How to Build a Nonprofit Board That Actually Fundraises (100% Give Rate)

The Board Nobody Believes Exists — Until They See the Numbers

Christy Casey-Moore, CEO of Heart Gift, a global nonprofit that provides life-saving congenital heart surgery to children who lack access to it in their own countries, coined a phrase that stops most nonprofit conversations cold: the unicorn board. Every board member gives. Every board member gets. And the organization's flagship gala — Heart Gift calls it Party With a Purpose, not a gala — cleared $1.2 million in a single night last March. "I might be at 100% give-or-get right now of my board, I think," Casey-Moore said. "Yeah, well, they all — yes, they are all 100% give for sure. And some of them even do the get, too."

What makes the claim worth taking seriously isn't the dollar figure. It's that Casey-Moore can explain, step by step, exactly how the board got built that way — and none of the mechanics are exotic. "I don't have any resume builders on my board," she said. "We don't have board members that pay to be on the board. We don't have board members that are like, I need to get on this board because I need it for career advancement." That was a deliberate design choice made by Heart Gift's founders decades ago, and Casey-Moore has protected it for the ten years she's led the organization.

Board Members Come From the Mission, Not a Recruitment Funnel

Asked where her board members actually come from, Casey-Moore didn't point to a nominating committee or a wealth-screening tool. "Not all, but the majority of our board members come from our mission — being able to connect with our mission up close and personal." Some have been host families, opening their homes for the four-to-six-week stretch when a child and their caregiver travel to the U.S. for surgery. Others are what Heart Gift calls "heart parents" — families whose own child received the surgery. Others simply attended the gala, met a child in person, and asked how to get more involved. "By the time it gets to the point of, 'Hey, do you want to come join Heart Gift's board,' they're already there," she said.

That immersion-first model works because Heart Gift's mission is unusually easy to state in one sentence, and Casey-Moore is deliberate about repeating it constantly, to staff and prospective board members alike, well before anyone extends an invitation. For organizations without an equally dramatic mission, she offered a reframe rather than an excuse: the clarity is what matters, not the drama. "We do one thing," she said of Heart Gift's programmatic focus. "We provide surgeries to children that don't have access to those surgeries." Any nonprofit can achieve that same one-line clarity regardless of cause — and Casey-Moore argues most of the sector's board-engagement problems start with skipping that step.

Mini takeaway: A board built from people who already believe in the mission needs far less convincing than one built from a recruitment spreadsheet.

Invest in Marketing, Even Though It Feels Unglamorous

Casey-Moore's advice for nonprofits without an obviously dramatic mission gets more pointed here. "You have to go against the grain of this world of traditional running of a nonprofit," she said. "You've got to invest in marketing. You've got to get your board members and your donors to understand that we need to spend money over here — and it's okay that we spend money over here." Her challenge to leaders: if you were a for-profit company selling a product, you'd build a communications plan around it without hesitation. Nonprofits often shy away from that same investment because it doesn't feel as immediately mission-forward as funding a program. But without it, the pipeline of mission-connected supporters that eventually produces board members never fills in the first place.

Give or Get — and No Pay-to-Play Seats

The Heart Gift board's core expectation is simple and stated upfront, every time: give or get. "Either purchase a table or help us get to somebody that wants to come to the event," Casey-Moore explained. "So it's the get, right — if you're not going to give your donation, your sponsorship, to be at the event, then help us get sponsorship for the event." The "get" side isn't only financial. It extends to Heart Gift's version of the classic contact-list exercise: "Get out your phone, board. Who do you know that can write a check for $10,000 and not miss it? Who can buy a table? Who has access? Who owns a boat, or has a kick-butt wine cellar?" When Heart Gift expanded programs into new countries, the ask changed shape but not spirit: "Do you know anybody that has international experience in Latin America? We need help in Bolivia — who's going to help us in Bolivia?"

Every board member also sits on a working committee, not just the quarterly governing board. "I want them sitting on a committee too, because the committee is where some of this really minutiae — good stuff — is going on," Casey-Moore said. The governing board meets four times a year, but the real fundraising and mission work happens continuously at the committee level, which keeps engagement from going quiet between quarterly meetings.

Mini takeaway: "Give or get" only works when it's stated as a written expectation before someone joins — not negotiated after the fact.

Put It on One Piece of Paper

Casey-Moore's number-one fix for the most common complaint in nonprofit leadership — "my board won't fundraise" — is embarrassingly simple in her telling. Every prospective board member receives a literal one-page job description before they ever say yes. "It sounds so tactical, but it's literally a piece of paper... that we all give potential new board members," she said. "These are the expectations, and so we just talk about it upfront, and often." The document has been revised many times as Heart Gift's strategy and staffing evolved, but the format stays flat: one sheet, plainly stated, no ambiguity about what the role requires.

The same one-sheet philosophy carries into event night. Every board member receives a small card — sized to fit in a purse or jacket pocket — listing their specific job for the evening: which two or three tables to visit, who's seated there, what that guest's history with the organization is, and often a photo so they know exactly who they're looking for. "Table one is Joe Smith, and Joe's wife is Suzy, and they've been here for five years and they sponsored this year," Casey-Moore said, describing a typical card. "No more than three, maybe four people each. I don't give them a big long list." Board members don't resent the assignment — they look forward to it. "They're like, 'What are we doing? What do you want me to do? I want to help.'"

When a Board Member Isn't Working Out: Bless and Release

Not every board relationship resolves cleanly, and Casey-Moore doesn't pretend otherwise. Her framework for handling an underperforming or disruptive board member — even a major donor — starts with a single question. "You have to ask what is their purpose to Heart Gift," she said. "Sometimes their purpose may not be as strong or as necessary as what you thought it was." If the mismatch is genuinely hurting the organization's workflow, mission, or staff, it's time for what she calls, borrowing the phrase from a board member years ago, "bless and release."

The process itself isn't solitary. "First and foremost, if it's a board member, let your board chair know what's going on... give your executive leadership a heads-up," she said. "Use them as mentors. Don't just use them to ask them to raise money." Before defaulting to an exit, she also recommends checking whether the person might simply be in the wrong seat rather than off the bus entirely — perhaps a better fit for a committee, or a volunteer host role, rather than governance. But when none of that resolves it, her advice is direct: "Just rip the band-aid off. Have a professional, honest conversation."

Mini takeaway: Before you release a struggling board member, ask whether they're in the wrong seat rather than on the wrong bus — a committee or volunteer role might solve the mismatch without losing them entirely.

A Quarterly Board Still Needs Monthly Contact

Asked how to keep momentum alive between quarterly board meetings, Casey-Moore's answer hinges on distinguishing a governing board from a working board. "If you're meeting quarterly and you're a working board, you're not meeting enough," she said flatly. A true governing board, where committees carry the operational load, can meet quarterly — but only if leadership fills the gaps with monthly outreach. "Make sure that once a month, at a minimum, you're reaching out and saying, 'Hey, mission impact moment.' I can't tell you how many times I hear, 'Christy, we could just do mission updates.'" A working board, by contrast, needs eight to ten touchpoints a year at minimum, in her view — quarterly simply isn't enough cadence to keep a hands-on board engaged and accountable.

Why the CEO Shouldn't Sit With Major Donors

Casey-Moore made a night-of choice that she admits runs against instinct for many nonprofit leaders: she doesn't seat her biggest donors at her own table. The decision came from watching herself repeatedly get pulled away mid-event — to the stage, to handle a logistics issue, to celebrate a big auction moment in person — and realizing what that looked like from the donor's side. "It just felt very dismissive," she said. "I was leaving them alone, and they're just sort of sitting there." Now her table holds people she's worked with for years who understand and expect her to be pulled in different directions all night. Major donors get their own table, their own celebration, and a personal follow-up call — not a half-empty seat next to an absentee host.

She's also changed how she reacts to major gifts in real time. Early in her tenure, a big auction moment meant hopping up immediately to thank the donor in person. Now she waits. "I've learned over the last couple of years, just hang tight. I know who it is... let them celebrate and let them have fun." The thank-you call comes the next morning instead — and it comes without fail. "The next day, I'm calling people," she said. "We don't like going out of office immediately post-event. We think the most important thing you can do is pick up the phone and say thank you."

To Shrink Your Guest List Without Shrinking Revenue, Raise the Price

Asked how to trim an oversized gala guest list down to the donors who can actually move the needle, Casey-Moore didn't hesitate, despite calling the answer "a little controversial." Her advice: "Up your ticket price. Ask for more, and you'll get more." Raising the price naturally shifts who's in the room — the people who can no longer justify the cost self-select out, while the giving capacity of the remaining guests rises. "If you increase the ticket price, the profile of your people will change, and that will help you get the right people in the room."

But she paired that advice with a caution against losing goodwill along the way. Anyone priced out of the main event who has a real giving history still deserves a path to participate — a lower-tier sponsorship, a $500 add-on, some way to stay engaged rather than simply losing access. "Don't forget to always make sure that you're doing something for the people that may not be able to do the $10,000 package," she said. "Everybody wants to feel a little bit part of it."

Whether the lever is a job description, a give-or-get expectation, a monthly check-in cadence, or a $50 increase on the ticket price, the throughline in Casey-Moore's approach is the same: nothing about a high-performing board is left to hope. Every expectation is written down, repeated often, and reinforced by a leader who treats her board members as mission partners first and fundraising assets second.

Insights in this article are drawn from two Hey Nonprofits! conversations with Heart Gift CEO Christy Casey-Moore: the podcast episode “A 10-Year CEO, a $1.2M Gala, and a Board With 100% Give” and the Hey Nonprofits! LIVE follow-up “Building Your Unicorn Board.”