Capacity Building Series: Board Member Engagement – Relationship Mapping
See our previous blog on Growing Board Fundraising Engagement
Prospective Donors (Find, Cultivate, Maintain, and Retain Relationships)
Finding new donors can be difficult: knowing where to start, where to look, how to find them. If you start with who you already know and those who are already passionate about and invested in your mission, then they can lead you to potential donors. A great place to start is with your current board members who have a responsibility to contribute to fundraising.
Why Lean on Your Board’s Relationships?
Board members are already advocates because they know about the mission and work and are likely current donors. Who better to help you find and cultivate new donors?
What is Relationship Mapping?
It’s mapping out who your board members know, or the connections and relationships they have. The focus should be on people or businesses board members have potential influence with and determine who could potentially benefit your organization’s mission.
Relationship mapping tracks these connections to provide data to help:
- Identify potential champions and advocates of your mission (e.g. volunteers)
- Expand your marketing
- Evaluate the potential for campaigns
- Secure corporate sponsors/partners
- Raise money
How to Introduce Relationship Mapping to Board Members
This can be a delicate process. Be mindful that many people hesitate to offer up people they know will be asked for donations. Ask them why they joined the board and chose to support your organization. Then remind them their support is crucial in meeting your goals, accomplishing your mission, and serving your community.
Help them tap into the emotion that led them to become involved in your organization in the first place. Help them get more comfortable with the idea of expanding their circle of influence and ask for their help with it. Show them you will walk alongside each other in the journey and work together.
Next, be sure to communicate clearly about the goal—whether it’s finding raffle items for an event or donors for a capital campaign—so you can be specific about who or what you’re looking for. For example, small business owners who can donate items to be raffled off or corporate leaders who could potentially approve major gifts. The relationship with your donors can be mutually beneficial, so consider sharing how this donation can benefit them as well such as special events or business marketing through sponsorships.
If you have few or limited donors, try having board members map out as many contacts in their circle of influence as they can, such as from:
- Social circles
- Other nonprofits they’re board members of
- Business connections
- Alumni groups or organizations
- Faith-based groups or churches
Be sure to have them provide more than just names. You’ll want to have a profile of each person, so you know more about them and how to approach them. You might ask them to include how they’re connected with each person, what their interests and passions are, perhaps their giving history and priorities, how they prefer to interact or be contacted, and of course, their contact information. In many cases, people will prefer to hear directly from someone they’re already connected with, but these profiles can help make approaching their contacts easier for board members or for your staff.
What a Relationship Map Looks Like
Your finished map should be a visual diagram of circles and lines that connect each board member to the people in their circles of influence and looks a bit like this:
Source: https://givingusa.org/board-engagement-mapping-your-board-for-fundraising-success/
