The Board: Starring Role in Stewardship

5 Areas where Board Members can Support Stewardship

Part of a Year-Long Special Series on Nurturing Stewardship

1. Board Members as Leaders

Would you give money to a “sketchy” organization? Right, neither would I. Donors look for trustworthiness in organizations they donate to. How well do you think the board does in showing the organization can be trusted with its contributor’s resources?

Are board members as leaders clear, responsive, and responsible?

Calm and fair, inspiring?

Board members need to be financial generous themselves. As “chief stewards” of the congregation, people will follow your example. Where are you leading them – to generosity or to parsimony?

Does the board set goals for itself – in the stewardship area?

How are you supporting the annual drive or stewardship team? What resources do you make available to them? How often to you get reports, meet with them, help them navigate a challenge, celebrate their hard work?

2. Key Documents

The key documents of the congregation are the responsibility of the board, although very often the congregation members will vote on things like bylaws amendments and the budget. What do your key documents – bylaws, articles of incorporation/constitution, policies – say about members’ role and expectations for financial stewardship? [Does stewardship appear at all?] What do they say about the boards’, staffs’, and other lay leaders’ roles and expectations in stewardship?

How does the board lead congregational polity (input and votes) to develop the stewardship culture in the congregation?

Where does stewardship fall in the organizational chart; near the top or bottom, on the edge or near the center? If you do not have an organizational chart, picture one knowing how your congregation is supposed to operate.

What about the Nominating Committee? What does the board tell them it needs in board member qualities? Does it include anything about stewardship?

3. Mission Goals or Ends

What are the Ends, missions, visions, goals, and plans – and how is stewardship included in them?

Can you talk about the impacts the congregation is making with its resources? [hint: these plans should help you do that.]

If stewardship does not appear in these plans, how will you account for your ability to achieve them?

4. Board Orientation

Do you give a good orientation to new board members? If so, what is included about stewardship? Do you provide the information needed to be a fiduciary steward? What expectations for board members are laid out?

What does a board being successful with stewardship look like, and how will the board know it is achieving that?

5. Board Members as Implementers

Board members have influence and a strong voice. What you say and do matters; in fact is a major influence over stewardship in the congregation.

How good are you at telling the story of the congregation?

Of your own stewardship?

Do you participate fully – at the governance level and at the operational level (testimonials, writing for the newsletter, asking for commitments, etc).

How good are you opening conversations in church settings about financial commitments and contributions, and what they mean to the congregation?

How good are you at asking for pledges and contributions?

Bottom Line

Board members are the elected fiduciaries of the congregation. That fiduciary duty includes safekeeping, tracking, and allocation of the congregation’s resources. It also includes the gathering of those resources – it starts with gathering or there is no point in the rest of the duties. In many respects, the board is starring in the congregation’s stewardship program. Shine brightly!

Mark Ewert is a stewardship consultant with the Stewardship For Us team. Mark can be reached at mewert@stewardshipforus.com, via the UUA’s Congregational Stewardship Network, (http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml), or through your regional staff. BTW, we do help board with stewardship training – so send a message if you want to know more about that work.

This blog has a new posting no less than once a month. You may find it and more at our website, www.stewardshipforus.com. You are welcome to sign up for stewardship updates at the blog. Comments and discussion are always welcome; share your experiences with us.