Ep. 132: Breaking the Board Barrier: Why Outdated Leadership is Costing You Millions
EPISODE 132
Breaking the Board Barrier: Why Outdated Leadership is Costing You Millions
About the Episode:
Let’s talk about something that’s quietly draining your nonprofit—outdated leadership. You know the kind… the board that plays it safe, resists change, and clings to “what’s always worked” even though it’s clearly not working anymore. And guess what? It’s costing your mission millions. In this episode, we’re calling it out: playing small is the biggest risk you can take. I’ll walk you through why leadership’s fear of innovation is keeping you stuck, why your nonprofit needs to invest in modern fundraising strategies, and how organizations that embrace bold moves are seeing massive results. Plus, I’m sharing a few case studies of nonprofits who ditched the old playbook, leveled up their approach, and unlocked hundreds of thousands in new funding. So, if you’ve ever felt like you’re dragging your board into the future—or worse, getting shut down every time you bring a fresh idea to the table—this episode is for you. It’s time to break the board barrier and start fundraising smarter, faster, and bigger.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The real reason board members resist change (and how to overcome it)
Why playing it safe is actually the biggest risk for your mission
How modern fundraising tools and digital campaigns can 10x your donations
A step-by-step approach to presenting bold ideas (so you get a YES)
The power of influencers & digital ambassadors (and why nonprofits aren’t even asking)
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“The boards are often very disconnected from the reality of actually running an organization.”
“Playing safe is costing you big.”
“Avoiding modern tools is costing you money because there is friction everywhere in your donation experience.”
“The fear is there if you're not bringing in enough donations.”
“Fear doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.”
“Meeting donors beneficiaries, where they are in digital spaces, can significantly impact your visibility, impact, and funding.”
“Take the leap. Give it a shot. Try and not wait for 100% buy-in.”
“Let the ripple effect happen, but you have to be the one to get out of your own way.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Connect with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
-
*Links may be affiliate links which means I may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Christina Edwards 0:08Hey friends, we're going to talk about innovation today and why outdated leadership sort of top down and that resistance to innovation is costing your mission millions. Before I dig in, I want to share. I had a call with a new organization that joined the club recently, and we were talking about their street team and what that would look like. And in 30 minutes, we mapped out like half a dozen campaigns, bringing in the Creator economy influencers and partnering even with big brands, and the pathway to unlock another $200,000
for this particular mission, it was wild, what we were able to come up with in such a short amount of time, and the action steps to implement, totally doable, totally doable. It was like, okay, which campaign Do you want to run? Want to roll with first? Where's the low hanging fruit here? What are the next steps to go create and pitch and develop your street team, which, by the way, very simple. We have an a complete align and amplify framework inside of the purpose and profit club coaching program that goes over that. But it was like, I left so excited. She left so excited. And just like, Oh, can you imagine bringing that to your board, like it's done, and you're like, check out what we created. And all of a sudden there is this buzz about your organization online. And then you back it up with, you know, funding. You back it up with followers. You back it up with social shares. You back it up with new subscribers, new volunteers. You back it up with the impact all over, in person and online for your organization. So I'm so excited for her. I'm so excited that she joined, and it's just going to be such a fun like case study for us to develop together and see how these collabs happened without paying these influencers $1 one of the pieces I really honed in on her and we talked about was, you know, this is an influencer or creator. When they say yes to be a part of your street team, this is them repping you right? So they're like, oh my god, I'm so excited to be a part. I was so excited. You asked me, this is, this is a this is an honor, this is a gift. And how do you create that so very simple. We teach it inside the club, and then I support organizations to build out their street team, to mobilize them to, you know, figure out, where do I find them? Where are the simple yeses? Where are they? Where are the easy yeses? So we walk through that. So all of that first required this particular staffer to be in a position where she could say, here's what I want to do. I hear you. You want us to raise more for them. Visibility is also huge, more than fundraising. So it's like, we really need these this awareness nationally. She's like, I hear you. Here's how we're going to do it. Here's the next step. Now, she didn't show them some best practice from 1990
or even 2000 she's like, here's the forward thinking model that, even with a small staff we can accomplish, and it was joining the club. So that requires leadership, whether it's board members, the executive director, the CEO that leadership to
understand, if you want a different outcome, you have to take your different action. So let's kind of set the stage here, I often see the boards, I love you, but you're often very disconnected to the reality of actually running an organization, very little, very disconnected. You pop in for your quarterly, maybe monthly meetings, couple of emails, and you pop back out, right? And so there is this mindset of like, oh, well, I'm oversight. But yet, in practice, they have no idea what it takes to run and grow a nonprofit. And then there's this dissonance. Most board members come from the for profit sector, which we love, right? We love it. Now, in the for profit sector, there is a culture of investing in tech, investing in talent, investing in new and bold strategies, but then in the nonprofit sector, these same board members are expecting you to make miracles on a shoestring budget, right? Well, don't invest in that tech. It's too expensive. Well, we can't pay our staffer that much, that's too much, right? We got to pay them the minimum, right? So here's what I want to offer. Playing it safe is costing you big so I want you to think about today is that pattern interrupt. It's like you've got a habit going, and we're going to Pattern Interrupt today, so your leadership needs that fire.
and they need to that passion, and that starts with you. You have to present that to them. You have to show them a different, better, newer, stronger way. So it's going to take you to rise up and show them right, and your willingness to challenge the status quo, that's going to be really, really key to moving from this outdated, dated leadership model that is costing you millions and is costing you so much time as the staffer, and actually change this. Okay?
So most boards, most leadership kind of ignore these essential trends that could be driving your organizational growth so much faster. What do I mean? Modern tools, modern fundraising tools, CRMs, modern tools, online that could reduce friction. So this could be automation. This could be digital campaigns, donor engagement platforms. These cost money. Okay, all of these cost money. And there is, they make you money faster, right? And yet, there's this culture of like, well, hang on, there's something that we've already always been on that you know doesn't cost us much, right? Or this one's basically free. So let's just do the free one. Like, you know that technically Excel could be your CRM, right? So for many new organizations, it kind of is, some time it's basically a Google sheet or Excel that technically could be where you keep your donor lists and your email addresses and anything like that. And do you know that, like so could Nordstrom? Nordstrom could say, let's keep all of our customer information in a C, in Google Sheets or Excel instead. And it's, I can't even finish the sentence without laughing, because it's ridiculous. It would be a ridiculous way, because I would call Nordstrom and say, I have a return. And do you know how many Christina Edwards is there would be on that sheet? Do you know how long it would take, and then the bandwidth of doing this, this slow way? But you're like, Yeah, but it's free. It's free. No, I want Nordstrom and every retailer I shop with to have a robust customer management system so I never have to call them. I can just pre, pack and ship my return get what I need when I need it, right? And that saves them time and money, and then I go there and shop with them, because I enjoy the experience. Okay? So the avoidance of these modern tools is costing you money because there is friction everywhere in your donation experience, meaning my litmus test is, can I donate from my couch? Can I donate to your mission right now today, if I'm sitting on my couch, that means I got my phone in my hand. You sent me an email, or I saw your post on Instagram. Can I click the donate button? Or is the is the experience so terrible and so full of friction that I say, forget it? So what is friction? Friction is not mobile friendly, not mobile first. Friction is having to click through too many screens. Friction is having to enter in way too much information or have it not pre populate. Friction is having to go stand, get up and grab my credit card. Friction is trying to remember my paypal login. If that's all you take, those are all friction. Okay, there are better tools out there that can expedite this process. So by the time I get your email, click the donate button, it's 10 seconds. If you need help with those tools, send me a message, and I'll send you my favorite ones. You can also go to splendid atl.com, forward slash tools, there's some favorites there too. Okay,
so I want you to think about, yeah, this is an upfront and sometimes ongoing fee, but they deliver massive ROI. Think about all the christinas of the world who aren't donating because there's so much friction, because you're trying to save three bucks on a transaction. Free. Stop it. Don't, don't do that. So don't have this lens of nickel and diming your growth versus what investments, what smart investments do I want to take today that could help unlock a 10x return. So one would be a digital fundraising tool. One would be a CRM. Sometimes it's skill building, sometimes it's having expert feedback, somebody alongside of you, like a coach or a consultant, who can help you go, Okay, here's feedback before you launch the campaign. Here's feedback during the messy middle of the campaign, right? Those types of investments, worth it, worth it, worth it.
So fear is the root of the resistance here, whether it's your board or your leadership, you've come to them with a great idea.
You've come to them, maybe even wanting to join something like the club. You've come to them saying, I want to run this really amazing campaign, or I'm asking for help, and so I can increase my skill set, learn this method for the organization, so we can raise more right?
Boards fear a few things. One, they fear alienating current donors. Ooh, what will everyone think? Right? If you know, suddenly there's something's different. Suddenly the interface is different. What will they think if there is a $3 charge on their $100 gift? You guys stop it. Stop racing to the bottom for that, right? But there's fear. And this is a big one too. If you're doing something like a social street team, or you're starting a new innovative strategy, there's a big amount of fear there. Of like, what if this doesn't work? Okay? That fear, of like, anytime with email, I think about this with my email course, of like, really pushing the personalization, the authenticity, the true story from the sender, instead of it just being this, like, sterile, generic messaging, right? There's fear around that that feels expansive and scary, because the thought behind it is, what will people think or think about this? Maybe you normally send an email a couple times for a fundraising campaign, and what if you 3x did so instead of sending three emails? What if you sent 10? What would what fear would come up for you, right? And I think of it as the board fear like, what will the board think? What would the executive director think? Oh, people won't like it. What if people unsubscribe? Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, right? But the truth is, the fear is there either way. So the fear is there if you're not bringing in enough donations, think about that fear. How am I going to make meet this campaign goal? How am I going to get my board to help me fundraise? How am I going to get this donor to give again? Right? All those are like fear questions, tight questions around not being able to raise more because you're scared either way. You're scared either way. So it's like the fear of staying in the status quo and having the result you don't want, right? Or the fear of trying something new and just having that feel new and scary. First time you ride a bike, new and scary. Haven't done it before, right? First, first time you do anything, first, second, third time could be public speaking, right? A lot of fear around that 20th time you public speak might feel a little bit easier, right? So I just want to, like, normalize that fear doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Think about this. Think about how much bold brands like Apple or like Spinks were willing to feel fear and do it anyway. We're willing to lean into their their vision, despite that initial resistance, especially from people they worked with. So you think of Apple, and they're like, all right, this is what we're doing. We have this tiny, tiny flip phone, or whatever we were on. No, we're doing this iPhone, and there's not a single button on it. And think about how many people were like, That's a terrible idea. IPhones don't have buttons. Remember, we were used to like those little buttons, like little mini keyboard buttons, before. Think about how many people at the executive level said this is a terrible idea. People want buttons. People will hate this. You've made the phone bigger. People want a small phone they can put in their pocket. How many times did Steve Jobs have to say you're wrong? Watch me right, or I hear you, and we're doing this anyway. Same thing with Spanx, you know, same thing where it's like, everybody's saying this is an idea that's never going to work right, and that's okay that they think it's never going to work right. You need to be so relentlessly committed to your vision, your campaign, your mission, whatever it is you're rolling out, that when somebody presents you like a big old fear sandwich, you're okay, and like, you give it back, you return it back, you don't have to meet their fear with like, oh crap, you're right. This is a terrible idea. We're not going to do it. Starting a street team sounds scary. We're not going to do it. No, starting a street team does sound new and different, and we're totally going to do it because I have the support and the method to make it happen. And I see that it works for organizations like ours, right? And I see that you want us to raise more this year, and there is literally no strategy to do so other than just wish, hope, fingers crossed and like, make more foundation contacts. What does that even mean? Right? Hope, we get grants. No, no. So don't let fear stop you, and do not let the fear that board members or leadership project on you stop you vying for what you want
also want to offer you.
Actually don't need everyone to be like, this is a great idea. You should totally do this. I get that. We all want that like, that feels good when everybody's like, great idea. Go forth. This is the thing. But if you wait for 10 out of 10 people, 10 out of 10 staffers, board members, leadership to tell you, this is a great idea. It is done, dusted, old, tired, worn out. Do you know what I mean, like by now, tick tocks, pretty much in our in our everyday life. There was a time when Star, if you went to your board and said, I think we're going to start a tick tock, or your executive director, they would have been like, what is that? That's not for us. That's weird, terrible idea. And you would have been like, all right. But think about if you're like, you know what? I hear you. I hear you that you're saying you don't know what it is. I do. I know what it is, and I'm taking this tick tock training, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna own this platform for our organization. Watch me. Okay, watch me like if you had that passion, that energy, and then you let it go, like you, you try it, you let it go, and you don't make it going.
Just cut that part the end, then part.
I think about an organization that came to me, the live like blue Foundation, and they came to me with a really large spreadsheet, actually, 10,000 plus names. That's what they were using, and that's historically what the organization was using. And they said, We need a CRM. They got a CRM. Shout out to Bloomerang. They were on. They joined Bloomerang, and then that was, like, their first level of like, okay, just because technically we could keep going with this Google Sheet doesn't mean we should. Should we invest in tech? Yes? Then they said, Okay, this is our cadence of email. This is what our email content sounds like. These are messaging. And they came to me, and we totally revamped the whole thing like we said, Okay, we're doing it in a completely refreshed way. And that refresh meant that I pushed them in two areas. One, I pushed them on story, to get more personal, to get more authentic, to get less sterile. And two, I pushed them on frequency. So I really upped their frequency. And what was wild was even though that there was that fear, of course, what if people subscribe? What will people think? This will? This is not what they're used to, etc. Their open rates went up past 60% okay, 60% now, when they run a campaign, the campaign that followed that they 2x their goal before the end of the day, before the end of the day, because their audience was primed right. Their audience was already very, very warm, very, very engaged, and it made it feel so much easier. So the big takeaway here was breaking away from like safe practices with email, safe practices with marketing and online fundraising and moving into innovation, moving into bolder, consistent communication, made their donor base become highly engaged and take action.
I want to share another case study. There's an organization was looking them up today, and they're a Crisis Text Line, okay, and so what happened was they noticed that national, kind of traditional crisis hotlines weren't reaching younger audiences. Okay, so what did they do? They're like, well, here's the model for the crisis hotline. Maybe we should make ads about it. Maybe we should just keep doing it and hope people use it more like right? What are all the ways we can get people to use this old school way instead? They said we're gonna launch a digital first approach. So they actually offered crisis intervention through text messaging. Then they marketed that to younger generations, using you ready social media and influencers to drive awareness. The results I just looked up 6 million conversations, increased access to mental health support to underserved demographics. So meeting donors beneficiaries, where they are in digital spaces can significantly impact your visibility, can impact your impact, and can impact your funding. So when you look at an old model, whether it's the old model of the program or service, or old model of how you market and fundraise for the program or service, sometimes you have to be willing to sunset something, and that means taking a big old leap. I find I'm never quite ready to take the leap. I just take the leap right, if I wait till I'm ready to take the leap. Then again, it's old, it's tired. Everyone's doing it right. Take the leap. Give it a shot. Try and not. Wait for 100% buy in so.
Yeah. So let's dig into some tactical ways you can kind of break this barrier with leadership. One can be this is almost like step zero. Do you even need permission for this? So for example, if it's a campaign you want to try, if it's a partnership, if it's something, can you just roll with it? If it's sending an extra email a month, you know, there I find there is a culture of too much oversight. If you are a, you know, mid level or higher staffer, shouldn't you just be able to send an email? Shouldn't be available to, you know, create an amazing online campaign. I just want you to go to step zero, which is, am I asking for approval for this because I need it, or am I asking for approval for this because this feels scary, and I want somebody else to tell me it's a good idea, like, kind of check yourself there, because I want you to tell yourself you're it's a good idea first. Okay, so that's step zero. Step one is, should you need approval? Whether it's to join the club, join one of my programs to start an innovative campaign, you've come up with anything right? Pitch a new sponsor. I want you to go to leadership with this. And if you feel, if you hear the resistance, and we need to call out the fear, name the fears holding back leadership from saying yes, and reframe them. Show them the real cost of staying stagnant. So they're like, oh, I don't know this. May you know, whatever their objection is, call it out and say, I hear you. And what is, what's your idea? What's your plan for us to raise another 100k this year?
Then shut up. See what they say. Okay, you want to be it's like going toward instead of going away, I like to think of these meetings as of course, they're not going to be like nodding along in agreement. This is the first time I've ever told them this idea, or this is the most fiery time I've ever told them this idea. I had a call not that long ago with an organization that was a couple million in funding annually. And they expressed to me, Oh, they had such a good idea
in their role to just go all out with a street team idea, okay, and specifically with certain partnerships in their local area. So good. And they basically said, you know, we're not getting buy in from leadership, and they're kind of, they're kind of happy with the status quo, okay? And that was that it was sort of just like, so I don't know what else I can do. And it's like, okay, okay. Pause. What else could you do? What could you do to, like, wake them up. Okay. Why are they happy with the status quo? Why would this help them? So if you had a great idea and you're like, I know we can launch our street team. I know this campaign would be so fun. Here's why it would be so impactful, then I want you to back into it. How does this help the ED do their job? How does this help the board do their job? What's in it for them? What are the benefits? And there are benefits are, could the ED get a raise from this? Could you get a raise from this? Could the board suddenly
realize that, like, crap, they're not hounding us all the time to fundraise? This is amazing because they started this street team, or how, like, I really want you to think about what's in it for them. Why should they say yes, even if they're not the ones who's who are executing on this, they're not the ones who are running with this, they're trusting you too. Same thing with the like email example. What would be the benefit, even if it's scary, to send more emails? What would be in it for them? Right? Couple of thoughts there. So you can always reach out to me if you have your questions on this, but I want you to spend time thinking about that before you go and pitch your board or picture
boss for any idea for any continuing ed support, What's in it for them.
Now in this conversation, bring evidence LIKE, SHARE stats, share case studies, share stories, share this podcast with them. So it's sort of like, so they can see the writing on the wall that like, this is the future of fundraising. They can see it. And the other piece, I would say, is like, tell them now, now is the time to do it, because you don't want to do it in five years when everybody else is doing it. Do you know how easy it is to get a yes now, because it's not over saturated. Creators and influencers are not sitting around having a DM inbox full of nonprofits asking them to become their ambassador. No one's asking them to become their ambassador. They're waiting. They would love it. So talk to them about how the opportunity is now, not in five or 10 years,
you may even be able to like back it into the strategic plan, right? How does it help accomplish this? I.
Now I would expect their objections or responses, so you can kind of pre identify what you would expect to hear from them and be prepared for those for those responses, what you want to say, for example, oh, we don't want to alienate donors. Okay, totally understand. Guess what? I don't want to alienate donors either. I love our donors, right? You guys actually have the same goal. You both agree. We don't want to alienate our donors. We do want to build out a new pipeline of donors, right? Our donor pool isn't growing strong or fast enough, okay, safe strategies are already alienating potential donors who crave authentic, bold campaigns, playing it small limits, who we can inspire. How is it that by choosing to not alienate donors, you actually are alienating the donors who could come kind of a mind bendy one, but think about it. Another objection you might hear is we've never done this before. Okay, yes, you've never, we've, you're right. We've never done this before, and that's exactly why we're stuck. That's exactly why you look at the past four years on our 990 and it's barely increased, because we've never done this before, because we haven't tried something new and something bold. And I want to offer this sort of like tangent response to this, which is sort of like, oh no no, but we've already tried this. No, remember, we have a social media person. We already tried this. No, this is not that. So if we're talking about a street team, I want you to remember we're flipping it on on its head. This isn't about your organization creating a bunch of social content and just hoping people see it. People aren't going to see that when you have a small following, and the algorithm shows about 1%
of your followers your content anyway. This is about getting in front of other people's audiences as a trusted brand ambassador, right? They're your brand ambassador. They are advocating and endorsing your organization. So don't let anyone say, Oh, we already tried that. Yay. Tried that. Okay. What if this doesn't work? What if this doesn't work? Okay? What if it does? Okay? The cost of trying and failing is far less than the cost of doing what you've been doing and staying stagnant. Think about that. Our street team the way we teach it, you actually add new street teamers every time you run a campaign. They are not one and done. These are not, you know, one off positions, transactional positions, transactional ambassadors. Oh, so even if you run your first street team campaign and it you don't hit your goal, it's still a success. Because what happens you raised awareness, you got new donations from new donors that wouldn't have come in your world. Even if you didn't meet your goal, you likely got new followers and new email subscribers. I'm not sure how we could perceive that as a failure, considering the alternative is just talking the same old audience doing the same old thing again and again and again.
And I'll leave you with
what innovating fundraising success could actually create the big viral movement of the Ice Bucket Challenge. $220
million raised for ALS research. Think about it. It put als on the map. If you were like me and had never heard of ALS, you heard about it when a bunch of people were dumping ice water on themselves all over Instagram and Facebook at the time. Think about that. Now, if you sat in a boardroom, or you sat in a meeting with leadership and you pitched them this idea, what do you think they said? I'm sure they said that's crazy. What are you talking about? Dumb idea. Think about all the pushback. Why? What does dumping ice have to do with ALS? I don't get it right. Lot of that pushback, and yet somebody said, and we go and we're trying it, and this is work worth doing, because we have a disease to find a cure for. I love that passion. I love that passion. It's like, let the ripple effect happen, but you have to be the one to get out of your own way. And you have to be the one to let your board or leadership also help GET OUT OF THE WAY too, by showing them what's possible, okay, and by believing in it too. So this isn't just about breaking through with border leadership. It's about really breaking through for your cause. How else do you want to do it, if not for a street team, if not for, you know, ditching outdated, boring storytelling or old school fundraising galas, right? What is your plan? Right? All I see all day, every day, are.
Causes that can't afford to wait, that cannot survive on, like, okay, money that cannot survive on, okay, like crumbs. When you need a flood of donations, you need a flood of donations, you can't take that trickle. And I think it's the trickle that fools you is you think, well, we're doing okay. We're doing okay. We can we're saying afloat. And it feels like that okayness is a sign that it's working. And instead, I want you to view that okayness as like a drop in the bucket. If you had more funding, what would you create? We have organizations that are literally launching programs three years early because they got enough funding to do so in the club, that's what I want for you. And they could have said instead,
you know, we're running we have our program. It's happening. We'll get there. We'll get to that place in three, five years for that second program. Okay, no, this can't wait. Our cause can't wait. So start having these hard, but maybe not so hard conversations with your board and leadership be that catalyst for change, because your cause deserves nothing less than your own fire and passion and advocacy, and it deserves people to advocate for it alongside of you. I will see you next time. As always I'm here if you need me, book a call with me, and if you're like, I'm ready for this. I know I want to work with you, but I'm not sure where to work with you. I'm going to give you a little you know, offer, which is book a call with me. We'll go over the three steps what I do for my sales calls as I go over where I want you to focus. So I listen to what's been, kind of your challenge, where you want to go this year and beyond, and they will give you three steps to focus on this year. So the calls are very, very valuable for action taking and just to orient you. So I like to think of it as like the calls by the end is like you have directions to plug in your GPS. So that's not just me just selling you about a program that I offer. I'm in fact, listening and sharing where I think the next three phases for your organization are all right, I'll see you next time bye.