You Have a Leadership Committee — Now What?

Welcome back!  In our previous episode, we explored why every organization needs a fundraising leadership committee (and how to form one!), but now it's time to answer the question that really matters: What do you actually do with one?

Matt joins Rhen again this week to dig into the nuts and bolts of ongoing committee management. Building your leadership committee is just the beginning. The real work starts when they show up to serve.

As Matt emphasized last time, this is a working committee. Members are expected to share potential donor names, make meaningful introductions, and help organize cultivation events — but none of that happens effectively without the right training.

Matt shares his go-to training methods, the most common leadership committee mistakes he's witnessed firsthand, and practical advice for handling members who aren't pulling their weight.  Whether you're building from scratch or breathing new life into an existing committee, this episode is for you.

(And, if you're interested in checking out our podcast on Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising", click HERE for more info and to listen to episode one.)

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

00:45.58 Host Cool. Well, howdy, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Petrus Development Show. I am Rhen Hoehn from Petrus, and joining me again today is special guest Matt Bond, also from Petrus. How's it going, Matt?

00:59.74 Matt Hey, hey, hey, there you go using the special guest again.

01:04.41 Host You're still special in all of our hearts.

01:07.19 Matt There we go.

01:08.28 Host There we go. All right. So today is kind of a part two of our discussion about leadership committees, leadership councils, advisory committees, advisory councils, and blue ribbon committees.

01:19.32 Host All those terms are used to describe the same thing. Whichever one you use is fine. We'll talk about leadership committees and how to manage them and how to get the most from them. So if you missed our first episode on how to build that committee, go back to episode 190 and you can hear our full discussion there between me and Matt. But today we'll continue that and just pick it right up and go with it. If that sounds good to you, Matt.

01:42.56 Matt Let's do it.

01:43.48 Host All right. So we formed our committee a couple weeks ago in the last episode. Now we need to figure out — let's assume that your organization never had a leadership committee before and you just formed it.

01:56.09 Host Now, what do you do? How do you move forward with them? How often — so we talked about, I guess, in the last episode, you should meet between once a month and once a quarter for an ongoing leadership committee outside of a campaign.

02:09.59 Host What should you plan to talk about in those meetings, and what are the ongoing expectations for the committee starting out?

02:21.11 Matt Yeah, so from the get-go, you need to have an expectations meeting. Not only an expectations meeting, but a get-to-know-you meeting. Whatever that looks like, the committee needs to get to know each other. Then you need to lay the ground rules of what the expectations are of everyone, where you're going to need help, and where they can insert themselves in.

02:42.58 Matt And then set confidentiality and all of those things right then and there. That's a good time to share how you'll run a meeting. Then, potentially from that, you might consider going ahead and electing your campaign chair. Now, if you've already picked that before you started, that's great. If you want the committee to choose that for you, that's great too. But I would have somebody who is a chair — and we talked about terms and things in the last session.

03:15.96 Matt But that is how I would start. I would start with that one. And then the very next meeting, let's get some training in if needed.

03:27.03 Matt Ongoing expectations, again, are that you show up and you're active. And then you're a great cheerleader for the ministry. Now, we talked about a cheerleading committee, if you remember, last time.

03:40.73 Matt And that's not what I'm talking about. We're not putting together a cheerleading committee. But each of the members of that committee should be your greatest fans. They should be your cheerleaders to the outside world because they are the outward-facing representatives outside of you as development director, the executive director, and some staff.

03:56.87 Matt They too need to be cheerleaders for what you're doing. And so those are the ongoing expectations, as well as, of course, making gifts and being active in the different activities and events that you have.

04:15.80 Host Great. So we have those meetings. You want to keep those members up to date. Any specific considerations for what we should be doing for that? What information they should be getting? What kinds of things they need to know about?

04:29.94 Matt Yeah, so this being a fundraising committee of sorts, they need to know financials. How much has been raised? What are our expenses? What are our goals? Where are we in reference to our goals from what's been raised?

04:43.48 Matt They need to have an ongoing calendar of what's coming up, what happened, how successful it was — kind of an after-action report — and then they need to keep an eye on what's coming up. Where do we need help? What do we need to do?

04:54.81 Matt And so those are things that you need to cover in every meeting going forward. And then, of course, you have your new business as well. This gives the committee the opportunity to share their ideas and bring up new things that we could potentially do. And it gives you an opportunity to run ideas across the committee to see if we want to move forward with them.

05:17.02 Host Got it. One key distinction of a committee like this is that it is advisory in its function, right? I've been part of advisory committees or leadership committees before that will take votes on things.

05:33.53 Host But really, when it comes down to it, the pastor or the director is the decision maker, and the committee can give their recommendation, but their votes aren't binding. Like, "Our committee voted to do this, so you must do that" — their role is advisory in function. You're getting their advice and their thoughts. But at the end of the day, the nonprofit director is the one making the calls on the ground.

06:00.76 Matt Yeah, agreed. Now, it does happen quite often that committees will bring things to a vote so that they present a united front in what they're suggesting to the priest or the nonprofit leader, and so that they have the documentation of "this is what we recommended as a group."

06:26.07 Host Got it. And there are nonprofits that have a controlling board — sometimes called that — where they're in charge of hiring the director, holding them to a specific standard, and firing them if they're not doing their job. That's totally different from what we're talking about here, so just to make that distinction. At the end of the last episode, we were talking about some of the difficulties you might encounter or mistakes, and you mentioned not listening to all the voices of the committee — just listening to a few. Do you want to elaborate on what comes up there and how to avoid it?

07:06.36 Matt Yeah, this is a tough one. You've got emotions and feelings across the board. You've got those who talk too much. And if you don't step in the right way, they get upset because you've shut them down. And then you have those who don't get to talk that you've got to be careful of — you've got to somehow give them the opportunity to speak too.

07:32.98 Matt It's not an easy thing to deal with. Some tips and tricks I've learned in my dealings that I've seen work well — as the leader in that room, for those who talk a lot, we'll use a common name here, we'll just use Karen.

07:51.30 Matt A simple, "Hey, Karen, I think I understand what you're saying. Is it this, this, and this? Wonderful. Let's hear from some other members of the committee so that we can get everybody's opinion and thoughts on this."

08:05.53 Matt And then go to Sally. "Would you like to elaborate?" Now, Sally would be somebody who is quieter, may not always get an opportunity to speak, and may not

08:16.09 Matt speak up when the time calls for it. But her opinion still matters. And so those are a couple of things you can do. Another option: "We've heard a lot from this side of the room. Let's hear something from this side of the room."

08:33.91 Host Right.

08:34.01 Matt Any way to quiet down the talkers and empower those who aren't talking is a great approach. Now, you're not always going to get the words right. Sometimes emotions and feelings will be so high that you can't stop Karen from talking without offending or upsetting her, and you still can't empower the others.

09:02.17 Matt One way to deal with that is after the meeting's over, make sure it doesn't go to a vote and a final decision. Approach those who didn't get the opportunity to talk and say, "Hey, I realize that Karen was doing a lot of the talking in there, but I respect your feedback and I want to hear it.

09:19.64 Matt Can you, either through a phone call or an email, provide that for me so that I can take in your opinions and thoughts on the decision? And we can bring that back too." So sometimes it takes extra steps and extra handholding. But as you know, when we deal with people and feelings and passion, when you put all of those together,

09:44.86 Matt it takes more time. We have to be delicate in how we handle situations like that.

09:52.38 Host Got it. So we talked about the fundraising aspect of these committees. How do you go about training the members for fundraising? What does that look like?

10:03.54 Matt Yes. I actually start — whether it's a leadership committee or a campaign committee — I always start training with a wonderful book called...

10:21.08 Matt Can you hear that?

10:24.02 Host I don't think so.

10:27.06 Host What are you hearing?

10:30.10 Matt Sorry, my phone's ringing in my ear.

10:32.84 Host Oh, yeah, I didn't hear that.

10:35.32 Matt Sorry, Eddie, you'll have to cut that out. But I always start training with a great book: The Spirituality of Fundraising by Henri Nouwen.

10:45.11 Host Oh, yeah.

10:46.04 Matt We at Petrus — I know Terry did a great job putting together a free seminar that you can watch. I would encourage you to watch it. It takes less than an hour to go all the way through it.

10:59.10 Matt Phenomenal stuff. And if you don't get a chance for that, buy the book. It's a 45-minute read.

11:08.12 Host It's quick, yeah. Like you said, we have that free course that dives deep into it. If you go to PetrusDevelopment.com/Academy, you can access that course for totally free. We also have a podcast series called Reflections on a Spirituality of Fundraising, which you can find on any podcast app. It's a mini-series — I think it's eight episodes, one for each chapter of the book, and each of them is a 45-minute conversation about the topic of that chapter with a fundraising professional. So there are lots of resources that really dig into the spirituality of fundraising, and they're there for free.

11:46.24 Matt It's a great resource, and what it does is it sets your mind right. It gets you out of the mindset of "I'm raising money" to "I'm inviting people to join in my mission."

11:58.94 Matt As far as training goes, that is the most important place to start. If we can get our mindset started in the right direction, then the rest follows.

12:11.90 Matt From there, I do training on specific things that we need the committee's help with. So if, for instance, introducing you to individuals is a high priority of the committee — which it should be — I train them on, "Okay, let's figure out a process that works with us as a team, as staff members, and as volunteers, so that we can maximize efficiency."

12:36.82 Matt I train them on that, and I train them on running a gala. Many times I'll train the committee on how to work a gala — how do you work a room?

12:47.99 Host Right.

12:48.89 Matt And then what tools do we give to the committee so that they can be as effective as possible? As a side note, one tool is called a yearbook. It has a picture of each donor we'll be talking to, along with a short biography. So before every gala, before they walk in, they can look at the sheet, see the face, and read what that person does. And then when they see the person in real life, they know, "Hey, this is somebody I need to go and say hello to and welcome to the gala."

13:17.53 Matt This person is important to our mission.

13:18.05 Host Oh, interesting.

13:18.85 Matt So I call it a yearbook. It's something I train my committee with. But you look at the different pieces that are important — golf tournament, train them on that; train them on how to talk about your nonprofit so that they're saying it right. You'll be surprised — even your own staff who work at your nonprofit, you'll be surprised how little they know, or how

13:46.71 Matt unpolished they are when speaking about the ministry. So train your board on how to talk about what you do, and show them everything that you do so that they can speak clearly, fluently, and professionally about it.

13:51.90 Host That is great advice, yeah.

14:04.38 Matt Yeah, those are a few of the key training pieces that you've got to focus on for most every nonprofit out there.

14:18.01 Host Awesome. And then how do you involve them in fundraising? What are some of the things you expect them to do?

14:25.11 Matt Every meeting, they should be bringing you names. They should constantly be thinking about who they can introduce to the nonprofit. They bring you those names, and then you can research them, do some wealth screening, and go from there. So that's number one — every meeting, your committee should be consistently bringing you names.

14:51.10 Matt But on top of that, after they've brought you a name and you've talked strategy with the development director or executive director, their next job is taking the next steps with that strategy.

15:03.10 Matt Introducing that person to the nonprofit, introducing them to the executive director or development director, or just sitting down and having a cup of coffee with them and sharing the mission.

15:13.53 Matt Walking through those steps — let me go down a rabbit hole here, Ren — you should have an onboarding process for your donors.

15:27.03 Matt Just like you have an onboarding process for your staff and your nonprofit leaders, you should have one for your donors. What does that look like?

15:39.70 Matt It's a path that the majority of your donors take in order to fall in love with what you're doing, where you can share everything about your nonprofit and bring them on board if it's something they're interested in supporting.

15:56.31 Matt From that point, you walk your donor through that onboarding process. Your committee should be able to walk them down that same path, too. As far as fundraising goes,

16:10.26 Matt they're just as much a part of fundraising as you are as development director, and as the executive director is. They should take 100% accountability for it.

16:19.90 Matt They should take 100% buy-in for it. This isn't just your job. This is everybody's job.

16:27.80 Host Yeah, and it's invaluable when you have those members working as volunteers to help you with that process. They can make connections that you would never have otherwise.

16:38.39 Host I think of some of the best experiences I've had working with leadership committee members. We had an event where one of our members came to a cultivation event in their city, and they got up in front of a crowd of 100 and just talked about the great things happening at the ministry and why people should be paying attention and consider supporting it. It was so powerful to have that come from one of their peers — not just a staff member — accompanying us on donor visits.

17:08.34 Host Same thing. Here's somebody who's there as a volunteer, as someone who loves this mission and was affected by it years ago as an alumnus. Not someone on staff, but that's why they love it. They can help make an ask, and even make connections to foundations where we're applying for grants. If they have a connection to decision makers on a foundation board, that's a big advantage as well. So just some examples there of how they were helpful day-to-day in fundraising.

17:41.46 Matt Absolutely. I worked with a nonprofit in Norman, Oklahoma. They worked with middle school kids — it was an afterschool program focused on building small businesses. While I was there for an on-site visit with the development director and executive director...

Here is the corrected continuation:

17:59.58 Matt A committee member walks in with the individual that they had just had lunch with. And while they were at lunch, he shared about the nonprofit.

18:11.35 Matt And this new individual loved it and said, "Hey, it's just around the corner — you want to go and see it?" Well, their onboarding process, step one, was to walk them through and tour the facility, because as soon as somebody saw the facility, they would fall in love with the ministry. They could see all the amazing things they were doing for their after-school program. And so I'm sitting there doing that, and here strolls in the committee member and his friend that he had been having lunch with.

18:43.09 Matt And he introduced them to me, introduced them to the executive director. And then the executive director leans over and says, "Should I leave you, Matt, and go on this visit with the committee member?"

18:54.40 Matt I was like, no, let the committee member do it. He's doing a great job. And so he walked them through and showed them everything.

19:01.16 Matt And just a great example of where that committee was empowered to do fundraising and was taking advantage of it — on a Thursday afternoon, I think it was.

19:14.84 Host Love it. That's what it's all about. Anything else you want to talk about with regards to this before we get to the last topic, which is what to do with members who aren't performing? Anything else you want to hit on before we go there?

19:34.71 Matt Not that I can think of. Let me think.

19:40.44 Matt I've got something I could add.

19:44.98 Matt I can do it right at the end of that.

19:47.80 Host At the end of what we just covered?

19:49.56 Matt Telling my story.

19:52.63 Host Yeah, just jump right into it then.

19:56.31 Matt And if we take our committee and we do a good job of empowering them to be fundraisers just like us — and give them that opportunity — one thing we as a staff should think about is: we need to look at the things that we offer staff and offer them to the committee as well.

20:14.54 Matt We need to give them T-shirts. They should be wearing T-shirts. And I know it sounds small,

20:22.94 Matt but they're our biggest fans. If they're walking around with the nonprofit's slogan on their shirt and somebody asks them about it at an amusement park or at the grocery store, that's a great win for us.

20:36.34 Matt So your nonprofit's biggest fans — you should be loading them up with stuff all the time.

20:42.75 Matt Anytime you make a staff shirt, they should get one too. They need name badges so they can wear them at the gala, that kind of thing.

20:52.06 Matt Anything that not only makes them happy because you're giving them a gift from the nonprofit they love, but that can also do some outside advertising for you — all of those are great things that can empower our committee and build it into a great working committee.

21:08.62 Host That's great. All right. Well, to wrap this up, let's hit one more topic. Let's say you have a committee member who isn't performing. How do you approach that?

21:21.91 Matt Yeah. Again, we're all human.

21:26.39 Matt Whether you're in the spiritual realm — meaning if you're working for a church of some type — there's some forgiveness that has to be given.

21:39.19 Matt But there also needs to be expectations. People make mistakes.

21:44.92 Matt Sometimes people get angry and their tempers flare. But we not only need to forgive when forgiveness is warranted — we also need to have a conversation with those who aren't performing and say, "Hey, you're not performing.

22:00.38 Matt We need you at this level. What's going on? Do you still want to be a part of this committee? Is this still something you're invested in?" Have the heart-to-heart, one-on-one conversation with those individuals. Give them an opportunity to fix their non-performance.

22:20.76 Host Yeah, it seems like those conversations are terrifying to think about, but when they actually happen, it's kind of a relief for everybody involved, right?

22:29.93 Host The ones that I've seen, at least — it's usually, "You aren't showing up to the meetings, or you aren't doing the things you said you were going to do. What's going on?" And it's either, "Oh, this other thing came up in my life.

22:42.06 Host I love what you're doing and I would love to be a part of it, but for some reason I just can't be right now." Okay, well, maybe we're going to move on. Or, "I just don't feel comfortable going out and asking my friends to be a part of the mission." Okay, maybe you're not the right fit for this committee — because that's kind of the goal of it, right? Whatever that conversation looks like, if they aren't showing up or participating or doing their job, you're lowering the overall performance of the group and keeping a spot from somebody who could be in there doing that work and advancing your mission.

23:18.74 Host And so clearing that space for somebody who actually is willing and wants to be involved is pretty crucial for the committee. It's going to lift everybody's spirits.

23:30.33 Host And it's probably going to be a relief for the person who knows they're not doing the job and maybe just doesn't want to bring it up — if that makes sense.

23:38.60 Matt Yeah. Now, Ren, I'm going to throw another one at you.

23:42.43 Host Oh, boy.

23:42.52 Matt As you said, somebody who isn't performing — let's jump to the one that's even more extreme than that.

23:49.25 Matt And that is when they break an unforgivable rule.

24:01.69 Matt For instance, what if they break confidentiality from a meeting?

24:07.74 Matt Or what if they share donor information with somebody outside of the organization?

24:08.70 Matt Or what if they use that information for personal gain? These are things that I would consider — of course, we can always forgive people — but as far as the committee is concerned, these are unforgivable infractions.

24:26.90 Matt When that happens, you've got to have a quick board meeting — I would say an executive session — with them excluded, and make quick steps to have them removed from the committee.

24:41.59 Matt Bad apples can ruin a committee in a hurry.

24:48.89 Matt And so move efficiently with that. I'm not of the camp that writes out all these rules you've got to follow.

24:59.58 Matt There are a few, maybe, but there are some common, logical rules — things you just shouldn't do. And when that happens, you've got to be quick to move on. That would be my recommendation. But don't do it rashly. Don't do it by yourself, and always have those conversations with somebody else in the room with you.

25:28.33 Host Good advice.

25:29.59 Matt Because you're going to say one thing and they're going to hear something differently. When it's negative news, sometimes people hear things that aren't what you said. Then you get into the he-said-she-said situation. If you bring an unbiased person from the committee — someone who's really just there to witness the conversation — they can say, "No, this is actually what the executive director, development director, or priest said. This is what they said, not what you're claiming." It helps protect the health of the situation and keeps you out of legal issues down the road.

26:09.09 Host That makes a lot of sense. Good advice. Well, it's a bit of a heavy topic to wrap up on, but I will say it's a relatively rare thing that happens. Most of my experiences with leadership committees have been pretty positive. And if you get one humming as a well-oiled machine, it can really move your mission forward pretty quickly. That's really nice.

26:35.70 Host Maybe I'll end us with this question. This is a controversial one that tears families apart — and we've actually had some really good conversations about it among Petrus staff. If you are starting out a fundraising program, should the leadership committee be the first thing you focus on, or the last? It seems to go one way or the other.

26:59.77 Host And I'm putting you on the spot here — I didn't prepare you for this. Any thoughts on whether it should come first or last? Maybe I'll give my own two cents while you think about it. I think it partly depends on what you're starting with. If you already have a list of donors, maybe it's easy to form that committee, or maybe you don't need it right away. If you have a small list, maybe it is good to form that committee from among them so they can start making connections and growing your list. That can be very beneficial.

27:35.45 Host But if you have a longer list of donors, maybe you can take your time, find the best possible people for that committee, and focus on other things first.

27:47.58 Host Yeah, I could go either way on that. Do you have any thoughts? Because we get asked that question, and it's come up in some of our staff calls with some lively back and forth on which way it should go.

28:00.43 Matt Well, the back and forth may be lively, but I think you gave a pretty noncommittal answer there.

28:04.57 Host I did.

28:06.57 Host I've heard both sides of the argument and I kind of agree with both. So it depends on the situation, I guess.

28:11.61 Matt I hear you. Here's my take. Nonprofit work is hard. It's really, really hard.

28:19.74 Matt It's not simple to do. Why would you do it by yourself? Why would you not build a leadership committee from the beginning?

28:30.61 Matt You've got exponential growth of connections you can use. You've got a sounding board of individuals to talk to. You've got people to share the load — it's not all on your shoulders. They can help you do it.

28:42.87 Matt And they've got the expertise to do it. They may not be your perfect committee, but that's what term limits are for, right?

28:49.34 Matt Have them turn over and move on. But why in the world would you start something without help?

28:57.94 Matt And so I would say start it from the beginning. Maybe it's small — four, five, or six people, like we said in the last episode. But get some help in there.

29:09.94 Matt Nonprofit work is hard enough. If you live on an island of one, you're just making your life so much more difficult.

29:20.15 Host That makes a lot of sense. I think we'll end it there. That's some good thoughts and helpful advice for building and managing a leadership committee from these last couple of episodes. I'm going to leave us with one quick announcement.

29:35.19 Host If you are in California or attending CCMA's Called 26 conference in San Diego for campus ministries in June, we have a couple of workshops coming up piggybacking off of that. If you are going to Called 26, you can add on a night to your stay, and the next day — Thursday, June 4th — we'll have a one-day fundraising workshop called Raise Workshop right there on campus. So you can stay and attend that before you fly home. You can find all the details at PetrusDevelopment.com/Raise. Or the very next day, June 5th, we'll be in Los Angeles with a fundraising workshop as well.

30:14.74 Host We have some other dates coming up this fall that will be announced soon — if they're not quite up on the website yet, they're starting to roll in, so we'll have those announced pretty quickly. But if you're going to be in San Diego for the conference and would like to stay over — whether in your hotel room or a dorm room on campus — the cutoff date for that is May 4th, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks. So go to PetrusDevelopment.com/Raise to get all the details for those workshops.

30:47.74 Host And with that, I think we'll call it a day. We'll see you back next time.

30:52.22 Matt Yeah, see you back. Hopefully next time I'm not just a special guest.

30:56.43 Host We'll consider your title. Have a good one, Matt.

31:01.62 Matt See you, Rhen.