I hope you had the chance to read my previous post, Raise Supporters Not Support. So what does this look like? How can we start activism within our organizations? Here are a few simple ideas that I have that you could try. If you have a few others leave a comment.

• Connect with interested supporters through the Facebook Causes application: this tool is a great way for your supporters to connect with others that believe in what your organization does.
• Start a regular e-news or paper newsletter: this provides you the opportunity to discuss a topic and what your organization is doing. An e-newsletter is a great way to keep your constituency informed.
• Start a blog: I have been amazed at how blogging allows you to dialog with a really diverse, informed, engaged group of people in very safe medium.
• Create a volunteer committee that talks about your issues online: online media and online community is growing more and more. Why not represent your organization where the people are at a low cost.
• Start a speaker’s bureau: this is a great way for you to use high-level volunteers to engage with ideas and issues that your organization supports.

Everyone always talks about fundraising as having to do with raising money or providing funds for an organization. I think that it could be worth our while to expand this idea to include activism in a more general sense such as advocacy and community activism. Volunteers and community members can be such incredible ambassadors for an organization.

I’d like to advocate that “development” or “fundraising” should be focused more on raising supporters than raising support. Why? Because I think fundraising is about developing people (see All Donors as Major Donors) not farming money. I also believe that if you can raise the community profile of your organization the funds will follow. If fundraising is relationship building and changing then I need to spend more time thinking about the donor than thinking about their donation.

Do you think that fundraising should include activism? Does your organization do any activism? Many times we limit activism to what happens in local and national government. But really activism can simply be the spread and the discussion of an idea. I’d love to hear from you as to what you are doing and if your organization is involved in activism, please leave a comment below.

Have any of you heard this sentiment from a board member, “I’m not here to raise money?” What do you think of that? I’m always a little bit frustrated when board members say they will do anything for an organization except raise money. Yes, I certainly think they raise the profile of your organization in the community (last week’s post) as I wrote about last week, yes I think they help you understand how you are perceived in the community and can be invaluable in crafting your message. But, if they are not willing to raise any money what are they really doing?

I have often found that in terms of running programs and providing good services that board members traditionally cannot speak with much experience. Usually program staff can speak with more experience regarding their programs than anyone else. And if your board member is not there to support the mission or program of your organization or raise your community profile what is the board member there to do?

This is probably more of an opinion column than I usually write but I’m very curious what your thoughts are. What value outside of fundraising do your board member serve?

Apparently I’m learning a lot in my new job because over the last few months my posts have reflected lessons learned at work. Well for your reading enjoyment I am adding another lesson I learned: serve your board members. I used to treat board members simply as kind-hearted community volunteers. But I was surprised when I realized I have not gone far enough in my valuing board members.

We need to serve our board. When they attend a meeting we should bend-over backwards to make them feel at home (etc. get them a glass of water or a cup of coffee when they arrive). The experience they have will translate to the caliber of organization they see you as. If they feel like you know how to treat them they will be more willing to bring their friends. Board members want to show off their work. If you can be a place they’d like to show off it will do great things for your organization.

If your board members are bringing their friends they are more willing to recruit new board members, they are more connected and willing to give themselves. What has your experience been with your boards? Have you found that serving them makes a difference?