The Development Committee: Why?

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.

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