The Influential Nonprofit: Episode 136: Sean Kosofsky: EDs, Boards, and the Gift of Fundraising
Sean Kosofsky is the Nonprofit Fixer! He is a coach, consultant, trainer, and strategic advisor. For the past 30+ years, he has helped causes, campaigns, and candidates raise millions of dollars and transformed nonprofit organizations and leaders. He has served in a wide variety of roles in nonprofits, including policy, communications, development, grassroots organizing, direct service, board leadership, and five stints as an executive director. He is an author and the owner of Mind the Gap Consulting, which offers coaching and consulting services for executive directors, boards, and fundraisers, as well as a suite of online training courses.
Unless the executive director is clumsy at pitching or closing the deal, they should be a part of every major gift solicitation. The team can set appointments but the executive director must be the one closing the deal.
Fundraising is a partnership that will help create the world that the doer and the donor want to see. It’s an incredibly generous act to give someone an opportunity to be part of the change and the movement.
When we decide for others whether they can donate to our cause or not, then we’ve taken away their power to decide. We become both the buyer and the seller.
It’s better to do three things well than twenty things poorly. Some of the organization’s leadership may respond to being challenged to fundraise by leaving while others will step up their game. If challenging the leadership means that the organization will have a smaller team, then it is worth it.
The executive director is ultimately the top fundraiser in the organization. Make yourself available, close those deals, you know, making sure that you're part of the ask, and really creating the conditions for fundraising success.
If you see fundraising as a necessary evil, asking someone for a favor, or as a burden, you're not going to enjoy doing it. It is an incredibly generous act to invite someone to fund and create the movement and the world that they want to see.
The board owns the nonprofit. And all owners of all corporations, including not-for-profit corporations are responsible for revenue. Period. The board owns the corporation, all owners are responsible for revenue.
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