I was recently asked at a conference for advice on a http://taminternational.com/cheap/ charity’s development
committee. My reply was to suggest this scenario: Your development committee
meets next week. What is your agenda?
My advisee replied that he will prepare a report for the development committee
chairman to present on the activities of the development office. In fairness,
that report will include discussion of an upcoming fundraising event. But nothing
else had anything to do with the committee; the chairman was to report on the
staff’s fundraising activities. To add insult to injury, the development director
had to take time out from doing his job to prepare the report on how he was doing
his job.
I suggested that the board consider re-naming their group the Events Committee,
since that organization does conduct several volunteer-led fundraisers annually.
But, after further conversation, it was clear there was no function to justify a
development committee.
You might reply that members of the development committee should be responsible
for identifying and cultivating prospective donors. Here’s my simple response to
that — why should this vital activity be limited to only those board members on
the so-called development committee? Don’t you think prospect identification and
cultivation is important enough for every board member to participate?
If your development committee’s meetings are preceded by a sense of dread, knowing
you will spend time preparing notes for no good reason, that a well-intentioned
volunteer leader will read aloud to others at a meeting at which nothing of any
value happens, it might be time for you to ask yourself why you have a development
committee.
A cardinal sin of volunteer management is wasting your volunteers’ time. If
that’s what happens at your committee meetings the time has come to make the
change. I’ll bet the development committee chairperson would be happy to propose
the change in by-laws to eliminate or re-purpose the development committee.