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

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 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

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

Janssenm@Wabash.edu