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How to Hire a Fundraiser:
New Talent Acquisition and Management in the Nonprofit Setting
David A. Mersky
July 11, 2012
Sponsored by:A Service
Of:
Advising nonprofits in:
• Strategy
• Planning
• Organizational Development
www.synthesispartnership.com
(617) 969-1881
INTEGRATED PLANNING
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Of:
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Today’s Speaker
David A. MerskyFounder and Managing Director
Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Hosting:
Sam Frank, Synthesis PartnershipAssisting with chat questions: Jamie Maloney, Nonprofit Webinars
How to Hire a Fundraiser:
New Talent Acquisition and
Management in the Nonprofit Setting
David A. MerskyFounder and Managing Director
Mersky, Jaffe & AssociatesJuly 11, 2012
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Stay tuned until the end…
…for an offer
that you cannot
refuse.©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
The State of Philanthropy in
America Today
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
The number of 501(c)(3) organizations, 2002–2011
2011 charitable giving
Total = $298.42 billion
The NGO Human Resource Environment
• NGOs confront a most serious issue
– Little or no movement at the top
– Challenge to retain talent
• Succession crisis
• On the other hand, organizational
professional leadership talent deficit
particularly in development and fundraising
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Talent Deficit: Challenges
• Alternative career choices
• No clear career-tracking nor plans for retention
• View professional development and continuing education as a luxury
• Greater complexity/uncertainty in the sector
• No self-imposed CPE requirements
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Talent Deficit: Challenges
• Growing number of nonprofits– 200,000 + since 1975
– 10% of national workforce—19% in NYC
– Next 12 months, 28% of NGOs with $1 MM + revenues plan to make senior management hires=24,000 vacancies
• Major communal bodies have lost 60% of their donors over the past 40 years
• Insularity chokes off a sense of larger movement to improve our cities, our nations and the world
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Prescriptive Approaches
• Educate our boards and leaders about the challenges and crisis
• Have serious, intentional conversations about succession planning—professional and volunteer—at board meetings
• Value professional development and continuing professional and volunteer education
– We need visionary funders
– Agencies should tax themselves 1% to 2% of budget for CPE
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Prescriptive Approaches
• Recognize that a professional career has phases
– Each requires a different kind of development
• Create standards and benchmarks so organizations
– can measure itself against its own talent management and retention goals
– Can compare themselves against others by sector, geography, size, etc.
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
But…
…it makes little sense to spend time and money to
train and develop your team—particularly the
fundraisers—when they lack the capability for
sustainable improvement.
• ―Mishiring‖ is an epidemic
• 20% to 33% of all fundraisers lack the capacity to be
successful
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Past Hiring Methods
No Longer Apply• A bad hire—a person who does not make it
through the first year—can cost 150% (200%
to 250% for senior executives) of the first
year’s compensation plus lost opportunities
• Multiply these costs by your employee
turnover
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Past Hiring Methods
No Longer Apply• Past record of stellar performance
– Different organization, different competitors,
different offer, different donors
• Accuracy of resume
– Rigorous and methodical reference checking is
now a must
• Your ability to ―read‖ people, i.e., your ―gut‖
– More often than not hurts hiring effectiveness
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
A Formal Hiring Process
• The goal is to get the right people on the bus
and invest in them = talent management and
retention
• To do that
– Get off the seat of your pants
– Create a formal process to provide an objective
assessment of each candidate—the most critical
success factor in hiring today
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Steps for Smart Hiring
• Form a three person hiring team
• Agree on how the position and the organization will be
described in a consistent way to all candidates
• Write an accurate job description—not ―walk on water‖
• Create a resume screening filter to eliminate unqualified– Respond to everyone with appreciation
– Keep people informed as to where they are in the process
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Steps for Smart Hiring
• Build a profile for the role
– Skills—a developed aptitude or ability, such as – Listening
– Presenting
– Traits—an inherited or innate characteristic, such as – Tenacity
– Intelligence
– Drive for self-improvement
– Integrity
– Positivity
– Flexibility
– Curiosity
– Coachability©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Steps for Smart Hiring
• Engineer 1st, 2nd and, if required, 3rd round interview
questions
• Develop a rigorous reference-checking procedure
• Build simulation and role-playing exercises into
interview for final candidates
• Build a relationship with a predictive testing provider
• Create individualized on-boarding plan for each new
hire
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
I Know What You Are Thinking…
• Where am I going to find the time to do all of
this?
– “I do have a day job!”
• Look at the numbers:– Building the process=10 hours
– Taking the first candidate through the process (rather than ―tell me about
yourself…‖)=5 hours
• Raise your success rate from 2 out of 3 to 3 out of
four where one wrong hire might cost $250,000©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
©2011 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Some final thoughts…
• Practice what you preach—Always Be Prospecting
– Prospecting is a process—not an event
– Set aside time each month to prospect and interview
fundraising talent
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Some final thoughts…
• Go for EQ not IQ– Emotional intelligence is more valuable than a 4.0
– Here are three EQ traits:• Assertiveness
– Don’t waste time—theirs or prospects—on unqualified opportunities
– Know how to state what is needed from prospect
• Empathy– Turn off WII-FM
– Show genuine, sincere interest in prospects and donors
• Flexibility– Open to new ideas
– Uses new information which comes at ever faster pace.©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Some final thoughts…
• Flexibility
– Open to new ideas
– Uses new information which comes at ever faster pace
• Check and hire for values
– Cultural fit
– ―Tell me about a time when you helped one of your
peers or another department and received no
recognition or reward.‖
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Some final thoughts…
• Invest your time wisely
– Keep new hire motivated
– Provide continuous feedback and professional development
opportunities
• Private recognition nice—public approbation better
• Make every meeting a ―money maker‖
– Plan so that everyone walks away with a nugget to make
them more successful that week
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
To receive two free lists of
questions…
1. To ask in an initial screening interview
2. A second round interview
3. To ask when checking references
Send an email to:
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
Mersky, Jaffe
& AssociatesFinancial and Human Resource
Development Solutions for Nonprofits
800.361.8689 413.556.1074 fax
www.merskyjaffe.com
OFFICES IN BOSTON AND NEW YORK
©2012 Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
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