The Chief Reminding Officer

4-minute read

Seven of every 10 of our sponsorship proposals still open with a cost table. Staff time. Program expenses. Indirect rate.

That's a sector habit, and a reasonable one. Most of us learned this work writing grants, where the budget comes first and proves you're a responsible steward.

Sponsorship runs on different logic. Companies pay for access, reputation, and audience. I've said that sentence in our meetings more times than I can count, and I'll keep saying it.

Here's where I've landed: explaining and reminding are two different jobs. You're Chief Fundraiser and Chief Reminding Officer.

Why the Ledger Keeps Winning

It's safe to refer to cost since it's a figure that you can pull from your finance team. Access, reputation, and audience are more difficult to measure, which is why even a competent team tends to go with what seems solid rather than what is actually true.

The issue with that default is that when a company sponsors a children's health campaign, it's not buying our overhead; it's buying a seat beside a reputable organization, a boost with a particular audience, and a story that will resonate with its own stakeholders.

None of these aspects appear in a cost worksheet, but all of them affect whether they decide to align.

If a proposal includes the cost, it's effectively answering a question that was never asked.

Two Jobs, One Title

Explaining assumes the problem is understanding. You lay out the reasoning, people agree, and you move on.

Reminding assumes people understood just fine, and years of practice are stronger than one conversation. The idea lands in the meeting. Then someone sits down alone with a deadline and a decade of grant-writing muscle memory, and the old format is right there.

In December 2023, at a leadership training, the facilitator pointed us to Patrick Lencioni's The Advantage. Lencioni argues people only take in a message after hearing it many times, in different settings, from different people. That's why he says leaders have to act as Chief Reminding Officers.

I agreed with him in 2023. I believe him now.

An explanation is one conversation. A reminder is a standing job, and it never shows up on your calendar as one. It just keeps needing you.

Why This Correction Slips More Than Most

Some priorities repeat themselves. Hit this target. Stay inside this budget. The number does the reminding for you.

Access, reputation, and audience have no dashboard. I don't have a valuation model I'd trust the way I trust a cost figure, which means I haven't handed my team a number to point to. That gap is on me.

So here's the trade every Chief Reminding Officer lives with. The priorities most worth repeating are usually the hardest to prove. The ones easiest to prove rarely need you at all.

The ARA Check

What I have is one question we ask of every proposal before it leaves the building:

Does paragraph one talk about what we spent, or what they get?

I call it the ARA check: access, reputation, audience. If the opening paragraph doesn't name at least one of the three, it gets another pass.

Some weeks that pass takes five minutes. Other weeks the cost table is still on top, and I say the sentence again.

Your Turn

Write down one priority you've explained to your team at least once and still believe matters. Then check your calendar and your emails from the last month.

A: I've said it again in the last 30 days.

B: I haven't said it since the first time I explained it.

If you landed on A, look at where you said it. If every reminder happened in the same meeting, move the next one somewhere new: a one-on-one, a line in your weekly email, or a comment on a draft.

If you landed on B, put one reminder on your calendar before you close this email. Pick a setting that differs from the first time. Then ask one colleague to say it in their own words this month. A message sticks when people hear it from more than one person.

Coming Next Week

Next Sunday: I built a four-question test after a foundation handed us $10 million that forced us to scale overnight. I'll show you the Doubling Test and the question that decides whether your next big gift is investable.

Until next Sunday,
Christine

PS - ​If you've cracked the valuation problem for access, reputation, or audience, reply and show me how. I'll take a working spreadsheet over a theory.

I’m Christine Bork, Chief Development Officer at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I write CFW to share what I’m learning as I lead a growing team and try to do the work sustainably and thoughtfully.