Integrating Advancement – Why Boards and Governors Need to be More Engaged in Fundraising

Author: Colin McCallum, Cairney Partner

At Cairney & Company we work with our clients to help them build growing and sustainable development and advancement programmes and supporting cultures. We believe strongly in continuously learning and challenging ourselves and wish to make a contribution to a sector that we are passionate about. In 2018 we launched the “Cairney Conversations” dinners, bringing together a range of people from diverse backgrounds to share their insights and debate, and dialogue over topics that are of great sectoral relevance. 

During our first Conversation dinner, colleagues from independent schools, universities, cultural bodies and charities discussed the importance of good governance and how to achieve it. The evening was rich with content and dialogue, so much so, that this is the second article we have penned. Click here to read the inaugural article.

Increasingly, donors and funders want to know about the governance of those organisations that they support… and we know why. Examples in recent years of the negative impact of poor governance have been well documented. Donors want to have confidence that their support will have impact and that they are investing in organisations with a clear strategy and focus on mission. It is self-evident that those organisations, that have become ‘fundraising institutions’, as opposed to ‘institutions that fundraise’ are more successful over time. The boards of fundraising institutions are deeply engaged in the process. 

According to the Charity Governance Code, ‘we owe it to our beneficiaries, stakeholders and supporters to demonstrate exemplary leadership and governance.’ 

Do Donors Care? 

Increasingly, donors and grant-funders are asking more searching questions about the organisations they support and the impact that they make. A more strategic approach is being taken towards giving. Therefore, how linked fundraising is, and fundraisers are, to strategy and policy-making really does matter. 

One of Scotland’s leading grant-making trusts, The Robertson Trust, considers that demonstrating good governance is a consideration for them.  

‘… indicators of good governance include openness and transparency with your internal policies, strong financial controls and fair decision-making processes. It also includes access to appropriate training and support for your staff and volunteers, and the effective management of relationships with partners and stakeholders.’ 

In the era that has followed since the publication of the Woolf Report into the London School of Economics’ links with Libya and lessons to be learned, it is important to consider the roles of boards in the fundraising process. The Woolf Report made a number of recommendations which should concern fundraisers as well as governors and which require organisations and their boards to consider what fundraisers are doing and how they go about the business of raising funds.

Codes and written policies must be in place and regularly reviewed, which deal with ethics and reputational risk, and these codes should apply across the organisation. There should also be a separate policy on donations, setting out the approach to due diligence on proposed gifts and clear lines of responsibility. 

The institution should have written guidelines on the appropriate relationship between it and the donor. This all suggests a more integrated approach to fundraising throughout an institution. 

It has been said many times that fundraising is the servant of institutional strategy: it does not drive it. Alex Reedijk, General Director of Scottish Opera has said that ‘fundraising makes the machine go faster.’ For this to succeed, fundraising and fundraisers, need to understand the boards’ thinking, the overall institutional strategy and how philanthropy can best help to achieve the stated goals – to make the machine go faster. This integrated methodology can be a challenge for boards, requiring a more considered and proactive approach to planning development activity as a strategically important topic for consideration by the board.  

However, Karen Goodman, Director of Development at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, added a note of caution citing that ‘the structures we put in place to oversee, support and direct fundraising can be overly- complex. If the main board has a key role in ensuring that strategy, policies, systems, gift receiving, and goals are appropriate and robust, then any fundraising or campaign board should clearly be charged with working with the professional team to engage with supporters to actively seek support. Reporting lines need to be straightforward.’ 

A good place to start is for each board member to give and to experience being a donor to their charity, university, school, etc. Another is to ensure that the board regularly reviews progress in fundraising, considers the fundraising programme and strategy and that appropriate governance procedures are in place; at least those that the Woolf report has highlighted.  

Increasingly we see a trend in UK higher education for the most senior officer in development to have a seat at the ’top table’ of the institutions’ management structure. This follows a long tradition in North America of the ‘Vice-President for Advancement’ role. As philanthropy grows in scale, but also in importance, this trend is likely to continue. Whatever the structure and reporting lines, communication that is clear and regular with involvement in planning and activity including the board and other leaders, has a clear impact on success. The role of leaders, including governors, in promoting the difference that our institutions make in the world – the articulation of an outstanding case for support – is important, but too often governors are not engaged actively and do not see it as part of their role. This is limiting growth and meaningful engagement with supporters. 

Dame Joan Stringer said, ‘In charities we feel guilty about involving the board.’ Perhaps in considering the growth of philanthropy, we need to change that. 

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