How to Get Board Members to Fundraise (Without the Akward Ask

Don't Say the F-Word

Elise Woodworth, author of Business Not Battle for Nonprofit Boards, works with organizations to turn disengaged boards into active advocates — and her first rule sounds counterintuitive. "I don't talk about fundraising when I work," she says. "The F-word." Bringing up fundraising directly, especially early with a new or hesitant board, tends to put up walls, even with board members who are otherwise accomplished, confident business leaders. The fear isn't the mission. It's the specific word and everything board members associate with it: the awkward ask, the fear of rejection, the discomfort of putting a friend on the spot.

Skip the word entirely, and the actual behavior you want gets much easier to reach.

The Champions Elevator Pitch

Woodworth's core tool is a 20-minute guided exercise she calls the champions elevator pitch, designed to run at the start of a board meeting or retreat. Board members answer a short series of questions: what's the mission, in their own words? What's their personal connection to it? What's one point of impact they're proud of? Then everyone shares out loud, around the table.

"So often those conversations don't come up," Woodworth says. "We don't make time or space for them." The exercise surfaces something organizations rarely expect: when she's run it with a mixed group of new and veteran board members, paid staff, and volunteers, and asked everyone to describe the mission in ten words or less, "every single answer was different." Getting everyone saying the mission the same way isn't a branding exercise — it's the foundation everything else gets built on.

Mini takeaway: If you asked every person on your board to describe your mission in ten words right now, would you get ten different answers? Run the exercise and find out.

Start With the Mission, Not the Budget

Woodworth's diagnosis of a disengaged board almost always traces back to the same root cause: people weren't all pulling in the same direction because the mission wasn't the center of gravity in the room. "The first thing I usually start with when I'm working with a new organization, new board, we get really focused on the mission," she says. "Everything they do, everything we do together needs to tie back into the mission. If it doesn't move the mission forward, then we put it on the shelf."

Her challenge to organizations: how often does a board meeting actually start with the mission and a point of impact, instead of jumping straight into reviewing last quarter's budget? "How much would that change the focus of a meeting if instead of now just meeting to review the annual budget, we're reviewing the budget that's going to enable us to continue feeding 1,200 families a month," she says.

Turn the Ask Into an Invitation

Once board members are fluent in their own elevator pitch — and have practiced saying it out loud a few times between meetings — the natural next step isn't a fundraising ask. It's an invitation. "The next natural piece of it is to say, won't you join me at our next event. Join me at our next fundraiser. Join me in this online auction we're doing," Woodworth says. "You share your mission, your inspiration, and your impact. The next natural step is to be that advocate and say, join me."

The framework doesn't remove the ask. It removes the fear around it, because the board member isn't cold-asking a friend for money — they're inviting someone into something they've already learned to talk about with real fluency and personal connection.

Mini takeaway: Board members don't fear the mission. They fear the ask that comes before they feel ready to talk about it. Fix the readiness, and the ask takes care of itself.

When Resistance Is Real, Build a Committee Instead

Woodworth is realistic about the limits of any single exercise. "You also might find that they don't" want to engage, she says, "and depending on your organization's age and the culture that exists in the board, that might be okay." Her advice for a board that's fundamentally more comfortable with governance and strategy than direct fundraising: don't force the fit. Instead, build a fundraising committee or development council positioned alongside the board, not inside it, and recruit for it deliberately.

"Be intentional about who you're bringing on and what you expect from them," she says. "If it's draining the executive director, if it's pulling down the staff and it's not serving the best interests of the mission... find a way you can do it, not a reason why you can't."

Fix the Board Before You Fix the Fundraising

Sometimes the honest first step isn't a mission exercise at all — it's board composition. "You have to make sure you have the right people on your board," Woodworth says. Many boards went into survival mode during the pandemic and never fully recovered: a handful of remaining members, burned out, holding on out of obligation rather than energy. She's built a four-month blueprint specifically for turning a straggling board over into one with people who actually want to be there.

Even board members who were previously burned out often re-engage once there's a visible plan. "It's it's energizing. It's re-engaging to have that," she says, "this is how we are going to get there."

Ask Your Board How They Want to Be Engaged

Woodworth's final, simplest piece of advice doubles as a diagnostic: ask. "Ask them how they would like to be engaged," she says. "How can I make this the best board experience ever for you?" Most organizations spend far more time telling board members what's expected of them than asking what kind of involvement would actually feel meaningful and sustainable to that specific person. The answer is often more actionable, and less intimidating, than a generic ask for money ever would be.

Insights in this article are drawn from the Hey Nonprofits! podcast episode “Your Board Won't Fundraise? Stop Asking Them To”, featuring host Trevor Nelson and guest Elise Woodworth, author of Business Not Battle for Nonprofit Boards.