White Paper - The Passive Board Is Obsolete

Only 46% of nonprofit board members rate their own board's fundraising performance as “good” or better, according to BoardSource's Leading with Intent research — meaning most board members, by their own honest assessment, do not believe their board is doing this part of its job well. At the same time, the financial pressure making fundraising governance urgent has intensified sharply: the nonprofit sector has lost at least 23,000 documented full-time jobs since federal funding cuts began rippling through the sector, and 65% of organizations report active staffing shortages. Boards can no longer treat fundraising as a staff function they periodically review — the funding environment has made that posture a governance failure, not a neutral choice.