Part 1: Designing a High-Impact Advisory Committee for Your Campaign

By Frances Roen

In most capital campaigns, there’s a small group that meets monthly and does the consistent work: the Steering Committee.

And then there’s another group—often underused, under-structured, and wildly powerful when done well:

Advisory Committee members.

These are the people who may not have the capacity (or desire) for a monthly meeting cadence, but do have something else that can shift a campaign:

• name recognition

• credibility in the community

• relationships that open doors

• expertise that strengthens the vision

• the ability to “lend the room” to your cause

They don’t need to become another steering committee. 

They need a clear purpose, a clean onboarding, and a thoughtful way to engage.

What Advisory Committee Members Are (And Aren’t)

They are:

• Connectors: they can make introductions that your team can’t.

• Validators: their presence signals, “This is real. This matters.”

• Thought leaders: they bring insight that sharpens the project and message.

• Door-openers: they help you reach the right people faster.

• Trust builders: they can reduce perceived risk for donors and institutions.

They aren’t:

• people you recruit “just in case”

• a list of impressive names on letterhead (with no relationship)

• a workaround for a steering committee that lacks engagement

• your primary solicitors (unless that’s explicitly agreed to and they’re trained)

A strong advisory committee is not about volume.

It’s about strategic proximity to influence.

When an Advisory Committee Makes the Biggest Difference

Five critical things Advisory members can help with:

1. Legitimacy and confidence in early campaign stages: They can help a community feel, “This effort has the right people behind it.”

2. Access to networks you don’t currently have: They don’t need 200 names. They need 5 warm doors.

3. Messaging clarity: They help you pressure-test certain donor and funder proposals: what’s compelling, what’s confusing, what’s missing.

4. “Why now” energy: They can add urgency and relevance to your campaign narrative—especially if they’re respected in the arena your project touches (housing, education, health, equity, etc.).

5. Targeted moments of visibility: Think: campaign announcement, leadership gift momentum, groundbreakings, high-level donor briefings.

The Core Mistake: Recruiting Them Without Designing the Role

Most organizations do one of two things:

1. They don’t ask much of advisory members at all (so nothing happens), or

2. They ask too much, too vaguely (“help us fundraise”)—and people disengage.

The fix is simple:

Design the role like you would design a donor experience:

• clarity

• respect for time

• meaningful contribution

• easy next steps

• good follow-through

A “Right-Sized” Role Menu for Advisory Committee Members

Instead of asking advisory members to do everything, offer a few clear lanes.

Here’s a menu you can adapt:

Lane A: Network + Introductions

What it looks like:

• 2–6 warm introductions per year

• occasional “who else should we know?” brainstorming

• targeted invitations to small donor briefings

Best for: connectors, community leaders, people with broad networks.

Lane B: Thought Leadership + Credibility

What it looks like:

• reviewing select proposals, one-pagers, or donor-facing pieces and suggesting tweaks

• sharing perspective that strengthens positioning (why now, why this organization, why it matters)

• lending their voice through a quote, brief video, panel, or small-group conversation

Best for: issue-area experts, respected professionals, and leaders with “earned trust.”

Lane C: Host + Convene

What it looks like:

• hosting a small gathering at their home/office

• co-hosting an intimate fundraiser with another committee member

• inviting 6–10 peers to learn and connect (not necessarily an ask)

Best for: people who like to gather others but don’t want to solicit directly.

Lane D: Visibility + Signal Boost

What it looks like:

• lending their name publicly

• being listed as an advisory member (with permission)

• showing up at one or two key moments each year

Best for: high-profile names, elected officials (if appropriate), widely recognized leaders.

The goal is not to “activate” all lanes for every person.

The goal is to match each person to the lane where they’ll be most natural and most effective.

An advisory committee can absolutely help move a campaign forward—but only if people know what they’re saying yes to. 

So if you’re thinking, “We have good people, but we’re not sure how to engage them,” you’re in the right place.

In our next post, I’ll share exactly how to onboard advisory members—what to send, what to say, and how to structure the engagement so support becomes real (not just theoretical).

---

​Frances Roen is the Founder of Fundraising Sol and a fundraising consultant with two decades of experience. She is deeply passionate about relationship building, individual donor work, and supporting nonprofit professionals’ health and wellness to enable them to deliver their best work.