Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Survey says fundraising problems are extensive and entrenched!



What nonprofit executives are saying about development directors;
  • 30% are less than satisfied with their development director
  • 25% of their previous development directors were fired
  • 24% of their development directors have no experience/novices at securing gifts
All of the above and much, much more can be found in "UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising" a new national study released January 14, 2013.

“This study shows that the fundraising problems facing
 nonprofit organizations are more extensive and more 
entrenched than anyone imagined,” 
said Jeanne Bell, CEO of CompassPoint and coauthor of the study.
 “As a sector, we need to elevate the importance of fund development 
as a leadership issue, invest in a stronger talent pool, 
and strengthen the ability of nonprofits to develop 
the systems that enable fundraising success.”

I was struck by two words in Jeanne Bell's comment. Specifically extensive and entrenched"Extensive" is very worrisome to me but, it doesn't scare me. "Entrenched" defined by dictionary.com is "to place in a position of strength; establish firmly or solidly," - really scares me

No, I don't think that anyone purposely "entrenched" a problem. As the leadership of organizations, boards and npo executives must shoulder the lion's share of the blame for fundraising problems, consequently they must lead the charge on solving the fundraising problems. What scares me, are the ones that have contributed to the problem and don't recognize it in themselves! If you don't see it - you don't know to fix it.

The "UnderDeveloped" report sounds alarms in many directions. The "calls to action" prescribing specific directions to begin solving the problems outlined in the report are spot on. It is a good document and you can read it by following the link in the report title near the beginning of this blog.


Strengthening the talent pool is one action point. The report points out that when seeking to hire a development director many of the positions go unfilled for 12 months or more and that 53% of the candidate pools don't contain candidates with sufficient skills. Leading one executive director to say: 

"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 institutions pick off 
the best. And so then there’s scarcity, so all of us
 have to pay more for a shrinking pool of people." 

Along the same line, I recently came across this in the biography of a newly hired development director on the organizations website; "...... she brings with her 18 years of customer service experience in the sheet metal industry." Hiring someone for a position that has never done the job - especially if the candidate pool is dreadfully thin - is not ideal but may be understandable. 

Some how you have to convert the experience in the sheet metal industry into the successful tools for fundraising industry!

With talent in short supply, for my two cents, too little emphasis was placed on one key tool in addressing the problem. When skills are lacking they can be acquired in two ways; hire the skills or acquire the skills through training. Yet, training without follow-up action that includes quality supervision and leadership is rarely enough.

"UnderDeveloped" points to changes and areas of emphasis that can only be done my an organizations leadership. The tone and tenor must come from the top. The support to solve the fundraising problem must come in words, actions and deeds. Including actions and deeds that spend dollars where and when it is appropriate.

So, what's it going to be? Get busy on the fundraising problem, or "they're not talking about us. We are doing just fine."

We'll have to wait and see!









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