Fundraising Tip: How to Keep Your Head of Fundraising

Years of experience in fundraising and recruiting have my head filled with ideas.

Another spectacular leader of a nonprofit fundraising team shared this past week that they were leaving their position.

They had been at their current nonprofit for almost two years.

Just two years.

During the same week, a friend of mine who is also in nonprofit leadership spoke to me about the challenges many nonprofits in her city are having with finding a good head of fundraising.

In the article, I refer to the head of fundraising, and there are many titles. It could be the chief development officer, vice president of philanthropy, or development director. Head of fundraising seemed the better way to go!

In my almost twenty years of leading nonprofit fundraising teams, I have experienced difficult circumstances that have caused me to consider leaving and I have hired great fundraising professionals for my team. All of this experience has been on my mind as I consider what happened last week.

I often hear in recruiting circles, “Hire the right rock star and then let them do their job”. I don’t hear those exact words, but am offering you how I express it using my language preference.

That is a good start.

Sometimes a nonprofit is in a hurry, hires someone an ally knows, or forgoes red flags thinking they can work with this person. The result is typically the same: the employee doesn’t stay very long, or they stay too long.

Many of you know what I mean by this. If not, it’s that the employee doesn’t have a chance to succeed because they are not a fit, or in the too-long sense, they stay because leadership continues to ignore everything the new employee does or cannot do, thinking that the day will come when everything works out and they do what they were hired to do.

This comes to my first suggestion: Don’t ignore red flags. Either discuss them with the candidate or decide to not advance the candidate.

Next, ensure the candidate is clear on what is expected of them, what success looks like from your perspective, and where they need to be in 90 days, six months, and one year.

Clarity and transparency are your friends.

Next, support your new employee. If you are an ED or CEO and have just hired a new head of fundraising, offer them a well-planned-out onboarding process inclusive of time with you.

Then, keep checking in.

I remember being a new head of fundraising and the executive director, whose office was clear on the other side of the building, walking down to my office every morning to say “good morning” and see how I was doing. Before they left my office, they asked if I needed anything.

Perfect.

I also remember a new executive director who decided to send me an unfriendly, unsupportive email after the response they got from me to an email was the opposite of what they wanted. It wasn’t the email that was the main challenge, although it was unprofessional, but that they had been with me for hours earlier and didn’t take advantage of having a one-on-one conversation about what was bothering them. That would have been better for us both.

Communication is critical. Honest, quick, and transparent communication.

Next, let your head of fundraising do their job. You hired them because you decided they were the best. Now allow them to be just that.

Build a relationship with them. Have their back.

As we said back in the day, don’t “throw them off (or under) the bus!”.

Leadership makes a big difference. Be the leader you always wanted to be with them.

I wish I could say that if one does all of this, the next head of fundraising or fundraising team employee will stay for much longer than the average.

All of this is helpful toward that goal, yet will not guarantee it.

Sometimes it does just not work out.

That doesn’t mean we don’t try.

Keep trying.

If you found this post helpful, I recommend this one too: https://altrui.org/recruiting-tip-your-next-nonprofit-fundraising-team-search-2/

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Take a risk. Be of service. Support your colleagues. Be kind.