CEO’s, Nonprofit Boards &
Advancement Professionals
“Calling Dr. Phil!”
Indiana. Michigan
ALDE
June, 2015
Michelle L. Janssen, CFRE
Dean for College Advancement
Wabash College
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
Stand-Up Exercise
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 Concern
2,700 executive directors and
development directors were surveyed from
across the country.
Wide-range of:
Budget types
Mission types
Diverse geographic
representation
Context
Widespread Concern
One 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
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 Board
Despite 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 Model
Executive 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 Invested
Look 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 Creative
Embrace 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 Accountable
Include 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 goalsetting 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
Janssenm@Wabash.edu