Engine of Impact
Board Giving Tool

Both as a matter of funding and as a matter of board governance, nonprofit organizations routinely struggle to maximize the contributions—financial and otherwise—of people who serve on their boards of directors. Bill Meehan and Kim Jonker raise this point in their book, Engine of Impact: Essentials of Strategic Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector. They write: “A cardinal principle of fund raising is to start with your board, the best resource you have. Every board member has a responsibility to give money and participate in fundraising activities, but many are falling short.”

To help leaders of nonprofit organizations evaluate the level of financial giving and participation in development activities among members of their board, Meehan and Jonker created the Engine of Impact Board Giving Tool. This interactive tool enables users to develop a fact base regarding the current and historical performance of board members in this important aspect of board responsibility. With the tool, users gather and enter several quantitative and qualitative data points, and the result is a set of five slides that together provide an accurate picture of their board’s contribution to funding their organization. (To access the tool, click the button below. The tool will download to your computer as a PowerPoint file.)