Rethinking the Board and Volunteer Role in Fundraising
- Julie Bianchi
- Apr 6
- 5 min read
If we had a Subreddit for overheard conversations about board involvement in fundraising in small organizations, here’s what would be trending:
“I can’t join one more committee!”
“We didn’t recruit our board members to fundraise.”
“I’m too busy—relationships take time.”
“Can we just write more grants instead?”
For decades, nonprofit leaders have wrestled with the tension between fundraising expectations and board engagement. What is shifting now is how organizations are talking with their boards about fundraising. More of them are beginning to say, “If you don’t want to fundraise, you don’t have to, at least not in the ways we have traditionally defined it.”
Because the truth is, the old model, where every board member is expected to fundraise in the same way, is no longer working.
Instead, organizations are beginning to rethink what fundraising participation can look like. They are exploring how people contribute, what counts as fundraising, and how to align roles with individual strengths, community representation, lived experience, and capacity. This is especially important for nonprofits with small staff, limited fundraising experience, and working boards who are already balancing so much.
What is Changing?
People still care deeply about causes, but how they engage is evolving.
Volunteering declined sharply through 2021, dropping to a historic low of 23.2%. While participation is recovering, it has not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, the nature of volunteering is shifting. Long-term, consistent engagement is declining, and the traditional model of the “super volunteer” is becoming increasingly rare, making routine roles harder for nonprofits to sustain (Johnson Center).
Charitable giving is becoming increasingly concentrated. Fewer households are participating, with just under half of U.S. households giving in recent years, down significantly from previous decades. At the same time, total giving remains high, and individuals still account for roughly two-thirds of all charitable contributions, indicating that those who continue to give are contributing more and concentrating philanthropic support among a smaller group of donors (GivingUSA).
Small nonprofits and organizations in rural or suburban communities often rely on volunteers and board members to build relationships, strengthen community connections, and support fundraising. As new generations step into civic life, and others step back, organizations are forced to rethink what volunteer participation looks like today or face a diminishing volunteer force.
Picture a small organization with only a few full-time staff members and no dedicated fundraiser. There is a working Board that leans on people to carry many significant pieces of the organization’s operations. The Board gathers to discuss urgent operational matters, including fundraising for the months ahead. Someone says:
“We’ll need everyone to help with fundraising.”
Ideas begin to emerge. People start to imagine what fundraising could look like in a way that feels more natural, like hosting a small gathering, making a coffee introduction, or inviting someone to experience a program firsthand.
The drive is there. People care deeply about the mission. But many lack the time, clarity, or confidence to follow through alongside their other significant board and volunteer responsibilities.
And when the organization tries to recruit new board members or volunteers? Prospective volunteers are uninterested or unable to take on “part-time job” equivalent volunteer fundraising roles.
This is the new reality: It’s no longer about getting everyone on your Board or committee to fundraise. It’s about designing fundraising roles people can say yes to.
Community Centric Fundraising
This shift aligns with broader changes in the field, including Community Centric Fundraising (CCF). CCF centers community relationships and shared responsibility. Instead of focusing on financial transactions, it invites organizations to recognize the many ways people invest in a mission.
In practice, that means:
Making an introduction is fundraising
Sharing a story is fundraising
Hosting a conversation is fundraising
Offering expertise or lived experience is fundraising
Research highlighted by the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy notes that organizations exploring CCF are often rethinking long-standing assumptions about who participates in fundraising and how that participation looks.
For boards and volunteers, this shift opens the door to a broader understanding of contribution. Fundraising can be less about assigning a single task and more about inviting people to participate in ways that reflect their strengths, relationships, and connection to the community.
Rethinking Roles
A helpful way to organize this work is around the core activities of fundraising:
Cultivation (building relationships)
Solicitation (inviting support)
Stewardship (thanking and deepening connection)
Not every board member or volunteer needs to do all three. Fundraising can become a shared system with this approach, not an individual burden.
Avoiding Burnout Through Shared Responsibility
In many small communities and small organizations, the same people show up again and again. Over time, that leads to burnout.
Organizations are responding by:
Breaking fundraising into smaller, defined roles tailored to interests, skills, and available time.
Creating outreach or relationship teams so volunteers can share the responsibility with Board and staff to build relationships, even if they can only manage a few people at a time
This evolves the old volunteer model from everyone does everything to everyone does something.
A New Kind of Yes
How can we move more people who support our organization to a “Yes, sign me up for fundraising!” attitude:
1) Redefine What Counts as Fundraising
Start by naming a broader set of activities that are ways Board and volunteers can participate in fundraising, including:
Making introductions
Hosting small gatherings
Sharing stories of change
Thanking donors
Inviting others to events
2) Create a Menu of Roles
Instead of a blanket fundraising job description for Board and committees, offer options and let Board and volunteers share where there interests, experience, and availability fit:
Connector: Introduces new people
Host: Gathers small groups
Ambassador: Shares stories publicly
Steward: Thanks and follows up with donors
Advisor: Contributes expertise or strategy
3) Match Roles to Capacity
Have individual conversations:
How much time do you realistically have?
What kinds of interactions energize you?
Who are you naturally connected to?
With this approach, the conversation changes when we return to that earlier board meeting example. Instead of a vague expectation that “everyone fundraises,” people step into specific roles:
Someone offers to introduce the organization to a new supporter.
Another offers to lead a tour to see the work up close.
Someone else volunteers to help thank donors and share stories of impact.
What has changed is not so much the commitment to show up, but instead the expectation that everyone must do it all. In its place is a more flexible approach, where people contribute through their strengths, relationships, and the time they are able to give. This is something people can say yes to.
Citations
Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy
What Does the Future of Volunteering Look Like?
Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy
11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2025
Giving USA Foundation
Giving USA 2024: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2023
Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy.
Q&A with the Authors of the New Report: Adopting Community-Centric Fundraising.
Community-Centric Fundraising
Community-Centric Fundraising Principles
Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
Philanthropy Panel Study
This blog post was written by Cloudbreak Vice President and Campaign Practice Director Julie Bianchi. Learn more about Julie here.
About Cloudbreak
Cloudbreak is a woman-owned, woman-led collective of 20+ consultants with expertise in grants, campaigns, and annual fundraising and communications. We exist to help nonprofits move forward with clarity, calm, and steady action, no matter the size of their team or the complexity of their goals.
Our collaborative structure allows us to connect organizations with the right support at the right time, ensuring leaders feel equipped rather than overextended. We often work with small organizations, offering practical, right-sized strategies to help them grow.
At the heart of our work is a simple goal: making fundraising feel less daunting and more sustainable. By tailoring our strategies to your capacity and resources, we aim to help organizations strengthen their fundraising with confidence and clarity.
Learn more about Cloudbreak's services here.
Comments