Why Fundraisers Job Hop

Fundraising professionals have a reputation for changing jobs frequently. When a development director leaves after 18 months or a major gifts officer moves to another organization after two years, nonprofit leaders often place blame on the fundraiser.

Maybe the better question is: What is happening inside the organization?

Research from the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and The Chronicle of Philanthropy found that 51% of fundraisers said they were likely to leave their current organization within two years. The same research found that 84% felt tremendous pressure to succeed, while 55% felt or had felt underappreciated in their roles. Salary mattered, but organizational, management, and leadership issues were also among the most common reasons fundraisers considered leaving.

Fundraisers are hired to raise money, but their success depends heavily on the organization around them.

Unrealistic Expectations Start the Problem

I once started a fundraising job where the organization had received only nine donor gifts during the entire previous year. After I started, I learned that leadership wanted to raise $20 million in the next fiscal year.

That is an extreme example, but the disconnect between an organization's fundraising history and the expectations for a new fundraiser happens more often than many nonprofit leaders realize.

A new fundraiser walks through the door and leadership expects results, usually immediately. Within the first few months, the fundraiser might be expected to identify new donors, secure major gifts, increase annual giving, find corporate sponsors, write grants, plan events, improve donor retention, and meet an ambitious revenue goal. Fundraising does not work on an instant or a set timeline.

AFP guidance notes that the cultivation cycle for a typical six- or seven-figure major gift often takes six to 18 months from qualification to solicitation. A prospect with little previous connection to the organization generally requires substantial relationship building before a major ask makes sense.

Leadership needs to set fundraising goals based on the organization's history, donor pipeline, relationships, capacity, and available resources, not simply the amount the organization wants to raise.

Fundraisers Need Leadership Support

Fundraising is an organizational responsibility, not one person's job. The executive director or CEO must play an important role in donor relationships. Major donors often want access to organizational leadership. A fundraiser needs an executive who will attend donor meetings, make calls, provide timely information, participate in cultivation, and help make the ask when appropriate.

And yes, the board has responsibilities as well. Every board member can help support fundraising efforts in a variety of ways. Board members bring relationships, credibility, community connections, and knowledge that a fundraiser cannot manufacture. They do not all need to ask for money, but they need to participate through introductions, cultivation, stewardship, advocacy, and other fundraising activities.

AFP's research reinforces this problem. Among fundraisers who were likely to leave or had left the profession, 27% cited leadership, including the CEO or board, lacking respect for or understanding of fundraising as a reason. Another 29% cited the organization's management overall.

A Fundraiser Is Only as Good as the Information Available

Imagine starting a fundraising job and opening the donor database to find incomplete donor records, outdated contact information, missing notes, inconsistent gift coding, or years of donor relationships stored primarily in someone's memory.

I have also seen this first-hand. Apparently, the previous development director keep all their contacts and relationship details to themselves and didn’t put anything in the donor database.  I had to do a lot of digging and that was a fun few months to get organized.

Before developing relationships and making asks, the new employee has to learn about the organization’s current and past donors. A strong donor database should tell the story of the organization's relationship with a donor. Giving history, interests, meetings, communications, relationships, stewardship, and next steps should provide the fundraiser with the information needed to continue building the relationship.

Poor data forces the fundraiser to become a detective before becoming a fundraiser.

Leadership needs to recognize the time required to clean up the database, qualify prospects, rebuild relationships, and create a functional fundraising pipeline.

Resources Also Matter

Organizations sometimes establish aggressive fundraising goals without providing the resources needed to reach them. AFP's research found only about half of fundraisers were satisfied with the number of staff available to do their jobs.

Fundraising requires infrastructure such as appropriate staffing, a functional donor database, prospect research, communications support, professional development, technology, accurate financial information, program data, and a reasonable budget for donor cultivation and stewardship all support fundraising success. One development professional who is expected to handle all parts of the fundraising process, including administrative tasks, will enviably struggle to met goals and will most likely lead to burnout.

When a fundraiser leaves after 18 months or two years, salary or a better opportunity might only be part of the reason. If a nonprofit has a history of fundraisers only staying a short period of time, then there is more to the story.

Before Blaming the Fundraiser, Look Internally

Fundraisers should be accountable for results. They should have goals, track activity, build relationships, manage donor portfolios, make asks, and demonstrate progress.

Accountability needs to work both ways.

Nonprofit leaders should ask whether they have created an environment where a strong fundraiser has a reasonable opportunity to succeed. Do they have good data? A functional donor database? Qualified prospects? Enough staff? Clear goals? A realistic timeline? An engaged executive? A board willing to participate? A culture that understands fundraising requires relationships before revenue?

But before calling fundraisers job hoppers, nonprofit leaders should take a closer look at what those fundraisers were asked to accomplish and if they were set up for success.

Cheers,  

Michelle Crim, CFRE 

Dynamic Development Strategies can help. We offer coaching, program design, grant writing, and fundraising services for our nonprofit clients. We specialize in small to mid-size organizations because we understand your challenges. Please contact us for more information.