Leading The Fundraising Charge

The Board of Trustees is fudiciarily responsible for the school and acts on behalf of the school community that it serves. The school invites members of the Board to serve based on their commitment to the mission and vision of the organization and asks each trustee to be fully invested in all of the school's strategic initiatives. If the school wants to begin a community fund raising campaign and solicit large gifts, the Trustees must be ‘on board’ and extend their enthusiasm and support. In real effect, the school Board of Trustees authorizes large scale fundraising, and in that process, needs to understand why and how these large gifts will assist the school to better serve the community of the school. In this way, it is important that board members should be able to articulate the mission of the school and the case for the large scale fundraising effort. When the head of school, a development director, or non-board volunteer approaches a prospective donor and asks for a large gift, it is understood that this is being done in the name of the Board.

If the Board of Trustees inherently functions as outlined here, it is reasonable to anticipate that individual trustees will engage on all levels with the fundraising effort. This might mean opening doors when needed and helping to identify donors who could be cultivated and solicited in the major gifts/capital program.  Perhaps most important, individual trustees need to regularly and with ease, endorse the school’s work in program and fund development wherever and whenever possible. On a more fundamental level, members of the Board have to give financial support according to their capacity and particular circumstances. A school commencing a large scale fundraising effort — special gifts campaign, capital campaign, or endowment campaign — must know that it has in advance, the financial support of the Board of Trustees. They are the exemplars and models, representing the most positive and enthusiastic response that might be expected from the school community.