What are the duties of a board of trustees?
The board of trustees is responsible for guiding and advising a nonprofit or private company on financial matters. Its duties can also extend to helping an organization reach out to current and potential donors to bring in additional funding. A few important roles of the board of trustees include:
Identifying potential donors. Most members of a board of trustees are people who have had long careers in business or other fields related to the organization they serve. They're also good at knowing potential donors, and being able to identify them individually and by demographic helps the organization do more with its limited resources.
Planning fundraising events. Fundraising events aren't successful operations if they don't cover their own expenses and then some, so it's very important that they're well planned and well attended. Trustees research their target demographic and design their fundraisers to focus on specific audiences.
Grant writing. Grant writing is an entire skill set all its own, and members of the board of trustees have already mastered it. They work on grant proposals for specific funding needs for their organizations, and they know which grants are most likely to select their organization before they even begin, making the best use of their time.
Cultivating relationships with funding sources. There are all kinds of funding sources for organizations, from private donors to charities and even government departments. The board of trustees forms relationships with these different funding sources so it can use these relationships to help meet mutual goals, such as improving access to the arts in an area or shoring up rural hospitals.