Development-Fundraising Staff

If you’re looking for a development job, check out the Nonprofit Profit Quarterly. Great publication. Needs charitable gifts as well as subscriptions to keep up its great work. Email armando@npqmag.org.

What should you expect to be able to do, if you’re applying for a development officer job? Visit CFRE International and examine the Test Content Outline. That’s the analysis of the knowledge you have to have to do this work.

And if you’re trying to hire someone? Check out CFRE’s test content outline, too. Make sure you’re getting that knowledge when you hire. And take a look at my job description for a chief development officer.

First, you are more than a fundraising technician. You have to be an organizational development specialist, not just another good (or even great) fundraising technician. (And by the way, if you want to be promoted to a leadership position, then you really have to be more than a fundraising technician.)

The chief development officer must be a leader. S/he must be knowledgeable about things other than fundraising…things like governance and planning and systems thinking and… I think real leaders – truly competent, star professionals in any field – are change agents, too.

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Thank you, Marsha. Marsha is the chair of the Fund Development Committee at a New Haven organization. What a great metaphor: fund development as the dangling participle in an organization. I see it so vividly!

Fund development is the last item on the board or staff meeting agenda. No one really wants to serve on that committee. But everyone looks at that committee to see if the job is done. Too often, program staff don’t have time to talk with development and share stories.

For a while when I was a development director, my office was at the end of a dead-end hallway. No one ever passed that way. That was actually a great metaphor for how people felt about development. Skeptical. Suspicious. Uncomfortable. Just a necessary evil to get money for mission.

Hey out there! Hey you board members and marketing staff and program staff. That’s no way to treat fund development. Fund development is not some necessary unpleasant activity that provides you with the money to do your mission. Fund development is the essential partner of philanthropy – and philanthropy is beautiful.

Fund development – just like everything else in the organization – is part of the whole. The whole. No silos. Together we survive and together we fall. Fund development is not a dangling participle.

Evaluating the performance of development staff is not about money.

I could be the best development officer around (and I was darn good, by the way!) But if program quality is weak (and it was, by the way), then fund development is tough. In a bad economy, fund development is tough, too.

So what criteria do you use to evaluate the performance of your development staff? You evaluate things like this:

— How effectively does your development officer enable volunteer performance, including that of board members?

— How effectively does your development staff apply the documented knowledges required in good fund development?

— How effectively does your development officer communicate the body of knowledge / best practice in fund development to staff colleagues, board members, other volunteers?

Consider the criteria you use to evaluate the performance of your CEO, other senior management? Things like: oral and written communications, planning and budgeting, working well with others. More things like: representing the organization well in the community, recruiting and retaining staff.

But how about the money, those important charitable contributions, you ask?

— First, how effectively does your development officer lead the budgeting process to set an appropriate charitable contributions goal? (I’ve blogged before about the many variables that affect setting the charitable contributions goal.)

— Second, how well does your development staff control the controllable variables, compensate for the uncontrollable variables (e.g., economy), communicate the trends and implications to the organization, and build the capacity of the organization to maximize charitable contributions?

So those are today’s thoughts. Maybe one of these days, I’ll develop a performance appraisal process for development officers. See my job description for the chief development officer. See, also, my performance appraisal for the CEO, which can help you develop your own performance appraisal process for the development officer.

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I’m thinking that only 25% of the time is spent asking for gifts. That means personal face-to-face solicitation and grantwriting and direct mail and special events. Only 25% of our time is asking.

75% of our time is relationship building. And strategizing. And telling stories. And enabling volunteers to help us do this work effectively.

Do you think your boss knows how you should count the hours? Do you think your board knows what kind of time produces the best return on investment?

What’s your job? What’s your role? What’s your position in your organization?

Do your colleagues know what knowledge you must have as the chief development officer? Does your boss know how to hire the best development officer?

If you don’t tell them, who will?

Quit complaining about your board members and other volunteers. Quit complaining that they don’t know what good governance is. Quit complaining that they don’t help with fundraising.

Staff is responsible for effectively enabling board members to do the right stuff. When you feel like complaining, look in the mirror first. Who’s responsible? Probably you.

What’s enabling? Giving people the power and the tools and the support to get the job done. What are the key functions of effective enablers? Here is a partial list:

1. Transmit the organization’s volunteers.

2. Engage volunteers in the meaning of your organization.

3. Respect and use the skills, expertise, experience, and insights of volunteers.

4. Provide direction and resources, remove barriers, and help develop skills.

5. Articulate expectations and clarify roles and relationships.

6. Communicate (which includes helping people transform information into knowledge and learning).

7. Encourage people to question organizational assumptions and ask strategic questions.

8. Ensure quality decision-making.

9. Anticipate conflicts and facilitate resolution.

Read the whole list of enabling functions in the Free Library of my website. Read Chapter 5 of my book Strategic Fund Development to learn the details. You’ll find what it takes – your skills and attitude – to be an effective enabler.

You want volunteers to do the right stuff? Then you have to do the right stuff first.

I believe that all fundraisers must serve on a board. I believe that all executive directors must serve on a board. And that means you! No matter how busy you are.

How can a professional expect to work well with board members if that professional doesn’t know what it feels like to be a board member? How can you as a fundraiser effectively engage and manage board members as they help with fund development activities? How can an executive director complain about a weak board? How can I as a consultant give advice to boards about fund development or governance or strategic planning?

You know the old saying:

You have to walk in someone else’s shoes to know what their experience feels like. I was a better fundraiser and executive director because I served as a board member. I’m a better consultant because I serve as a board member (and have served as an executive director and a development officer).

When you serve on a board, you can ask yourself: How effective is the executive director at getting me to be an effective board member? How effective is the executive director at enabling this board to do the proper thing? How effective is this fundraiser at helping me overcome my discomfort in fund development? How effectively does this fundraiser engage the board in strategy, not just tactics.

When you serve on a board, you can reflect on your own performance as an executive director and a fundraiser. You identify the things you dislike and like about how the staff treats you and enables you as a board member. Then you can transfer that knowledge to your own work as a staff person.

Get on a board now! Always serve on a board when you work professionally in the nonprofit / NGO sector.

What’s the job? What skills and knowledge do you need?

The chief development officer is a senior staff person. At the table with the other senior staff and the CEO. S/he must see the big picture, not just the tactical details. You know, the big picture of the organization, not the smaller picture of the development office.

Some development officers are great technicians. But that’s not enough. The best fundraisers are organizational development specialists, too. These strategic leaders realize that most fundraising problems are not fundraising problems. Most fundraising problems arise from some other area in the organization, and then affect fund development.

So what kind of development officer are you? And if you’re hiring a development officer, what kind are you looking for? Just a great technician, or more? You choose. Read my monograph, Choosing Your Road and learn what it means to be a great fundraiser.

Visit CFRE International and make sure you know the right stuff. Read books (check out the CFRE International booklist for a good start). Pursue continuing education from the many professional associations out there. Like AFP, AHP, ALDE, CASE, and so many more. Check out the various academic opportunities like the Philanthropy and Development Program at Saint Mary’s University in Minnesota. Visit the Fundraising School at the Center on Philanthropy.

So many opportunities. Get out there and develop yourself.