RelSci Product Tutorial: 3 ways to help you leverage your board members’ relationships

The Brief
Your board of directors is one of your most valuable assets. Its members can furnish your organization with new donors, sponsors, event speakers and attendees and even help with recruiting for seats. The key is to leverage their networks and get connected to the influencers they know. 

RelSci’s Path Finder tool and Lists functionality allow you to activate your board members’ networks without eating up all your time and resources in the process. For example, Path Finder helps you map the relationships between people, organizations and lists, so you can map a list of your board members to a list of your prospect donors, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.Here are three ways to utilize those relationships to your organization’s advantage:

Chances are, your board members are connected to a wealth of prospective donors who can make a real impact on your fundraising goals. But asking board members to call to mind all their useful contacts is time-consuming and will result in missed opportunities. Instead, compile a list of high-net-worth prospects in RelSci using Power Search, a comprehensive search tool that helps you find prospective donors that fit your criteria.

Here’s how it works:

1. Use Power Search to target specific donor demographics such location, title, donor history, board experience, alma mater, etc. 
2. Save a list from your Power Search results and load it into Path Finder. 
3. Run that list against your board members to see how they connect to your prospects. 
4. Ask your board members for introductions. 

Your fundraisers will thank you, and your board members will appreciate the workload taken off their shoulders.

Fundraising events are where you can put in valuable face-time with prospects. Compiling a list of invitees, however, is a huge time-suck, and it’s easy to miss a key donor. Again, board members’ contact lists are a great resource for finding prospects to invite or keynote speakers. Or, if you already have a speaker in mind, run his profile against a list of your board members in Path Finder to find connections (see instructions above). Asking for an introduction is up to you, but it’s a lot easier when you know who to ask in the first place.

There’s no better group to mine for new board members than, well, your current board members. Whether a new seat opens or your board member is planning to retire, members can help by opening up their contact lists and recruiting from their connections. As above, use Power Search to find prospective members who match your org’s needs, and then run Path Finder against that list to see how your current board connects to them.

For more information on how you can use RelSci to maximize your board members’ value, and a walk-through of Pathfinder and lists, check out our recent webinar, “The Power of Your Board + RelSci.”

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