Podcast: How to Manage Rogue Board Members During a Capital Campaign

Season 4, Episode 43

In this episode, Amy Eisenstein and Andrea Kihlstedt tackle a common challenge: well-meaning board members whose ideas can derail a campaign. From insisting on fundraising galas to asking for gifts too early—or too small—board members often act with good intentions but without a clear understanding of how campaigns actually work.

This episode also explores why compassion and curiosity matter when redirecting board members—and how a calm, strategic approach can keep your campaign focused, your team unified, and your donors confident.

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Andrea Kihlstedt:
Do you have incredibly well-meaning board members who come up with cockamamie ideas that are simply not going to work, but you can’t head them off at the pass? If so, today is your episode.

Amy Eisenstein:
Hi, I’m Amy Eisenstein. I’m here with my colleague and co-founder, Andrea Kihlstedt, and today we’re going to be talking about rogue board members and how they can lead your campaign astray.

Rogue Board Members that Lead Capital Campaigns Astray

Andrea, first we’re going to start out with some examples, we hear about them all the time, of board members coming up with ideas or insisting on things that really take a campaign off track. So what’s one example of something that a board member came up with or is very insistent on that just isn’t right?

Andrea Kihlstedt:
You know Amy, I think many campaigns have this experience where the development director, executive director, consultant, they’ve been working on a campaign plan and one of their strongest, their loudest board members comes into their office and says:

“I’ve had a great idea. The way we’re going to raise the rest of this money is by having another event.”

You know, and we know, your consultant knows that that’s not the way to raise the money for your campaign until the very, very, very end. But when you have a board member who knows fundraising events, who knows galas, who loves galas, who loves house parties, and that that’s what they know, it’s breathtaking and hard to turn them away.

And this happens for many organizations and many campaigns, chances are it’s happened to you. You’re probably thinking about a board member in your organization that is going to want to have a campaign, a golf tournament, and is going to want to have something like that to raise the money for your campaign and what are you going to do?

Amy Eisenstein:
Well, that’s so interesting. We’ll get to what to do in a couple minutes.

Some Examples of Rogue Board Member Thinking

Let’s talk about some more examples, but I just heard of an organization, they didn’t even hire a consultant — board members just insisted their campaign was going to be a big gala and they were going to raise $10 million and they were going to kick it off at a big gala. I heard that that happened. And of course, they haven’t raised any more money than a few ticket sales, so seriously problematic. It can happen before you get started, it can happen once you’re working with a campaign consultant.

But one example I want to bring up is a board member who goes rogue and often we hear about board members that are laissez-faire and really not engaged in the campaign process, but then some of these board members are ready to ask too soon. To me, this is a issue when you have an eager board member who’s just ready to start raising money.

The other day I talked to an organization and the board member went out and asked their friend for $10,000 and they thought they were doing a great job and being so helpful. Well, this person, it turns out, this donor might’ve been a lead donor to the campaign, and they needed to be asked for $250,000, not $10,000. And so by the board member not paying attention to the plan, slowing down listening, they just went rogue, they just asked their friend for money, but it really did a lot of damage to the campaign because now they have to go back and really cultivate this person to ask for a quarter a million or more.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
The way that often happens, Amy, is that a board member will be talking to the development director or the campaign manager, for example, and we’ll say, “Hey, I’m going to a party on Friday night and I’m going to see Nick Smith. I’ll talk to him,” right?

Well, lo and behold, he goes to the party, he pulls him off to the side and says, “Hey, Nick, I’m on the board of this organization, and won’t you give a little?”

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, “Won’t you give a gift?”

Andrea Kihlstedt:
It’s like, “Oh, no.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. What’s another example of when a board member goes rogue?

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Let’s see. A recent example that I heard about was a board member who had been a long-time board member who knew all of the board members and had some, seemed to have experience in fundraising, and she went to the campaign manager and said, “Listen, I would be happy to take over the solicitation of the board.”

And the campaign manager said, “Oh, Sally, that would be fantastic,” and they talked about it a little, but they didn’t talk about it enough because what Sally did was to write a letter to every board member. It was a very general letter asking them each to contribute to the campaign, including a pledge form, and that’s not the way you wanted to solicit your board members as you get ready for a campaign.

Now, Sally was well-intended, as are all of these rogue board members. She wanted to help, she thought this was the way to do it. She thought it was a great idea, but instead of collectively raising a million dollars from the board, she brought a paltry amount of money from these letters.

Amy Eisenstein:
Right, the minimum.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Minimum, right? Because she didn’t specify an amount for each member, she didn’t go and talk to them individually. She didn’t have a plan as she was going to do that, and the campaign manager was somehow afraid to change her course. She intimidated the campaign manager, which was a problem.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, that is a problem, especially when the board member who wants to do whatever it is, have an event, solicit the board, ask their friend, is a wealthy and influential person themselves, and you’re counting on a big campaign gift from them. And so having their help seems critical, but then they do more harm than good.

Another example is when a board member, or many board members, insist that the goal should be higher or lower, and there’s not good rationale or data behind the decision, they just either feel that you can raise a lot more or should be able to raise a lot more, or they’re terrified and they feel that you can’t raise that amount and have to really, really scale back.

And so board members really can lead organizations and campaigns astray when they insist that you must raise $25 million, or, oh my gosh, you can’t possibly raise $2 million. And there’s no basis except for their gut instinct on why that is, so that’s seriously problematic, and you can’t let board members do that.

A Board Member Insists the Goal Should be Much Higher

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Amy, a related one, and one which you and I know very, very well, is the board member that thinks the goal should be much higher. Now, why do they think the goal should be much higher? Because they’re convinced that Oprah or Bill Gates or someone they don’t yet know, but who is vastly wealthy is going to ride in and give a huge amount of money to the campaign.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
This is what we call magical thinking.

Amy Eisenstein:
Right.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
And again, these board members are so well-intended, they so want to be helpful. They just aren’t fundraisers, they don’t understand how campaigns work. Now, what are the solutions, Amy? What are things people might do?

Amy Eisenstein:
Let me just say one more that will lead into that.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Okay. We have no end of examples.

Amy Eisenstein:
I know. I just want to give one more example, and that’s when a board member is very insistent that the staff can do it without any additional help or resources. They don’t need campaign expertise, they don’t need a consultant. They don’t need to hire administrative support or other help that the existing current staff just needs to do it. And that, of course is seriously problematic too, and we see organizations run into trouble and getting stuck and burning out their staff. The list goes on and on.

Educate Board Members: How Campaigns Really Work

Okay, so now, how should staff or board members who want to wrangle their fellow board members actually help manage rogue board members or keep the campaign on the straight and narrow?

So one example I want to give, one way to me, one of the ways is to interview campaign consultants. So if you haven’t yet hired campaign expertise, you can say to the board member, “You know what? We have so many ideas and we’re not sure as a team where to go that we should talk to three campaign consultants and ask them how they would help us and what they would advise.”

Now, ultimately, we can either hire them or not hire them, but let’s just get some expertise, and insist that your rogue board members come. There’s no skin off your back. It’s a few hours of time to talk to a handful of campaign experts and say, “We’re thinking about this, we’re thinking about that. What do you think?” And you’re going to get wonderful free advice and help this board member here, hopefully that they shouldn’t be going off in whatever direction they’re going off. So that’s one idea. How else can we handle them?

Andrea Kihlstedt:
So if there has been a really successful campaign in your community, and if there is a board chair, for example, or a campaign chair that you know knows and understands how this business works, you can get that person to come and talk to your board and get the board to ask questions.

Now, you have to be pretty sure that the person from the other organization actually knows what they’re talking about, right? Before you do that, because you don’t want them to be led astray, but there’s nothing like hearing good information from peers.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
And that makes it, as the board, you can have a board education process as the board is educating itself, inviting people in an executive director, a board chair, a campaign chair from another successful organization is often a very good way to get people to learn.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, I love that. All right. And another way is, of course, if you have a campaign expert, if you’re using a campaign consultant, having them sit down one-on-one, taking that board member aside and say:

“Listen, this is deviating from the plan. What’s going on here? Can we go back to the plan? Tell me more about what you’re thinking. Let’s talk this through.”

I mean honestly, that’s what a good campaign consultant will help you do is wrangle board members, stick to the plan, get back on track, and provide expertise. So to me, the number one way to think about managing your board members is leaning on your outside expertise. That’s what good campaign consultants can do is provide that gravitas, that direction, that sounding board.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yeah, that’s one of the reasons that most organizations really should have an outside campaign consultant, that outside experts have a voice and they’re listened to and heard ways that people on the inside aren’t. And that can happen in two ways:

One, your consultant can actually give training programs to your board and to your staff about how campaigns work, why they work that way, how board members can help. They can answer questions to alleviate board concerns so that it all starts to make sense for the board members, and that will head off at the past board members or may head off at the past board members who have cockamamie ideas.

Then of course, they can also help, as Amy said, with one-on-one conversations. And sometimes, it’s very hard for an executive director or development director to have frank conversations with board members, but a campaign consultant can do that, can say:

“Listen, I’d really like to sit down with you and talk about your concerns and talk about why we’re designing this campaign the way we are and answer your questions and see if I can be helpful in giving you the best advice so that you can be most helpful for your organization.”

And that’s a wonderful quiet behind the scenes way for consultants to function.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, we have a wonderful board members guide to capital campaigns that’s a fabulous resource on our website. If you have a rogue board member, or actually I would give this to every member of the board, you can head over to capitalcampaignpro.com and in our resources section of the website, you can look for the Board Member’s Guide to Capital Campaigns and just download it. And it’s a quick read, but I think it’s really comprehensive and really thorough, and it will help you. You can point back to it and say, “Hey, listen, this idea, let’s look in this Board Member’s Guide,” so I would encourage you to think about that.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Amy, I have just one more thought to finish this off. It’s very easy to get frustrated with these board members who come in with their own ideas and seem to derail all the work and the effort that you’re putting into this campaign. It just seems like they’re not listening or they’re going off in a direction you know is wrong. And often, sometimes their voices are very strong.

And I just want to remind you that they are all well-meaning, that they want to be helpful, that they’re not trying to be difficult, they’re not trying to derail your campaign, and you always need to remember that as you talk to them. They’re not fools, they just don’t know, and your job is to find ways to help them know and to make them feel like they are your partners in making this campaign successful, not that they’re wrong and foolish and stupid. You have to be careful how you handle it.

Amy Eisenstein:
I mean, one good way always is to come at it with compassion and curiosity and say:

“Joe, I noticed you really are pushing for this golf event or for us not to use a consultant. Let’s get a cup of coffee and you can tell me about that and where that’s coming from and why you feel so strongly about it, and what if we looked at it a different way?”

I would get curious and ask questions and be compassionate and see if you can model some good behavior and find out what’s underneath it and see how you can come to resolution, but not at a meeting, not in a group, one-on-one, and it’s an opportunity to build that relationship.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
You really never want to embarrass a board member in a group, so be aware of when you need to talk to people individually. You don’t want to make them wrong in front of their peers.

Amy Eisenstein:
Excellent. All right, so the last, we’re going to offer to talk to all of your board members, every listener to this podcast. You have a free invitation to visit capitalcampaignpro.com, and to sign up with your leadership team, with your key board members, and talk to one of our experts about, and no expectations, no charge, just come talk to us. We’re happy to help. And if we can, if we can help you on your campaign long-term, obviously we would love to do that as well.

So thanks for joining us, thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.