Fundraising during team transition

We’ve all been there. Someone on the fundraising team, (or the one person on the team!), is leaving. In the best of times this is well-planned out and a new hire begins quickly. In reality, especially these days, it can take forever to find a new fundraising team member and overall fundraising can be affected.

In many cases we can’t control a team member leaving (this will be another post!). We can control actions we take as son as we know someone is leaving.

First things first, have an updated job description avaialble for all team members. As one who checks job openings every week, I see many job descriptions that come across old, and I wonder how realistic they are to the position being offered. Responsibilities change and it’s important to include those when beginning a new search. Keeping job descriptions up to date will make it easier for you to begin a search, without having to have several people go over it before posting.

Next, ensure donations are being entered into your data system. For some organizations this may be simple as the head of devevlopment may have staff doing it. For one or two person teams make sure you take time to keep all data up to date.

Equally important is ensuring the process of expressing gratitude continues. Typically the head of development is the one doing this, so during transition have others making calls and sending emails, even if you need to bring in board members to help.

Lastly, create a list of outgoing fundraising appeals that were to go out or in the planning stages. It’s critical that any direct mail or e-appeals that were in planning stages continue. The main point here is that direct fundraising cannot stop during development team transition.

Thanks for reading. And if you find yourself in need of help during a team transition, let us know!