Having a fundraiser on the board of trustees is critical to driving the growth of income at any organisation, says Nina Saffuri.
Speaking at a session at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands yesterday, Nina Saffuri, director of fundraising at War Child, said that having someone with fundraising experience on the board of trustees was critical for organisations looking to grow.
Outlining her experience when she first joined War Child, Saffuri said that when she arrived at the organisation there was no real buy-in to fundraising in either the senior management team, or on the trustee board. As the then deputy director of fundraising, Saffuri said she also had no personal input in the senior management team.
Having been given a brief to expand the organisation’s unrestricted income, Saffuri said she immediately spoke to the chief executive and called for a fundraiser to be appointed to the board of trustees. This, she said, was one of the main factors behind War Child more than doubling its income in the last four years.
“My top tip: if you don’t have someone who’s a fundraising expert on your board then push for that to happen. It was really helpful for me” said Saffuri.
“When I first joined there was no fundraising voice on the senior management team, and there was no fundraising voice on the board. That was one of the major challenges I had because I was not able to influence decisions being made at a senior level.
“One of the first things that I did was to work with my chief executive to get a fundraiser onto the board, who could be a voice to help me and be a voice and help me to influence the rest of the board for that initial investment”.
Made fundraising more visible
Saffuri said that the appointment of a fundraiser to the board made fundraising more visible within the organisation, and meant that she felt she had the implicit backing of the board and senior management team to make the decisions that were necessary to grow.
“In order to grow you need investment in activity and you need investment in people. Persuading and influencing upwards will get you the credibility that the team need to believe in you and that will inspire them”.
Saffuri also said that fundraisers should “marry your head of finance”, because “if you start talking to your finance team and they understand the rigour which goes into fundraising numbers they’ll find you credible and it’ll be easier for you to negotiate at SMT and investment levels”.
Since Saffuri joined War Child in 2011, War Child’s income has grown from £3.6m to £14m.
