John Thompson, MSEd, CFRE, is Director of Development and Impact at the Mensa Foundation, working to broaden the understanding of intelligence and support gifted people across the lifespan.
Six years ago, the Mensa Foundation board was in crisis. The period earned its own name among those of us who lived through it. We called it the Summer of Discontent. There was dysfunction, frustration, and a moment of reckoning where the only path forward was to fundamentally change how the board understood and fulfilled its role.
That story, and everything that came after it, is what brought us to San Diego last month.
The Mensa Foundation made its debut at AFP ICON, the world’s largest philanthropy conference produced by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Foundation Director Jill Beckham, Foundation President Nguyen Pham, and I attended together, and we came not just to learn, but to share.
A Session Worth the Stage
Alongside Ben Mohler, Chief Executive and Principal Consultant of GivingThree and a trusted Foundation consultant since 2020, we presented a session titled “Tumbleweeds and Thistles: Grow a Better Fundraising Board.” The session drew on six years of real experience transforming the Mensa Foundation’s board culture and offered practical tools and frameworks that nonprofit leaders could take back and use immediately.
The gardening metaphor was more than a device. It gave the room permission to name what was really happening on their boards. Tumbleweeds are board members who once had roots in the mission and lost them, or who never had roots at all. Thistles are the ones who create problems, sow discord, and make it nearly impossible to cultivate the culture a board needs. Most people in the room had both. The show of hands confirmed it.
But the heart of the session was not the metaphor. It was the story.
Four Retreats. Six Years. One Transformation.
What followed was not a quick fix. It was four board retreats over six years, each building on the last.
The first retreat focused on roots, helping each board member articulate their personal connection to the mission, not the organization’s mission statement, but their own reason for being at the table. The second and third retreats built on that foundation, connecting mission to impact and developing a case for support that board members could speak to with conviction. The fourth retreat, completed just one month before AFP ICON, focused on fundraising and how board members actively participate in growing giving when the culture supports it.
Each chapter of that journey mapped to a different dimension of board health. The session gave attendees a Board Health Assessment to score their own boards and a field guide to begin the work. The room was full of people who had been there too.
Foundation Director Jill Beckham told the Summer of Discontent from the floor of the conference, speaking directly to an audience of nonprofit leaders who recognized it immediately. “When the Mensa Foundation Board found itself at a defining moment, facing challenges that had created division and resulted in the departure of several trustees, the Board chose to see the situation as an opportunity for growth. That renewed commitment has strengthened our governance and positioned the Foundation to better serve gifted individuals for years to come.”
A Board Member Becomes a Donor Becomes a President
One story from the transformation stood out above the rest. As part of the board renewal work, I had direct, one-on-one conversations with each board member about their personal commitment to the Foundation, financial and otherwise. One of those conversations was with Nguyen Pham.
What began as a board engagement conversation led Nguyen to make a personally significant financial gift and to articulate something he had not yet said out loud. He wanted to become President of the Board of Trustees. He was elected to that role in April 2025 and is currently serving through March 2027. That arc, from board member to donor to president, is what intentional board cultivation makes possible.
Celebrating San Diego Supporters
The conference also gave us the chance to continue our effort of thanking our supporters and inviting new ones into the fold. We hosted a rooftop reception for San Diego-based donors and volunteers, bringing together longtime supporters and some new ones.
Among those recognized were LaRae Bakerink, former American Mensa Committee Chair and Foundation Luminary; Richard Lederer, renowned linguist and dedicated Foundation supporter whose curiosity and love of learning reflect the Foundation’s own values; and Simone van Egeren, whose support continues to advance the Foundation’s work.
The evening also welcomed new people with no prior connection to Mensa who heard about the Foundation’s mission and decided to make a gift. It is the kind of response that affirms the work in the most direct way possible. Foundation President Nguyen Pham sees it as a sign of something larger: “The Mensa Foundation addresses people’s unmet needs in ways that no other organization does, and our impact reaches further than ever. Our year-round work in humanizing the gifted and neurodivergent communities is resonating with more and more people, and those who learn about us for the first time are increasingly moved to advance our mission through first-time donations.”
Looking Ahead
AFP ICON was a meaningful milestone for the Foundation. We return from San Diego with a clearer sense of the Foundation’s place in the broader philanthropic world and more energy for the work ahead to unleash intelligence for the benefit of humanity, support gifted people across the lifespan, and build pathways that allow brilliance to be recognized and nurtured in all its forms.
With Gratitude
Thank you to our donors, volunteers, and community for making moments like this possible. And to the new friends who found us in San Diego, welcome. We are glad you are here.
Comments (0)