The boards, CEOs, and heads of fundraising of Australian nonprofits play a crucial role in achieving fundraising success, yet engaging senior leaders in fundraising remains a major challenge, a report from consulting firm Noble Ambition finds.

Based on a July 2021 survey of 189 nonprofit officials, the report, National Benchmarking Report on Fundraising Leadership: For Boards, CEOs & Heads of Fundraising (32 pages, PDF), found that only 8 percent of respondents rated their organization's leadership as strong or very strong across four fundraising measures: knowledge, engagement, impact, and willingness to increase engagement and impact. According to the report, 89 percent of respondents indicated that board engagement in fundraising was important or very important and 95 percent indicated that CEO engagement was important or very important; on average, CEOs spend 30 percent of their time on fundraising, including advocating on behalf of their organization, thanking donors, and managing the organization's fundraising; and boards primarily engage in governance, advocating, personal giving, and making introductions.

The survey found that if the CEO engages in giving, securing gifts, and fostering a culture of philanthropy, the organization's board is more likely to give (82 percent, compared with 66 percent) and to encourage a culture of philanthropy (44 percent, compared with 33 percent). While 75 percent of CEOs engage in asking for gifts, only 34 percent of board members do so, which suggests significant opportunity for boards to increase their engagement and boost fundraising revenue through peer-to-peer engagement. According to the report, the primary barriers for board members are lack of fundraising skills and/or knowledge (41 percent), lack of time (26 percent), and the perception that fundraising is not the board's responsibility (19 percent); barriers for CEOs and heads of fundraising include lack of time, lack of staff resources, competing demands on their time, and lack of skills/knowledge.

The report also found that board giving remains a largely untapped opportunity, with 85 percent of board members of organizations with explicit expectations for board giving making contributions, compared with 72 percent of those of nonprofits with only an implicit expectation and 35 percent of those where board giving is not discussed.

The report includes case studies of high-performing organizational fundraising leadership from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the National Library of Australia, Equality Australia, Australian Progress, and the Melbourne Theatre Company as well as discussion questions. Recommendations include building a shared understanding of how and where leadership can engage in fundraising as appropriate; investing in capacity building through training, peer mentoring, and executive coaching; and encouraging culture of personal giving across the organization.