able to train their people.
RHEA WONG 19:35
What do I mean by that? In the fundraising process, there are lots of steps that have nothing to do with direct solicitation. Now, if you have board members who are willing to do direct solicitation, hallelujah!
RHEA WONG 19:48
I love that, and I think a lot of EDs and board members don’t realize that there are other ways to be involved in fundraising that have nothing to do with direct solicitation. There’s identification.
RHEA WONG 20:04
There’s an opening in the door. There’s making warm introductions. There’s cultivation. There’s stewardship. By the way, I’m going to die on that hill, which is we do a terrible job of stewarding and our attrition rates are bad. So, all say that I think that there’s something here underneath of around training as well, would you agree with that?
HARDY SMITH 20:24
Well, if I could agree with some of the training, in my opinion, Rhea is for what will benefit those who are willing to be fundraisers in the overall process, as you say, not just limited to direct solicitation.
HARDY SMITH 20:49
So if someone is willing, and commits to it, okay, I’m all for good training. But if an individual is not wanting to participate, I go back to my original. If they do not want to be fundraisers, with all the training in the world, you’re not going to convince them to change your mind.
HARDY SMITH 21:09
You got the wrong people. If you won’t fundraisers, and you don’t have fundraisers, you’ve got the wrong people. So that goes back to your board recruiting process.
RHEA WONG 21:20
Yeah! I 100% Agree. If that dog won’t hunt, it won’t hunt, right? You have a skill tissue, and you have a will issue. If you have a will, I can teach you skills. If you have no will, all the skill in the world is not going to help.
HARDY SMITH 21:33
That is a fantastic way to put that. That’s tweetable. I would tweet that out.
RHEA WONG 21:39
All right, tweet, tweet! There we go. So let’s talk about this. Because as an ED, I’ve had the experience of having those one or two board members that are not doing what they need to do and you kind of obsess about the one or two that aren’t doing their job.
RHEA WONG 21:56
Meanwhile, you have your eight or ten that are willing to go along with you and willing to do the thing. And so I think sometimes, we spend the wrong amount of attention on the wrong people.
RHEA WONG 22:07
So talk to me about how you know if somebody is, you know, can be moved, either maybe just need a little bit more skill and has the will, and/or is just a completely wrong fit? How do you make that determination?
HARDY SMITH 22:24
That is a terrific question. And I would say first, how is the one or two individuals, how is it that they’re not rowing in the same direction, going in the same direction as the rest of the group? So are they difficult? Or are they contrarian?
HARDY SMITH 22:49
Because I might be one of those board members. I wouldn’t be a contrarian thinker. Are they challenging, difficult or disruptive? So there’s a difference. And I think, a lot of times in humans, we don’t like conflict. We just don’t want to deal with it.
HARDY SMITH 23:08
So assuming your recruiting process is good, and you do have the right people, we’ll take a look at the personalities that you have on your board. It may be a board member, whose personality, characteristics, and traits are to ask questions, press for details, are to not go along with the status quo.
HARDY SMITH 23:33
Well, I would answer the question with this question. Don’t you want some of that on a board? Isn’t that part of their responsibility? A good board should have a debate, should have challenges, and should have interactiveness.
HARDY SMITH 23:49
Now, it all needs to be constructive. It should get to be a positive compensation, not a personal tax, and those kinds of things. So it kind of depends, just because someone is in total lockstep with everyone else, I would caution that executive directors, don’t just automatically paint them with a bad board member brush.
HARDY SMITH 24:19
So just pay attention. And I would suggest maybe having individual conversations and just seeing if there may be questions that they have, that you could help that a board meeting is not really the place to get into it.
HARDY SMITH 24:38
But they may have legitimate questions and they’re not getting answers. That’s one of the reasons I suggest making board members matter. But having those conversations, listening, remember I said the importance of listening and finding out exactly who that individual is.
HARDY SMITH 24:56
It might be someone that you could, not in a manipulative way but in a positive way, you may be able to flip into being one of the most positive supportive board members that you have.
RHEA WONG 25:12
So, Hardy, you’ve talked a lot about what EDs can do. But let’s talk about board chairs. Because in theory, board chairs are there to manage the board. I’ve actually not seen this happen very often.
RHEA WONG 25:25
I personally have had some good very good board chairs, but it often falls on the shoulders of the ED to manage upward. And sort of, if anything creates an illusion that the board chairs managing, but they’re actually not. Talk to me about the role of board chairs and their accountability and responsibility around board management.
HARDY SMITH 25:48
You have the best questions. You’re really good at this. So there is very compelling research that’s been done by BoardSource. And one of my favorite questions is every other leading with intent surveys. it’s been going on for a number of years.
HARDY SMITH 26:08
So there’s a two-part answer to this. One of my favorite questions is to rate your board members’ knowledge of roles and responsibilities. And historically, I’ve got a whole stack of every single report over here on the shelf back to when I really started doing this research.
HARDY SMITH 26:28
It never comes back. They just see maybe c plus, maybe in really good survey years of b minus, it’s never. There’s a huge gap. So my question is, well, as a new board coming on board, did I know everything I was supposed to know?
HARDY SMITH 26:50
Did you share that with me in the recruiting process and the onboarding process? How good is your orientation process? Are you just assuming because I’m old enough to have had this statement before? Well, they’re on the board.
HARDY SMITH 27:07
They should know what they’re supposed to do. Well, the fact is they don’t. And the reason I say that there are a million and a half odd nonprofits in the United States, and every one of them is unique.
HARDY SMITH 27:24
And not just because you’ve been on five other boards, it does that mean you know what is needed from the role and responsibilities of a board member for this particular board you’ve just joined.
HARDY SMITH 27:39
Now, whose responsibility is it? If I, as a new board member don’t fully understand my roles and responsibilities, I’m going to suggest the organization and professional staff and board leadership need make sure that the knowledge gap is closed, Part B to this answer is, again, very compelling research from BoardSource and others about, this fascinates me, Rhea, the knowledge gap and the preparation gap of board leadership.
HARDY SMITH 28:15
So individuals are coming into board leadership roles without there’s a significant numberz of individuals coming into these roles that do not have adequate experience, skills, and any type of preparation that indicates they’re going to be successful in the task at hand.
HARDY SMITH 28:39
Again, you may have been the chairman of five other boards, but you know playing sports as a youngster, my coaches will always ask me, Rhea, Hardy, are you practicing to get better? Or, are you practicing to reinforce bad habits?
HARDY SMITH 28:59
So just because somebody was a past chairman of five different boards, don’t assume they were good at it. Right? So you need to have that conversation and be intentional about when you’re selecting your board leaders.
HARDY SMITH 29:14
Don’t assume they know what they need to know. Prepare them for the success that you want them to have. Now, getting to the real big question, who’s supposed to be dealing with these board members who aren’t performing?
HARDY SMITH 29:31
My question and to answer your question is what’s the reality of all of this? So, on a local board level may not be quite as true on a national level, but on a local board level, think about this.
HARDY SMITH 29:48
All those individuals sitting around the boardroom, do business together, they probably raise their kids together. They worship together. They bank together. They buy insurance and cars from each other and real estate from each other.
HARDY SMITH 30:02
They go fishing and hunting and bowling together. They’re all best buds. So what’s the reality of a board chairman, they also, by the way, could be peers in the community. So what’s the reality of a board chairman taking some kind of needed corrective action to address a board member’s either behavior, inappropriate behavior, not being productive, being a slacker, or just not doing what they’re supposed to do?
HARDY SMITH 30:38
The reality is, my experience tells me, not gonna happen. So then that executive director is the one that gets kind of stuck with that task. And then what happens?
HARDY SMITH 30:53
The board member doesn’t get upset with his buddy or her buddy, or the chair, they get upset with the executive director, now the executive director has someone who’s not friendly toward them on the board.
HARDY SMITH 31:05
And what does that mean? That’s one more vote to that executive director’s last day on the job. So there’s a whole lot of angst around all of this. But the reality I think is important to consider.
RHEA WONG 31:22
So Hardy, you just painted a picture. I’m getting some PTSD here. So what do we do about that? Right? Because I think EDs are often sort of caught in the middle here. And then also, to be fair, I think, as ED, and I’ll speak for myself, we really didn’t, you know, no, honey, no money, right?
RHEA WONG 31:40
Like our board members were the easiest ones to kind of kick around. And I think we often forget they’re volunteers. Like, they’re not paid staff. They’re doing this out of their free time. They want to feel good about the work that they’re doing because they’re contributing time away from their family, careers, and so forth. So what do we do? It just feels like we’re stuck in the middle a little bit.
HARDY SMITH 32:02
Well, hopefully, the organization has term limits. So hopefully, a lot of them don’t, or term limits are, you can serve into perpetuity multiple two-year terms, as long as you live kind of a thing. But hopefully, term limits are in place.
HARDY SMITH 32:17
If not, my suggestion would be the executive director and the board chair do need to have those conversations and work collaboratively. And just depending on that relationship hopefully that’s a positive relationship between those two.
HARDY SMITH 32:36
It’s not an issue between the chair and the executive director. But if there’s a positive relationship, Rhea, okay, here’s the situation and the chairs gonna know it, you know, how can we best address this so that there’s input, and that input can be collaboratively developed into a strategy on how to address if there is a governance committee?
HARDY SMITH 33:04
Perhaps the committee could address it. You know, sometimes there are a lot of organizations that will have an engagement agreement, or sort of a contract, if you will, of what participation is, and you agree to do this, this, and this and attended so many meetings. And then so if you don’t have it, okay, you can say, okay.
HARDY SMITH 33:26
But you know, you have these conversations, and hopefully, there’s a way to positively rectify the situation. Sometimes, it is going to be negative, and it’s not going to be good. If it’s a situation and unfortunately, they do happen, whether a board member’s behavior is totally inappropriate, then, you know, some action is endangering the organization.
HARDY SMITH 33:56
Then the board is gonna have to act from a governance standpoint. You just can’t allow, like conflict of interest, or, you know, those kinds of things. Again, though, it is so a note to a problem.
HARDY SMITH 34:13
And I’ll confess, I’ve not found a definitive answer that, in my mind, it realistically and pragmatically works. I know, the best practice is, okay, we have to fire the board member, but I realistically, you know, don’t see that happening very often.
RHEA WONG 34:36
Yeah, I think that’s a trigger point. But one thing that I wanted to share with the audience is, I had a fantastic board chair, Liz, I’ve talked about her a lot. But you know, when we first started working together, we agreed that we can disagree in private but in public, in front of the board, there was no daylight between us. We were 100% on the same page publicly.
RHEA WONG 34:57
And I think having that kind of relationship is key because this is the most important relationship from a governance perspective. All right, I have a hot-button question coming in. Fundraising committees or development committees, right? So often, when it’s time to staff, that committee, everyone goes, not it.
RHEA WONG 35:21
And you basically ended up putting people who weren’t at the meeting on the committee. Because they said they didn’t say that they wouldn’t be on the committee. So let’s talk about what is the role of the fundraising committee.
RHEA WONG 35:34
And in your research, are there best practices that we can get people to really engage in fundraising, knowing that most people do not like talking about money and do not like solicitation? And let’s also dispel this myth that the fundraising committee is solely responsible for raising money.
HARDY SMITH 35:52
I think you have to walk it back. And I think you have to get to a place where to answer the question, who decided it was the fundraising committee’s job to raise the money? And so you know, walk it back.
HARDY SMITH 36:09
So hopefully, in your strategic planning process, I talked about using planning as a tool for engagement. So in your planning process, have this conversation. What is the expectation of board members to be involved in some way?
HARDY SMITH 36:32
What is the role of the fundraising committee? What’s their level of leadership there? And how much are they supposed to raise? So if you start having these conversations, so you get the feedback from the board members, I think the organization is fooling itself and creating this frustration around board member engagement when you’re just assuming.
HARDY SMITH 37:05
Well, we have a committee. Well, they’re board members, and well, therefore, they should be raising money, I keep saying this. Don’t assume that’s going to be true.
HARDY SMITH 37:15
So we’ll get agreement from your board on what specifically they, as a group, are willing to do as fundraisers regardless of the activity, get agreement from the board on what the expectation of the fundraising committee is. The reason I’m trying to emphasize that may be over-emphasized that is if staff is assuming it, you are already going down the wrong path.
RHEA WONG 37:50
Well, you know, they say about assuming, Hardy.
HARDY SMITH 37:53
It’s just not going to work. It’s a mistake. But if you can get that buy-in and ask me rather than tell me, then that’s gonna make all the difference in the world. Now, one of my pet peeves, please don’t tell me that, oh, well, you know, Hardy and Rhea weren’t at the meeting when committee assignments were being handed out.
HARDY SMITH 38:20
And you know, they’re pretty active on the board. So we’ll put them on the fundraising committee. I’m telling you. How important is that fundraising committee? From a dollars and cents standpoint, they’re raising X amount of dollars to feed more kids, take care of more underserved populations, take care of the environment, whatever it is that you do, well, how serious are you about it?
HARDY SMITH 38:55
Then you’ve got to be intentional. It can’t be a joke, for heaven’s sake. It can’t be a joke. Oh, well, Hardy, we’re in the meeting. So, therefore, oh, well, that qualifies them for being on the fundraising committee.
HARDY SMITH 39:07
That’s just ridiculous. And unfortunately, all too often, that happens. We have written one of the most popular blogs. We have written for board stores that on my own website is nonprofit leadership a joke.
HARDY SMITH 39:25
And a little tongue in cheek, there but all too often. That’s fundraising committee scenario is exactly what happens with our board leadership roles or chairmanship leaders, and chairmanship roles. There is no intentionality, so we set ourselves up for a whole lot of the frustration we experience.
RHEA WONG 39:48
Hardy, I don’t know if you know this term, if you don’t, you’re free to use it – voluntelling. We like to voluntell people and when we voluntell people, it does not work out. It might work out in a sort of short term perspective.
RHEA WONG 40:01
But ultimately, you need people’s buy in, as you say, their commitment and their alignment, right? We all need to align to the thing that we’re all say that we’re going to do. And we need to row in the same direction. Any questions coming in from the audience? Last chance here. All right! I’m going to wrap this up, Hardy.
RHEA WONG 40:20
This has been really fun. I think the work that you’ve done is really important and certainly speaks to a lot of the pain points in Ed space. Tell us again, where can we find your book, Stop the Nonprofit Blame Game and find more information about you.
HARDY SMITH 40:36
Well, Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game is available and a best-seller on Amazon. So go to Amazon and you’ll find it right there. Look pages listed under Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game. My website is very simple: hardysmith.com.
RHEA WONG 40:54
Alright, alright, last question. It is a fun question. I’ve been asking folks a lot. If you had a metaphorical billboard to communicate anything to the universe, what would be on your billboard?
HARDY SMITH 41:07
It’s related to the nonprofit sector. Be intentional. Be intentional about all of your best so-called Best Practices. Be intentional about recruiting board members. Be intentional with having the benefit of good planning to determine the direction you’re going in.
HARDY SMITH 41:33
Don’t just wing it. Don’t just say well, we’re just about doing good. And that’s all the time we have for is just doing good. So we really can’t take the time out to operate our nonprofit as we should. We’re just gonna bless our hearts. Take whatever we can get, and we’re going to try our best to do more good. Be intentional.
RHEA WONG 42:00
That’s so good, Hardy. Thank you so much. Everyone, go for it. Be intentional. And think about how you can make your boards better. Maybe you need to give them a little bit of love, a little bit of training, and a little bit of clarity. Hardy, thanks so much for being with us today.
HARDY SMITH 42:13
Rhea, thank you so very much. Thank you.
RHEA WONG
Okay, have a great day everyone.
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