The Land Needs You to Grow

Over the last six years I've had the opportunity to work with dozens of organizations that formed to support a public land, mostly national wildlife refuges. Both as a consultant and as a volunteer, I've presented workshops, developed materials, facilitated planning, and coached board members one-on-one. It's always a tremendous privilege and great fun sharing what I know about building nonprofit organizations with these wonderful groups who are doing such important work.

One bit of criticism that gets back to me from time to time is "Cathy doesn't understand that not all Friends groups can raise money, hire staff, and take on more. She talks like she thinks they can all do it when they can't." The critics say the small groups can't grow because they are in rural areas or they just don't need to do more.

Well, then, let me be clear: I do think all groups can grow stronger, even rural ones. I do think almost all groups can raise more money if they apply tried-and-true methods. And I do think many more groups could hire staff. Further, I believe that if a public lands group CAN do those things, they SHOULD do those things. The threats to our parks, forests, refuges, and other public lands are quite real: development pressures, drilling, lack of funding, regular waiving of environmental protection laws, full-blown declassification of wilderness and monument lands. Our public lands need strong advocates. This is no time for citizen support groups to be content with their pet projects, to remain weak because they think they can't do better. They can do more - and we need them to. The land (and water and air and flora and fauna) needs them to.

I have identified three primary barriers to growth, all based in common misconceptions:

Wrong People on the Board. The role of the board of directors is very different from the role of program volunteers. Different skill sets are needed. Asking a great tour guide or front desk volunteer to join the board based on their reliability as a volunteer is like hiring a doctor based on what a terrific lawyer she is. Board members should be sought and recruited for their willingness and ability to do what a board does (or should do.) They must be passionate about the land, of course, but they should also have a demonstrated interest in using their skill in fundraising, financial management, long-range planning, policy writing, overseeing staff, leading group processes, etc. to support the organization. If people have both sets of skills, great, but board members must be focused on the responsibilities that belong to the board. If current board members of a too-small organization are not willing to switch gears, a serious effort at recruiting newcomers must be undertaken. (Please visit my website for more information about how to use a board governance self-assessment to jump start the conversation in your boardroom. www.TheBoardDoctor.org)

Fear of Fundraising. Consultants like me hear this one every day. People are happy to serve on the board, but they will. not. ask. for. money. So, let's spin back some myths. 1) 90% of fundraising does not involve actually making an ask. Effective fundraising requires proper cultivation of potential donors, enthusiastically telling the story of the organization's impact. It also involves proper stewardship of donors - thanking people and letting them know how their donation made a difference. Everyone on the board can do something. 2) People are not born good at fundraising - it is a skill like any other that can be taught and learned. Nonprofit support centers all over the country offer training everyday, the interwebs are full of high quality material, and professional fundraisers are available to help. Some people find they really like fundraising once they try it. No member of any board should get a pass. It takes money to raise money and failing to invest in effective fundraising keeps the organization in an unsustainable starvation cycle.

Lack of Vision on the Part of the Land Managers. My all-time favorite vision statement was given by a Refuge Manager as he was cutting the ribbon on a new education center built with money raised by the Friends group. "Let's wear the hinges off this door," he said. Yes! Let's bring in school groups, scouting groups, garden clubs, university students, and anybody else we can find. Let's do the work of outreach, raise money for school transportation, recruit the volunteer instructors, and develop the materials. This was a manager who knew exactly what he needed from his Friends group next. Could they do it as an all-volunteer group? Maybe, but most likely they would need to hire a staff person to do the job well. Today's land managers just don't have enough people to do all that needs to be done. They need their Friends to take on some of the load. Those who are clear with their Friends about what they need will get more.

Again, I am one who believes it is no longer OK to just get along well enough. Our public land managers need more financial assistance, more advocacy, more self-reliance for running programs, whether those be in outreach, education, habitat restoration, or something else. They need our citizen support groups to step up and do more, give more, take on more. They need us to use our collective voices to advocate for full funding and to stop the destruction of public lands. Below is a picture of a wildlife refuge being plowed under for border wall construction. If that is OK with you, go ahead and stay small, run your favorite programs locally, and keep living hand to mouth. But if, like me, this is not acceptable to you then the place to start is with building the capacity of your own organization. Put the board in governance mode, learn to raise money effectively, and hire a staff person to run the programs and take care of the administrative stuff. If that kind of work is not your thing, recruit others to take it on. As always, I would be glad to help!