Pay fundraisers more. Give them unlimited vacation time, make sure they rarely put in overtime, and let them work from home whenever they want to. Offer them ample opportunities for promotions and ditch requirements that force them to do things they don’t do well.
Those are some of the ideas Penelope Burk suggests to stem the rampant turnover problem in fundraising offices across the country.
Ms. Burk, a veteran fundraising consultant, bases her suggestions on five years of research with more than 12,000 fundraisers, chief executives, board members, and donors.
Soon to be released in a book called Donor-Centered Leadership, Ms. Burk’s findings mark the second comprehensive study published this year that urges charities to shake up the way development offices work.
The first, a study by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, found that half of all chief development officers plan to leave their jobs in two years or less and said the lack of help fundraisers get from chief executives, boards, and other staff members was a big reason for their dissatisfaction (The Chronicle, January 17).
Ms. Burk isn’t interested solely in making life better for fundraisers. She contends that the turnover problem and commonly used fundraising approaches are causing charities to lose money they could raise by operating more productively. (See article below.)
Much of her book focuses on ways to curb turnover. Other experts agree with Ms. Burk’s conclusions, but some question whether they are appropriate for most nonprofits, especially small charities with few resources.
“What is interesting about Penelope is that she usually gets the answer right, and she is one of the few people in the business to do research,” says Kent Dove, the now-retired former senior vice president for development at the Indiana University Foundation and author of five textbooks on fundraising. But, he adds, “some of her conclusions only fit certain groups.”
Still, turnover in the fundraising profession is an expensive problem that interferes with charities’ ability to solve some of society’s most pressing problems, and it can be reduced, Ms. Burk says. Among her suggestions:
Pay fundraisers as generously as possible. The top reason fundraisers leave their jobs is to earn more, Ms. Burk has found in her surveys, and they have ample opportunities to do so. Senior fundraisers said they were contacted by search firms or other nonprofits about changing jobs after just three to six months in a new position.
In her book, Ms. Burk offers an example of what she says is a mistaken approach to dealing with compensation issues. A high-performing fundraiser making $90,000 at a national health charity is offered another job paying 40 percent more, and his organization decided it could not afford to match the offer.
But Ms. Burk says the health charity should have done so, because the fundraiser, who supervised 18 colleagues working on direct-marketing appeals, might have stayed if he had gotten the $36,000 increase. And, Ms. Burk notes, that would be far cheaper than the estimated $952,000 the charity would lose in donations and other aspects of lost productivity over three years if the fundraiser leaves.
Make work hours less rigid and discourage overtime. Flexible working conditions for fundraisers—many of whom are women, often with children or other family responsibilities—could also persuade development officers not to quit or at least to stay longer than they would otherwise, says Ms. Burk.
While short bursts of overtime can be productive, Ms. Burk warns fundraising managers against expecting development officers (or themselves) to put in extra hours routinely. One reason: The things fundraisers do after leaving work, she says, make them better conversationalists and more interesting to donors.
“Research extending back 100 years is remarkably consistent in its conclusion that working beyond a standard 35-hour week is counterproductive,” she writes.
If other staff members “are leaving at 5:00 but you are still at your desk well into the evening, you are depriving your team of a leader who can function at optimum productivity every day. Turn out the light, walk out of the office, and start living the life you have earned.”
Don’t limit vacation time. Fundraisers won’t abuse unlimited time off as long as it’s tied to the caveat that they must fulfill their responsibilities to both coworkers and donors.
Ms. Burk points to the Social Media Group, a Toronto social-marketing company that gives employees unlimited days off because it knew it couldn’t offer the salary that its bigger competitors can afford to pay.
The policy didn’t cause problems because most workers didn’t take more than three weeks a year, she says.
Give people chances to get promoted. Managers who opt to hire outsiders instead of promoting internal candidates “deny themselves a big reward,” Ms. Burk writes.
Not only is it more expensive and risky to hire an unknown fundraiser, but the search for an outside candidate also means the position is likely to be vacant for a longer period.
And once the job is filled, the organization will spend more time getting the new person up to speed than it would with an existing employee.
She recommends succession planning, particularly for fundraisers who manage others, because that helps their subordinates avoid worry over how they’ll get along with a new, unknown boss, which can also ease turnover.
Help fundraisers learn new techniques. To increase the likelihood of internal promotions, Ms. Burk recommends giving entry-level fundraisers, or those coming to the field from other professions, what she calls “apprenticeships” in other development departments instead of a standard orientation.
For example, a newly hired direct-marketing fundraiser would be required to work alongside colleagues engaged in other types of fundraising such as writing grant proposals to foundations or seeking big gifts.
That way, she says, new hires will understand how their job fits into the overall fundraising operation—and other parts of the development office they might aspire to work in one day, rather than leaving the organization.
“In a not-for-profit apprenticeship program, supervisors and managers ask themselves, ‘How soon could this talented employee be ready for more demanding responsibilities?’” Ms. Burk writes.
“This is very different from traditional management thinking, which tends to favor ‘How long can I keep this employee doing the same job?’”
Measure performance based on what matters. Too many charities assess fundraisers based on the total raised before expenses or the number of new donors they recruit instead of rewarding people who increase the amount current supporters give.
But “gross revenue is not a reliable indicator of success or even of fundraising progress,” Ms. Burk writes. “Development operations disproportionately weighted in mass-marketing programs and fundraising events can experience a rise in gross revenue while net return stays the same or, worse, falls.”
And, she adds, most charities “do not actually need more new donors; their focus should be on improving the average gift value of the donors they already have” rather than constantly recruiting new supporters, only to lose them soon afterward as is common with direct-mail and other high-volume solicitations.
Emphasize what fundraisers care about in job ads. Most help-wanted ads start with a lengthy description of the organization’s mission and end with a long list of fundraising tasks.
Ms. Burk recommends shorter job ads that promote benefits a charity can offer such as great colleagues, a board that’s actively engaged in fundraising, or on-site day care.
Such ads, she says, should include a link to an online “career landing page” on the charity’s Web site where job seekers can learn more about its development office through such features as a video message from the chief fundraiser or a tour of the group’s best features.
Think about the long-term in hiring decisions. Assess candidates for their ability to handle both the immediate job and more senior responsibilities, she writes.
Being overqualified, she adds, “should not be the reason that eliminates an otherwise exciting candidate.” That person is likely to bring fresh eyes to how fundraising is done and easily step into a more senior role later.
And people who hire fundraisers should take time to interview people who reach out to them for a development job, even if they don’t have any openings at the time, Ms. Burk says.
“Proactive and decisive, these candidates do their homework, zeroing in on your not-for-profit as a desirable employer,” she writes. “This is an opportunity you should grab, whether or not you have a position to fill.”
Ms. Burk also urges charities to stop offering time-limited contracts to fundraisers.
“If a fundraiser is contracted for a specific period, she is going to start looking for another job as the end of the contract approaches,” she writes. “No matter how well she has performed, she cannot be sure that she will be rehired when her contract expires.”
To make even a few of the changes that she suggests, Ms. Burk says that the top leaders of a charity, not just its fundraisers, must recognize that turnover is an expensive problem and start rewarding and managing their development officers differently.
“How managers make change is incredibly important,” she says. “Change has to be constantly reinforced. If nonprofit leaders can become donor-centered, it is a fundraising opportunity.”
“The power to effect meaningful change and, in so doing, unleash philanthropy at a whole new level lies in the hands of those who bear ultimate responsibility for the welfare of not-for-profit organizations: boards, chief executives, and chief development officers,” she writes. “All it takes is leadership.”
Common Fundraising Myths: One Expert’s View
• The more donors you have, the more money you will make.
• Losing donors is not a problem; there will always be more where they came from.
• Every fundraising program must make money.
• Donors give to support our organization.
• You don’t get if you don’t ask.
• Donors who make the largest gifts should be treated better than other donors.
• It takes a long time to cultivate a donor from modest to generous giving.
• We can’t spend money to raise money because donors’ No. 1 concern is the cost per dollar raised.
• We need to raise as much money as possible unrestricted.
• We have to have the money now.
Excerpted from Penelope Burk’s forthcoming book, Donor-Centered Leadership, available directly from Cygnus Applied Research at cygresearch.com/dcl for $75. Call (800) 263-0267 for more information.