Talisman Thinking Out Loud

Mission Moment Preparedness

January 6, 2014 at 10:13 am Barbara Talisman, CFRE Leave a comment

In yesterday’s post on Delighting in the Weird, I suggested we create the weird through mission moment preparedness at Board meetings. Mission moment preparedness is all about empowering Board members’ understanding of, engaging in and helping them share the mission – anytime, anywhere, with anyone. The idea is to create and practice scenarios where Board members can get comfortable sharing your mission. I hope we agree mission moments should be a part of every Board meeting – if not you can save some time and stop reading now. 🙂

Start a Board meeting with a mission moment, activity, something about the work of the organization. It focuses attention to the work and away from any personal agendas. How and where we position the moments is as important as the who. See tomorrow’s blog on some more ideas.

Be ready when the time comes to talk about the organization. This is about Interactive weirdness. How many places/people can we connect mission in a a 15 -20 second interation? Role play it, make it fun. Set up scenarios and the goal is how seamlessly (or not) can a Board member or staff member slide in a moment, idea, thought about the organization. For example: At the dry cleaner waiting to pick up/drop off laundry:

Board member to a fellow customer: Come here often?
Customer: Weekly
Board member: Yeah me too, I’m bringing in the linen from Organization special event last night. More than 200 people attended and we raised $100,000 plus a lot of awareness for our work.
Customer: Really?
Board member: Yes, we’ve been in the community more than 100 years and helping seniors and kids is our focus.
Customer: Wow I didn’t know that.
Board member: Yep, well nice talking to you have a great day.

The Great Pin Give Away – preparing to share/show mission – Does your organization have a lapel pin? Something a Board member can wear that identifies them and their relationship to the organization? Hold a contest (honor system) to encourage, empower your Board members to wear their pin everyday for 30 days. (The time it takes to learn a new behavior.) How many people can they tell what the pin means and/or get to ask about it? Better yet, give them a bunch of pins – anyone who asks them about their pin gets to keep it! How many pins can they give away? What was the response? What’s the mission moment share?

Person on the elevator (POTE): What’s that pin for?
Board member: Oh, I serve on the Board of the organization. We help kids learn by connecting them to seniors who need someone to read to them.
POTE:  Wow I didn’t know that.
Board member: Yep been doing it more than 100 years. Thanks for asking. Please take the pin. We have give the pins to whoever asks and ask they pass the info along or pay it forward. Have a great day!
POTE: Thanks you too.

Imagine 10-20 Board members having short conversations like these everyday, around town, to people they know and don’t. They are and can be our best advocates but they need to feel comfortable, at ease with the mission and talking about it. They need to be prepared!

Entry filed under: Board Development, Fundraising, Nonprofit fundraising, Volunteers. Tags: Board fundraising, delighting in the weird, engaging the Board in mission, Fundraising, mission moments, Seth Godin.