Michelle L. Janssen, CFRE
Dean for College AdvancementWabash College
Indiana. Michigan
ALDE
June, 2015
CEO’s, Nonprofit Boards & Advancement Professionals
“Calling Dr. Phil!”
CEO’s, Nonprofit Boards & Advancement Professionals—”Calling Dr. Phil!”
Context
He Said/She Said
Call to Action
Context
Underdeveloped: A National Study
of the Challenges Facing Nonprofit
Fundraising
A joint project of
CompassPoint and the Evelyn
and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Context
Notes on Terminology
Executive Director—Survey uses this term to mean the
head of the nonprofit organization.
Development Director—The staff person in the highest
ranking development position in the organization.
Fund Development—The process of cultivating
relationships with people who will support a nonprofit
organization.
Context
Notes on Terminology
Culture of Philanthropy—Most people in the organization (across
positions) act as ambassadors and engage in relationship building.
Everyone promotes philanthropy and can articulate a case for giving.
Fund development is viewed and valued as a mission-aligned program
of the organization. Organizational systems are established to support
donors. The executive director is committed and personally involved in
fundraising.
Context
Widespread Concern2,700 executive directors and
development directors were surveyed from
across the country.
Wide-range of:
Budget types
Mission types
Diverse geographic representation
Context
Widespread ConcernOne critical commonality:
At many of these organizations, the
development director position has
been vacant for months or even
years!
Median vacancy length of six
months, with 46% reporting
longer vacancies. Overall 16% of executive directors
reported vacancies of two years or more
Context
Large numbers of current development directors expect to leave their
jobs
Half of development directors (50%) anticipated leaving their current
jobs in two years or less.
Proportion of development directors reporting they had already
given notice or were actively considering a shift exceeded
comparable figures for executive directors.
Smaller organizations are even more vulnerable.
Context
Many development directors aren’t committed to staying in
development
Beyond the rates of organizational departure, significant numbers of
development directors reported they anticipate leaving the field of
development within two years.
This reflects a significant potential drain of fund raising experience
from the sector in the coming years.
Context
Repeated turnover and long vacancies are costly in any position; not
having consistent leadership of a fundraising program almost guarantees
an organization will not achieve consistent results.
“The purpose of fundraising is not to raise money, but to raise
donors. You don’t want gifts, you want givers.”
Kim Klein-Fundraising for Social Change
He Said/She Said
Perspectives from the
Executive Director:
Organizations aren’t finding
enough qualified candidates.
56% reported an insufficient
number of candidates with the
right mix of skills and
experience.
He Said/She Said
Many executives aren’t happy with the performance
of their development directors.
Nearly one in three aren’t happy with the performance of their
development directors.
25% reported their previous development director was
fired.
31%--poor performance as a fundraiser
31%--poor performance overall
22%--poor fit with organizational culture
He Said/She Said
Executives report a
significant number of
development directors lack
key fundraising skills.
26% of development directors
overall—and 38% among the
smallest nonprofits report little or
no experience securing gifts.
He Said/She Said
A struggle to compensate for experienced
development directors
Compensation is significantly associated with skill
level.
23% of development directors earning $50,000 or less have no
experience at securing donations.Only 8% of development directors earning $50,000 or more have no
experience securing donations.
He Said/She Said
An Executive Director says:
“I think some kind of self-perpetuating cycle is going on where,
on one hand, the jobs are really hard and not that many people are
successful at them, and then there is the issue of salaries, they
just keep going higher, and higher, and higher. So, development
directors who are good can write their own tickets and command
what they want. And the larger organizations pick off the best.
And so, then there’s scarcity, so all of us have to pay more for a
shrinking pool.”
He Said/She Said
Perspective from the Development Director
Remember the Step Up exercise?
Beyond creating a development director position and
hiring someone who is qualified for the job, organizations
and their leaders need to build the capacity, the systems,
and the culture to support fundraising success.
He Said/She Said
Comparing sample to a subset called “high performers”
Many nonprofits lack basic fundraising systems and plans.
One in five nonprofits—23%—have no fundraising plan in place.
32% of organizations with budgets under $1 million have no
database.
Only 7% of high performers report a lack of a fundraising plan.
He Said/She Said
Fewer than half of development directors say they have
a strong relationship with the executive director
Executives were considerably more likely to think the
relationship was strong.
21% of development directors characterized the
partnership with their executives as weak or
nonexistent compared with 14% of executive directors.
He Said/She Said
Development directors’ influence on key organizational
activities and goals is uneven
Despite the fact nearly all (89%) of development directors serve on
management teams, a majority reported little or moderate influence on
the engagement of other staff in fund development or in budgeting.
High performers indicated they have “a lot of influence” over setting
financial goals, and that the goals are realistic, compared to 42% of
the rest of the sample.
He Said/She Said
Where the rubber meets the road—Executives and development directors
disagree about the fundraising culture in their organizations
One in five executives (20%) strongly agreed that a culture of
philanthropy was in place at their organizations, compared to just 12%
of development directors.
34% of executives strongly agreed that there is an understanding in
their organizations that fund development has a documented body of
knowledge, code of ethics, certification, research, and continuing
education.
The comparable figure for development directors was 18%.
A Call to Action
Let’s Break the Vicious Cycle
Lack of success conditions begets;
Premature development director departure begets;
Short tenures/volatility in development function
begets;
Inability to develop and sustain success conditions.
A Call to Action
The 10 GET’s not to ForGET
1. Get a New Mindset
2. Get Over It
3. Get a New Generation Involved
4. Get a Different Board
5. Get a Transition Management Model
6. Get Invested
7. Get Creative
8. Get Real
9. Get Accountable
10. Get Busy!
A Call to Action
Get a New Mindset
Boards and nonprofit leaders need to shift their
thinking and come to embrace fund development
as a central and valuable part of their work, OR
fundraising success will continue to elude too many
organizations.
A Call to Action
Get Over It
People hate to talk about money—so people who
get paid to talk about it can be viewed with a sense
of suspicion.Fundraising is still fighting to be recognized as a profession despite:
A code of ethics, a body of knowledge, education/degree programs,
professional associations; and certification.
A Call to Action
Get a New Generation Involved
Development directors are predominately over 40,
female, and white.We need young people from communities of color and underserved
populations.
Capacity builders who focus on leadership development work at the
executive level should expand their programs to focus on emerging
development directors, too.
A Call to Action
Get a New BoardDespite all of the board training in the nonprofit section,
levels of board engagement in fundraising are still woefully
inadequate.And, while training is important, commensurate attention must be paid to
the conditions for success. Lack of these conditions contributes to the
vicious cycle.
A Call to Action
Get a Transition ModelExecutive transition programs are now widely embraced.
Apply these models to the development director
hiring process.
Assess fundraising capacity and strategy as well
as other organizational elements for success
Better hire + more thoughtful onboarding =
Creating conditions for fundraising success.
A Call to Action
Get InvestedLook to funders to strengthen organizations’
fundraising in a way that strengthens organizational
capacity. Examples could include:Support to leaders to develop skills.
Development director transition model.
Creating cultural change related to fundraising success.
Building needed systems, platforms and policies.
A Call to Action
Get CreativeEmbrace social media, online fundraising, crowdfunding, and other
forms of acquiring, cultivating and retaining donors.
Tools allow multiple stakeholders—boards, executives, and other
stakeholders to play a role in fund development.
Also has the potential of engaging a new generation of
development directors who are digital natives.
A Call to Action
Get Real
Nearly one-third of those surveyed reported they have been charged with
unrealistic performance goals.
Performance expectations defined in financial terms alone deny the reality
of what it takes to get givers, not just gifts.
Goals should include:
Development and maintenance of the department.
Cultivation and stewardship of relationships.
Board and staff relationship-building.
Contribution to the vision, strategy, and overall leadership of the
organization.
A Call to Action
Get AccountableInclude development goals in the annual performance
evaluations of all senior staff.
Boards of directors, with strong leadership and modeling
from the chair, should include fund development goal-
setting as part of their own annual work planning and
monitor their own performance regularly.
A Call to Action
Get Busy!
Development Directors
Step it up!
Embrace being a leader and drive the change required in your
organization.
Stop looking.
Executive Directors
Look in the mirror!
Examine your own beliefs and behaviors about cultivating,
soliciting and stewarding donors.
It is impossible to be a champion and a role model for
creating a culture of philanthropy without your support.
Questions and Reactions
Thank You!
Contact Information
Michelle L. Janssen, CFRE
Dean for College Advancement, Wabash College