Hi all, we've got out end of FY board meeting coming up and we're starting to evaluate our current board giving (both the minimum required to be on the board as well as how much of our total individual revenue comes from the board) and I was wondering if anyone out there would be willing and able to share their board statistics? We're sort of in the midst of some changes, both to our existing bylaws as well as expectations of the board, and are looking for a better understanding of what our peers are doing. For transparency, our board has a $5,000 annual minimum expectation, and their giving accounts for only about 6% of the income we receive from individuals (not corp/found/gov).
Thanks!Colleen
HAPPILY! Because of what we do and don't count against their requirement I feel like I have an aggressive amount of insight into our Board "purchasing". We also have a $5,000 give/gather. If there's anything else I can provide just drop a comment. :)
Current Board giving for us this year is just over $178,000. We have 19 active voting members and 1 non-voting. We have all but one of our Board members giving towards their give/gather (we have 1 delinquent holdout) and we have a number that give over their requirement (we're 175% to the budget "balance" for giving, and 11 fall into the over $5,000 total giving requirement category). As of the last time I reconciled my numbers for this year, Board giving was 21% of all contributed incomes for the Advancement department.
Board giving for us is a bit....unique, however. For a long time, fundraising = events for the Board so a majority of their giving gets absorbed into event sponsorships and fundraisers. They like getting perks for their payments. This is a point of contention for me personally--I would like to see their giving saturation ratio shift--but I can't necessarily blame them given the inconsistent stewardship this place has had over time. *shrug* If you pull all of their sponsorship dollars out of their $178k total, non-event individual contributions (good ol' straight philanthropy), Board giving is only 8% of the total for all of our individual giving programs, and their straight philanthropy is only 3% of the entire Advancement department. Which sounds a lot like what you're noticing with your Board.
For just the Board giving line, direct contributions are 15% of their total, with event giving making up the other 85%. Their event sponsorships are 48% of the total we raise in that area, which DO include our Gala, one other small fundraiser, and 5 special events. (FWIW....we have new interim leadership and I've LONG be asking for an audit of our events calendar and their financial sustainability. I'm hoping I can nag this into execution, haha. Taking a running average of Board event giving from FY19 through today, 41% of all event revenues are Board-given dollars. That doesn't even take into account the gather efforts. It was an incredibly insightful process and if its something you haven't done I highly recommend it. That speaks to a misalignment to me, so we'll see).
And for as much as the "gather" part is supposed to facilitate accessible Board entry, it still feels undercapitalized for us. Of the $178,000 total, only 17% was "gathered" and most was just friends buying Gala tickets/sponsorships. This is something I'm trying to think about myself--I need a refreshed pipeline, and for as much as written checks are valued and welcomed, new faces and bodies onsite hold a much more lucrative contribution for us. Ambassador work > allowance payment in my opinion, and we haven't leveraged the flexibility of that requirement in a way that encourages diverse and less wealthy voices to join our Board room. All things our Governance Committee knows and is working on. :)
Board Culture: VERY formal governance expectations with a working board model execution day-to-day. All the bylaws/quorums/rules are followed every step during every meeting. We have Chair/Vice Chair/Treasurer/Secretary for elected positions and then a number of committees. Full Board meets quarterly, Committees were meeting monthly (I do NOT recommend this, haha) but that might be changing. All I can say here by way of advice is if you're looking at changing the purpose of your board, make sure they pick a lane in terms of their participation and know how they can be helpful and noninvasive for staff. I think there's also innovation to be had in setting a give/gather requirement to be non-monetary (sell a # of tickets, bring in XX new patrons, etc.).
Thanks, Elena, I really appreciate your insights on this!