A strong network of professional advisors can be invaluable to nonprofits. Professional advisors can serve as a resource for technical expertise and as connectors to others within their networks. Many nonprofits develop councils, create collateral, and host events to cultivate relationships with advisors in hopes of uncovering new opportunities.

Much time and resources are spent engaging with advisors, yet often the effort does not yield commensurate results. Successful engagement with advisors, meaning engagement that creates a pipeline of new donor opportunities, doesn’t come solely from pleasant lunches and glossy marketing material.

Here are 6 tips to help turn professional advisors into effective ambassadors:

1. Develop an advisor engagement strategy.

Advisor engagement should be strategic for and specific to your organization, not an obligation or copycat project from other organizations. Consider your organization’s goals, resources, and needs. How might professional advisors specifically (as opposed to other stakeholder groups) help reach those goals or meet a need given your available resources? What resources will you allocate and how? What are the measurable outcomes and success metrics for your advisor engagement? Events and activities should result from the strategy. They are not the strategy.

2. Keep it simple.

A sound strategy with supporting activities and clear goals does not need to be complicated. In fact, it shouldn’t be. The simpler the better. Limit activities to those that have a direct line to meeting your goals. Advisor engagement should not distract or subtract from other organizational priorities and resources. 

3. Recruit thoughtfully.

With the strategy in mind, consider the profile of the advisors who will be most likely to help meet your goals and be thoughtful in selecting advisors to collaborate with. Look for criteria besides oldest/largest practice, most popular, or biggest donor. What networks are they connected to that you are not? Do they have an existing affinity to your organization? What role(s) have they demonstrated (asker, doer, host, connector, etc.)? Would you and your team enjoy working more closely with them? Keep in mind that an advisor may be a subject matter expert or a great supporter of your organization, but that may not translate into being a great ambassador. 

4. Be clear about the expectation.

The most effective ambassadors know that’s their role. Let advisors know why your organization wants them to be a part of your success and how they can contribute. Instead of downplaying their commitment - “It’s only one meeting a quarter!” - be upfront about the importance of their participation in achieving your goals: “We’re relying on the connections made through our advisor networks to help meet our goals. We’ll need your active involvement to make that happen.”

5. Give them something to do and the tools to do it.

One of the best gifts you can give a busy person is instruction, so they don’t have to spend valuable time figuring out how to do something. Give your advisors tasks that are clear and time-sensitive, along with any tools that will help them. If you want them to make introductions, tell them who, how many, why, and by when. Make a digital toolkit with three bullet points on key initiatives, a 60-day calendar of events, a contact list, and an intro email template. Ask them to share it with at least X number of people a month. Let them tell you if that’s too many or too few. The specificity not only makes it easier for them to do, but it also makes it easier for you to track and report outcomes.

6. Interact with purpose.

Whether it’s a phone call, an email, or a meeting, every interaction with your advisor network should include:

• An acknowledgement of their contribution to your success.

• A reminder and/or status update of their tasks.

• A discussion of what hurdles or barriers they’re encountering.

• A report of the status of goals & celebrating accomplishments.

• A learning moment.

• Time for listening to their feedback or an offer to do so at a later date.

Addressing these six things will affirm their importance to your organization while establishing a sense of collaboration and accountability.

©2025 Daylight Advisors, Inc.