What it Takes to Form a High Performing Fundraising Team

If your nonprofit has a hard time holding onto fundraising staff, based on Penny Burk’s research, these might be some of the reasons why:

• The salary is too low for the amount of responsibilities associated with the job, increasing the likelihood that only under-qualified people will apply for the position.

• Salary levels and salary negotiation fail to take into account the basic logic of “You get what you pay for.”

• A strategy that gives a larger salary to a fundraiser only after the previous fundraiser has left for a higher salary elsewhere demoralizes current staff

• Lack of respect for fundraiser means a fundraiser may be compared to some idealized previous employee, not strategic fundraising goals

• Lack of diversity in fundraising programs, focusing on time-intensive events instead of spreading the risk into many fundraising activities

• Lack of strategy in decision-making (decisions to do a capital campaign or start a new program) from Board, CEO and other staff

• Staff evaluation process is unprofessional, with criticisms saved up for the annual review

• Supervisions style focusing on what fundraising staff are doing WRONG rather than what they are doing RIGHT.

• Board shielded from responsibility for fundraising just because they are volunteers

Do any of these sound familiar to you? Is your nonprofit leadership guilty of some of these things?

Why do fundraisers say they leave nonprofits?

34% said it was an unrealistic timeframe for meeting fundraising goals 33% said it was a lack of direction on how funds would be used 32% said it was an attitude of “we have to have the money now” 27% said it was an insufficient fundraising budget 24% said it was additional responsibilities beyond fundraising 24% said it was resistance to innovation 14% said it was resistance to adopting better fundraising strategies.

How can you turn this around?

Hire for the future. What does this mean?

1. You have to know where you are going. You have to plan out how much you want to raise from different fundraising methods in the next 5 years: for example in online giving, walkathon, major gifts, planned gifts and direct mail.

2. Hire staff who demonstrate the ability to produce beyond their initial job description. You have to anticipate that when a fundraiser comes to work for you, they are going to want to be promoted. Perhaps in two and a half years, you will find they need a promotion or two. You need to plan for this. Don’t turn down a candidate for being “overqualified.” And on a related note,

3. Promote from within. You just want to see who else is out there? Are you sure? The lure of the unknown is powerful, but ultimately it can be a frustrating, expensive experience. Why not hire from within? It’s cheaper in many ways. The cost of your internal search is zero, and the cost of your external search could be in the tens of thousands of dollars. The time between old staff leaving and a new staff person starting can be zero, versus months or years with an external search. Lower productivity can be minimized with someone who already is familiar with your organization.

4. Do you really need to start from the bottom up in your fundraising department? If a negative culture has built up over time, house-cleaning does not guarantee that this will fix the issue. Fire everyone? That’s not going to fix a dysfunctional board, or dysfunctional executive director who doesn’t want to fundraise.

5. Invest in training. That means investing in fundraising training as well as management training for your staff. This will help staff be promoted from within. It also means they will stay longer because they see your nonprofit is committed to investing in them.

6. RESPECT your fundraising staff. How can you show respect for them? Don’t start new programs or campaigns without consulting them and their capacity to fundraise for those programs. Praise them. Notice what they’re doing right more often than what they’re doing wrong.

Pay them more. STOP the culture of mandatory overtime. No, slackers do not leave at 5pm. Slackers are the ones who insist that people stay late and confuse staying late with being a good worker.

Read more: http://wildwomanfundraising.com/donor-centered-leadership-review/#ixzz3BLVAaTXH

#leadership #consultant #manage #fundraise