Are Your Nonprofit’s Board Members More Skeptical or Curious?

Nonprofit GrowthDevelopment
Written By Sherry Quam Taylor
Image of a boardroom representing how nonprofit board members need to ask themselves if they are more skeptical or curious.

This blog is directed to your Board Members. Because what I'd LOVE to tell them is that there's a BIG difference between curious and skeptical. 

And you’ve got to get it right.

Let’s lead with the positive. Curious looks like…

“Cool idea. What resources would you need to do that?”

“I haven’t ever thought about that. What do you think is best for the organization?”

“Sounds like you need help. Is there additional training you need to accomplish that?”

☝️ And, can I be frank? I RARELY hear this tone of curiosity from Board Members. 

What do I typically hear? Skepticism…

“I don’t know how we’d ever have the money to do X. Our donors are already asked too often.”

“I don’t think you have the capacity to take on anything new.”

“Organizations like ours don’t grow more than 3-5% each year anyhow.”

“I hate consultants. They never help anyway.”

“We really have to decide if we even want to grow.”

Do you know what doesn’t add up? Too often that skepticism is sitting on a new Strategic Plan that REQUIRES growth, new skills, new donors, gen-ops dollars, consultants to help build skill-sets, and multi-year revenue plans. Too often that skepticism is sitting on a 20-year organization that isn't really growing and never has the dollars to do what they dream of doing.

You can’t have it both ways.

Board Members: Curiosity is the path to growing your organization. If your ED is asking for help, new skills, more resources, or high level training. Please listen with curiosity vs. skepticism.

Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:

👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I share insider info daily — the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and diversifying revenue.

🍎 Grab FREE Guides + White Papers — download robust resources you can use to push against the sector’s misconceptions, equip your board, and shift your team into High-ROI fundraising.

📈 Work with me to diversify revenue & secure the gen-ops gifts you need to grow. If you’re a business-minded nonprofit CEO with big growth plans but need to make charitable revenue from investment-level donors a bigger part of your budget, you can apply to work with me here.

Sherry Quam Taylor

Sherry Quam Taylor works with business-minded Nonprofit CEOs whose Strategic Plans require expansive budgets and larger amounts of general-operating revenue for growth. To become investment-level ready, Sherry helps leaders see their revenue potential and helps them see what may be blocking donors from giving in this way. Sherry’s clients know how to attract larger donors by solving the funding challenges at the root of the issue.

As a result of learning her methodology, Sherry’s clients become sustainable, diversify revenue, and know how to add significant amounts gen-ops revenue to their budgets. But mostly, their development departments and board have transformed into high-ROI revenue generators – aligning their hours with relational dollars and set free from the limitations of transactional fundraising.

Sherry attributes the success of her business to her passion for modeling radical confidence to the future CEOs in her house - her two college-aged daughters.

https://www.QuamTaylor.com
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