Many, if not most, charities want their boards to be more engaged in fund raising.

To persuade her trustees to take the idea seriously, Alexi Miller, development director of Acterra, an environmental group in Palo Alto, Calif., asked them to sign a contract stating that they agreed to be active fund raisers. Ms. Miller recently discussed her charity’s contract for trustees on a listserv maintained by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Ms. Miller said that her group recently started using this annual fund-raising contract with board members, which she borrowed from CompassPoint, a San Francisco management consulting organization.

The contract asks board members to specify contributions they would make in four areas: making a personal financial donation; arranging meetings, hosting parties, and other donor “cultivation” activities; helping to secure big gifts from others; participating in events; and “other” fund-raising activities that each board member can suggest on their own.

To make sure the contract idea did not scare off board members, Ms. Miller first got feedback on the document from her executive director and the board’s development committee. Then the chairman of the board introduced and invited discussion about the contract at a board meeting — the idea of trying it out for one year. The chairman followed up by meeting individually with each board member to go over the contract and answer any questions.

Has your organization used a fund-raising contract with trustees? What was their response?