Beyond the Ask: Building nonprofit board champions with Michele Walls
6/17/2025
“Board members don’t always have to be fundraisers. That’s not right for every organization. I have said to some boards or board members that, that I’ve worked with, I absolve you from fundraising. If you hate it that much, you don’t want to force somebody to do something they don’t like.
But what the responsibility of every board member is, is to be a good PR person for the organization. That’s everybody’s job. That can turn into fundraising in very subtle ways. When you’re telling people about what’s happening in an organization or what events might be coming up, or when you’re extending invitations, you’re encouraging engagement and that’s the first step in fundraising.”
In episode 125, of Nonprofit Mission: Impact, Carol Hamilton talks with Michele Walls. Michele shares her deep well of experience in nonprofit fundraising, communications, and strategic development. They explore:
the importance of thoughtful relationship-building, patience, and team collaboration in securing sustainable funding.
how fundraising is a team effort and a long game.
how to move from reactive panic to strategic action—even amid uncertainty and funding contractions.
Episode highlights:
🤝 Fundraising is a Team Sport [08:45]
Top fundraising tips:
People give to people—leaders must be visible and engaged.
Fundraising is a shared responsibility.
Relationships take time—there are no shortcuts.
🌱 Cultivating Donors with Care [10:45]
The process of moving a new connection into a meaningful donor relationship. Key steps include follow-up, inviting prospects to experience the mission firsthand, and paying attention to readiness cues before making the ask.
🔍 Assessing Capacity and Readiness [14:15]
From simple Google searches to full wealth screenings, how to evaluate a donor’s giving potential while staying grounded in ethical relationship-building.
💡 Leading Through Uncertainty [16:45]
With funding sources in flux, how to stay calm, stay informed, and deepen relationships with current funders. Direct communication is more important than ever.
🌈 Strategic Diversification [20:45]
Diversify, but do it with intention. Focus on what is working, such as starting with mid-level donors and using board connections. It's not about doing everything—it's about doing the right next thing.
📣 Boards as PR Champions [23:15]
Not every board member needs to be a fundraiser, but every board member should be a storyteller. Sharing the mission builds the foundation for future support.
🧩 What is Fractional Fundraising? [26:45]
Fractional fundraising: part-time support with full-time expertise. From strategy to grant writing to board coaching, filling gaps and building capacity.
🧭 The Question Every Leader Should Ask
[33:15]
“What can I say no to?”
Michele challenges leaders to focus, set boundaries, and recognize that saying no can create space for greater impact.
Guest Bio:
Michele brings two decades of experience in fundraising, communications, and nonprofit management. Having raised over $30 million for small and mid-sized organizations, she guides nonprofits across arts, education, cultural, and social justice sectors towards stability and growth.Through MW Strategies, Michele supports organizations with $100K-$5M budgets,specializing in fundraising and human resources. She develops data-driven strategies and compelling stories that drive success.Michele excels in major gifts, campaigns, and grants, while bringing expertise in organizational development. She guides organizations through critical phases,emphasizing collaboration and revenue maximization.Michele serves on the boards of CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia and theAssociation of Consultants to Nonprofits. A Philadelphia resident, she holds degrees from the University of Delaware and Drexel University, balancing her professional life with interests in running, cooking, and the city's cultural scene.
Important Links and Resources:
The National Council of Nonprofits
Related Episodes:
Episode 118: Holistic communications for nonprofits
Episode 93: Nonprofit fundraising transparency
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Carol Hamilton: My guest today on nonprofit Mission Impact is Michele Walls. We talk about the importance of thoughtful relationship building, patience, and team collaboration in securing sustainable funding.
How fundraising is a team effort and really is a long game. And in the midst of this crisis, how to move from reactive panic to strategic action. Even amid all the uncertainty and the funding contractions that we're experiencing.
I appreciated Michele's point that not every board member has to be a fundraiser. I've heard so much frustration from so many executive directors that say they cannot get their board to engage in fundraising. Too many people think fundraising is all about the task, and that misconception can come on both sides of the equation.
Board members may think that this is what they are saying no to, but there are so many steps that people can take before that to engage more people in the work of the organization and its mission. Thinking of your board members as ambassadors or champions for your organization? Allow more people to contribute in ways that they're more comfortable with.
First, Making some level of personal contribution is definitely a first step. Other ways that board members can serve as champions of your organization include thinking about who in their network might be interested and inviting them in. Hosting an event that is dying to have more people learn more about your organization and inviting them to attend that.
They might participate in thanking campaigns, whether it's by phone calls, personal letters, thank you cards, and how they could share your organization's story, whether simply on social media or through the press, talking about your organization's successes. How are they inviting people in their network to your organizational events and how might they advocate for the mission of the organization with decision makers or policy makers?
And they can also invite people in their network to get involved in volunteering for the organization. This could be individually on a longer term basis, or this might be through A corporation or other business that they're involved with that could show up for a one top one off event. Or in a more periodic fashion.
So these are some of the things that board members can do to support the mission of the organization. And they all lay the groundwork for fundraising efforts, getting people more engaged and connected into the organization, who then might be inspired to contribute to your mission.
Well, welcome Michele. Welcome to Nonprofit Mission Impact.
Michele Walls: Thanks Carol. It's great to be here.
Carol: So I'd like to start every conversation with what drew you to the work that you do. What would you describe as your why or your motivation?
Michele: Hmm. Well, I I like to think that everything I've ever, I. Succeeded at in life. I've done it through writing and communications. So oh gosh, over 20 years ago now, I was going to school at Drexel University in their arts administration program. My background is in the arts. I was a music major. But I was always drawn more to the side of.
Business and the back end of things rather than being out in front. So as a little baby arts administrator I decided that I wanted to do either fundraising or marketing. And really help organizations succeed in raising the money and raising the awareness that they need to accomplish their missions.
And I like to stick close to home in the arts and in the humanities and, and in the cultural and creative world. But I've definitely gone farther afield. 'cause the skills are pretty portable. And so that's what sort of threw me in.
Carol: Well, that would, that would warm my oldest sister's heart because she was a her, she ended her career as a professor in an arts administration program. She had started out as a horn player and then moved to management, managed a couple orchestras, and then moved into teaching arts administration.
So it's, it's not, not many people know about that. Field. But it's important because , there's the performers, but you need to have somebody who makes sure that everything gets pulled together so that the performance or the, the show, the art, whatever it is, can, can actually happen. So
Michele: , I like being behind the scenes. I'm an okay musician. I got by clarinet
Carol: Okay.
Michele: But , I was never gonna be the first chair in, in the Philadelphia orchestra, I thought maybe I'll run the Philadelphia orchestra. There's still time. But I, I, these days I don't play much, I really do at all.
But I still, I like being a very informed audience member and I have a real love for the visual arts as well. So I paint a little bit occasionally, but again, I'm not gonna make a million dollars off of, off of my paint.
Carol: I dabble in that as well, and it's really just for my own enjoyment and sharing with a few others, but not, not trying to make it, making it, making it a side hustle or anything. But you mentioned that you, do you help or, or nonprofit organizations with fundraising. So what you would say is like the number one thing that you would want nonprofit leaders to really do. No. To help them improve their fundraising efforts.
Michele: So number one thing,
Carol: top three.
Michele: That's not okay. But I'll say for sure you still have to give to people. So the executive director or CEO really has to be enthusiastic about fundraising. That should still be about half their job and in to support that. I would say that fundraising is a team sport.
So it's not only their job it is the job of everybody else around them, and that is, staff fundraising staff, but also programming staff and financial and other operational staff. The board, potentially other volunteers. So it's not just the one person going out there alone and raising all the millions of dollars.
But really it's, they're sort of the team leader. And getting out there and helping the entire organization. And I would say the third thing is this takes time. you're not gonna go out there, write one grant and two weeks later $50,000 is gonna come rolling in the door. Or, go out and meet one person and have the same thing happen.
This takes time. It takes patience, it takes cultivation and relationships with some knowledge on the backend as to what the right pace is. And sort of a little bit of, armed with a little bit of information about what people's interests and capacity might be.
Carol: . And I, I love all those things so people give to people and not just the one person, the whole team. And that, it really does take time. You don't build that trust or excitement about your organization. Just, I mean, maybe every once in a while there'll be that one time the outlier where. Somebody, has one conversation and gives you a big check, but that's not something to expect on the regular. Right, right. It's very rare. . , . I love what you and I, I think we first, I. Connected through LinkedIn, and I often see your LinkedIn posts where you get very tactical about the nitty gritty of all the different ways that people can do that cultivation that you were talking about.
What are, what are some, some, some things that you would recommend for people to think about in terms of when they've, they've. Just met somebody that looks like there might be some potential that they'd be interested in the organization. What are some of those steps that you would take them from?
Well, we just met them and brought them into the fold of the organization, if you will.
Michele: Ooh, I love this question. So first of all, stay in touch. give them a reason to follow up if they're expressing interest. if you have the opportunity to say, can we talk about this further next week, I'd love to have lunch with you, or I'll be in touch with you too. , have a deeper conversation or even just if it's at an event and you, you have their contact information, follow up with them.
Just, it was so lovely to meet you. It was great to see you. And then go from there. Carry on those deeper conversations. make sure that they're engaged and you understand sort of what motivates them to engage with your mission. Invite them to events, have them. See your mission in action, for performing arts organizations, maybe they already have tickets to something.
Maybe you invite them to a reception that you might be having that same night for. Or, if you're in the visual arts it could be an opening that you're having for your next exhibition. For, any of the, the social sector. It could be, just an event that you're having with kids that you're working with or, it's, it's gotta be appropriate to invite folks to.
But really just have them see your mission in action and keep following up. It's not a one or two step process. It takes a little while. Have them get to know the people who are delivering the programs over time, and there'll be a point. Usually you can tell when somebody is ready to be approached for a gift on the individual level, and they'll sort of give you some signals and maybe say things even that say, how could I support that?
Or What might you need to make that happen depending on where your conversation has gone. And that's when well, we could do this program for another 500 kids if we had $25,000. Is that something that you could support? And sort of leave it there when you ask that question, don't say anything afterwards and they'll respond.
Usually, you wanna have them say yes, but realize that if they don't say yes they might say, well, I can't do that. But I'd love to get you closer to that with $10,000 help. Yes, of course. Thank you so much. Or, no, usually means not right now. So let's leave the question open after you ask it.
And then, see what happens. See how they respond. It's usually, usually pleasant. I've never been in a situation where someone's gotten angry that I've asked them.
Carol: And presumably with a situation like that, you have a sense of whether that person is in the position to donate $10,000 or $25,000. You're not just asking every single person you've done some bad research or you've gotten, what are some ways that folks can, can, can, get a better sense of, of that capacity on the part of the donor?
Michele: Easiest way, the most accessible way is Google. I mean, a lot of people are out there and they, you can either see, maybe they're on a board somewhere or maybe you find their LinkedIn profile and that tells you a little bit more about what they do, how they spend their time, what their profession is.
You may, if folks who know them, you can have a conversation. Sometimes, if you're close enough to them. Peers, you can say, would it be appropriate for us to approach Bob about a gift of this magnitude? And they can give you some insight and oftentimes they can be great connectors.
So there's lots of subtle ways that you can go about sort of finding the publicly available information. Going a little bit deeper with that, you can, particularly when you're sort of an organization gearing up for a campaign or you're trying to expand your fundraising, expand your organization's budget, or you're trying to diversify, which I hope all organizations are trying to do.
Right now in our current climate, you can do something called a wealth screening and you can have, there's many companies out there. I won't plug them. But I, you can sort of find them online and. Talk with them about what that means. And if you've got a database, particularly if you have a database of a few hundred or a few thousand constituents, donors, you can have those folks screened and, it's all publicly available information. It's nothing that, you're, you're not digging into any sort of personal records. It's out there. But it's just these companies that have built aggregators of this information that, you, you have to pay for it, but it's usually fairly affordable and, you, you look at this information, you sort of say, oh, okay, these folks have capacity. Sometimes it'll tell you a little bit about their inclinations if they're supporting other organizations. And, and I just, for anybody who's saying, Ooh, that sounds weird we've probably all been screened at some point.
So it's happened, it happens without us even knowing it. So it's not as invasive as it might sound to people who are unfamiliar with the concept, but it's very, very helpful to understand. where your, your donors are, where your whole donor ecosystem is with their capacity and their interests.
It really can push an organization forward with their fundraising.
Carol: . And you mentioned the challenging situation that we're, we're living in right now. Possible recession on the horizon. Funding and organizations are under threat. I think
Michele: I.
Carol: to kind of, especially in the fundraising mode, move into that panic mode. And yet, you talked about how all of this takes time. You can't rush the process. So what are you advising leaders to do in this particular moment where they may be feeling a little bit of that panic?
Michele: again, even the best of circumstances and the best of economies, this all takes time. And you, you can't panic. You really have to take a deep breath. I, there's been some wonderful information coming out of state nonprofit organizations here in Pennsylvania. We have Pano in Illinois.
There's a forefront there, organizations in, in almost every state and they're getting a lot of information from it's the National Council for Nonprofits. They've been incredible about pushing out information sort of about the executive orders that are coming out. And how they're impacting state funding and that's been very helpful.
So I would definitely go to, refer to those sources, go to the webinars, read the information. There are documents that are updated regularly and. they're a great resource right now to sort of put everything in perspective that this seems to be, life seems to be moving pretty quickly.
There's a lot of changes coming out. But sometimes the changes change. I even have a chance to act on them. So give it, take a breath I think is the best thing. And then really, look at. What you have in front of you that you had planned to be doing for the next several months. Has anything been directly impacted by any federal funding that might be changing?
Are you expecting or anticipating that those, your state's funding or your local or city funding might be impacted? Get in touch with those funders and say, hi, we were, planning on this or counting on this. Can you just let me know, what's what you are hearing right now?
I will be in touch with your funders. And the same thing goes for foundations for sure. And, and really talking with them, your current funders and then not being afraid to reach out to new funders as well. And then on the individual side, really letting your constituents know. What's happening, when you need them.
Do you need them to step up? Ask now, ask maybe a little bit more frequently and urgently if that's the case at your organization, and hopefully folks will respond. I don't usually, you, you can't really, you can't find an organization on hope, but if you are sort of taking the right place pace and meeting your donors.
Where they are and sort of bringing them into your mission, into your world a little bit more. There's usually a good connection there and they will step up as they can. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone. It can't be all over email. you really just a phone call. It may not be the phone call that you make an ask on, but you can call and say, Hey, we're experiencing some contractions in funding right now and we're looking for folks to step up.
Can we have a conversation about that? So you're not doing a direct ask on the phone or a cold call but you're sort of saying to the folks that, , can we bring you in a little closer because we really need you right now.
Carol: , and I think, the notion of, you talked about diversifying, but at the same time . back to folks who already know you, who are already part of your sphere, part of your ecosystem already contributing to the organization. Can, can they take one more step at me, is, seems like good advice.
And, and then in terms of diversifying, what are, what are some steps that organizations can take
Michele: , I should say diversify strategically. Don't just throw everything at the wall and expect it to stick. That never works. It doesn't. Now even, when things are pretty, calm in the world. No. You really need to know, okay, we're going, this is going well. We think we have some more ways that we can expand with our mid-level donors.
And so we're going to focus on this group of folks over here, and we're going to make some extra phone calls. We're going to maybe ask the board to step in. We're gonna maybe ask the board to be a little bit more forward about connecting us to new folks or reconnecting us to folks who maybe are sort of intermittently involved or engaged with our organization.
Again, go to your team. It's. Not just the executive director that has to always be making all of the phone calls or sending all of the emails. It's really, gathering your team and figuring out where you can get the, the phrase low hanging fruit. sort of that's really, start there.
But, make sure that. You're, you're having enough people go out there that this is manageable for everyone. You don't wanna stress out your whole fundraising team. So that doesn't, again, it's not just the executive director that has to do this. You don't wanna say to your development director or fundraising lead, Hey, it's on you to raise this, extra a hundred thousand or extra million dollars.
It can't just be one person that's doing that. And I would say, be in regular contact with those folks who are your, your fundraising team. Make sure they know, where things are going, where the need is, where things are going well, to keep them inspired and, and keep them enthusiastic and, and keep them really engaged and wanting to spread the word.
I am of the mindset. Let's just take a small tangent here that board members don't always have to be fundraisers. That's not right for every organization. I have sort of said to some boards or board members that, that I've worked with, I absolve you from fundraising. If you hate it that much, you don't wanna force somebody to do something they don't like.
But what the responsibility of every board member is, is to be a good PR person for the organization that you're in. That's everybody's job. On a board. And that can turn into fundraising in very subtle ways. When you're telling people about what's happening in an organization or what events might be coming up, or when you're extending invitations, you're encouraging engagement and that's the first step in fundraising.
So a little tangential there, but I think it's something that's useful.
Carol: That's important to say because I think it's one of those things that people have been told over and over that they have to get all of their board members to do that, and then they work on that and then get frustrated when it doesn't work. But I think reframing it to be more of that, champion or ambassador pr, . Just helping people start talking to other people
Michele: Yes.
Carol: connecting with new people, people in their network, expanding those networks can be some doable first steps for folks. And then there, there may be folks on the board who really, are, are gonna be really great champions beyond, towards, towards that donor. Cultivation, but you can't assume that of everybody. And, and, and for the folks who are very reluctant, helping them take those baby steps. I think, and I think also you talked about the whole team of the, of the organization. They're probably gonna be some people on staff who are also very reluctant, but yet very enthusiastic about this.
The work that they do. And so helping them understand that when they talk to people, how, what, what's, again, that baby step that somebody on a program might be able to, to do that would help with fundraising. That doesn't feel like that, that's something that's really out of their, out of their sphere, out of their comfort zone. Be helpful.
Michele: Sure. I mean, and I say this as a board member a few times over at this point. I'm currently the board chair of board co-chair of the CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia. And also a board member at the Association of Consultants for nonprofits and for us on. In culture works, we really, we don't have much of a fundraising board right now because we're a fiscal sponsor, so it's a little bit different than your usual.
And for folks who don't know what a fiscal sponsor is, we really provide management and we provide the 5 0 1 3 and sort of home for the administrative end of projects of artists that are doing or, or small organizations, artists that are doing maybe something that's a one-off.
We focus on the creative sector mostly, but we have also, and that's a very broad definition of what Culture Works is doing. But as board members to a fiscal sponsor, we really don't have a lot of individuals. Donors for the organization. And so we are focusing on promoting what fiscal sponsorship is and what all the organizations just in general and sort of saying, Hey, this is who we are, but we're really focused on pr.
And then the other board that I'm on, they're not a 5 0 1 C3. So we can't have a fundraising board. So, it's really I have been on boards that have been more oriented towards fundraising, but it still, it always starts with pr. Like, people get curious about really what that organization tells me more.
Carol: Who you are first.
Michele: Exactly.
Carol: they're gonna contribute in any way. So one thing that you do with organizations is called fractional fundraising. Can you say a little bit about what that is and let's just start with definitions first. And
Michele: Sure. It's like having a part-time job. Development lead at your organization that has a very deep bench of experience. So I've been doing fundraising for years now, for over 20 years. And I've done sort of a little bit of everything in fundraising, very much a generalist. I've been a frontline fundraiser, so I've gone out and I've had to make those asks.
I love that. I'm, when was. Weird folks who don't mind asking for money. But I also love helping others like executive directors and CEOs help them make the tasks and sort of give them the information and, and less teach them but more provide them with the support that they need and the information that they need to make asks.
But I'll also help. make deeper connections between the fundraising and marketing departments or fundraising and programming. Because, donor communications, yes, those are usually written by the development folks, but they have to be interspersed with all of the other communications that are coming out.
At, at an organization. So we're maybe in development, we're focusing on the appeals once or twice a year or three times a year. But in between we do need to know what's going on because, with marketing, because we have to share that information too. With donors who come to us in between appeals or when we're.
Folks are going and, and out and communicating with mid-level and major donors one-on-one, we need to be able to inform the CEO of that. So we wanna be using the same or similar language that the communications department is doing. And then. The other side. The other part of this is I'll still write grants too, and that just depends on the organization and what they need.
I've been a grant writer. That's how I started. So I don't mind doing that. I find that for me. Grant writing. I mean, it never is. Just put some words down on paper and get money. It's not that simple. But for me, the process of saying, of finding out about what a program is, who it's serving, what the positive change is that's happening in an audience's life from this program, from, a constituents life that's happening from this program, that helps me think about.
Okay, so this is, these are the other things that you should be doing in fundraising. Here are maybe some other sources that you could be going to that would support your mission. So it's, it's so much more than writing. It really is a lot of translating what the program folks are doing to what the funders need.
So for me, fractional fundraising is really doing a little bit of everything, and I do it for. three or four organizations at a time. And they have very different missions often. So there's, there's not, conflict there. But I'm really trying to also make sure that I. , as many development directors, full-time development directors do, do a little bit of work with the board as well so that they understand, again, they're team members, they're on team fundraising.
So we're sort of bringing them into the conversation as well when needed. And, really just, I. Trying to be there and try to make life a little bit easier. Some are usually for an executive director and just give them a little bit more space so that they can do everything else that they need to be doing.
For the organization,
Carol: a new client, what are some of the things that you do to really get started and what, what are some of the first steps
Michele: I ask a lot of questions and I ask for a decent amount of information in advance even before I'll take on a new client. I wanna know more. I mean, I will go and I'll look at your nine nineties. And I will, I may ask for audits if, once we're sort of engaged so I can sort of. See, what's happening financially.
That's, and, and where, some of the strengths are where some opportunities are and, really do a, as deep a dive as possible into your existing information so I can understand how you're already communicating with donors. And, whatever donors you may have, and every organization has its own fundraising ecosystem, so they're all different, even if they're in the same sector.
Even if you're working with two theaters, they're going to have very different, populations of, donors and funders. So. It's really doing that deep dive and also finding out what is, again, what's already happening in fundraising, not just how. Fundraising where the organization is being talked about in communications or in their materials, but really saying, well, how is the executive director involved?
Who else is involved? How is the board involved? What are your systems? Can I look around in your database a little bit so I can see what's in there. Do you have a database sometimes and you need a database? Can also be where, where I've gotten to with some folks, but it completely it's really organization dependent.
There's. I sort of feel my way through it. I've done this whether I've been a consultant or whether I've gone in and worked at an organization. I really always do sort of like this baseline assessment of, all right, where are things at so we know where we need to, I. You keep things going strong.
Where do we need, what do, how can I help you gain some efficiencies there? So maybe those spaces could get even stronger. Where are some areas where we can expand in or that need a little bit of help and, what resources can we put towards that and really, what are the priorities of the organization?
Not in fundraising because fundraising priorities follow programmatic priorities, but in programming in what your mission is, doing so that I know what we're raising money for.
Carol: . . So to close out what you talked about in the instance of diversifying funding, don't just do it, hit willy-nilly, but really be strategic about it. What's one question that you wish more nonprofit leaders would ask themselves? When, when thinking strategically?
Michele: Hmm. What can I say no to?
Carol: Mm,
Michele: Because it's, I think a lot of organizations get into the habit of saying yes to everything. And yes, can come at a deep opportunity cost. If you don't know what you can say no or not right now to like your donors tell you sometimes you have to be able to do that.
Carol: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for coming on, nonprofit Mission Impact.
Michele: You're welcome. Thank you so much, Carol. It's been a pleasure.
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