A new survey of fundraisers, data analysts, and other advancement-services professionals found that 46 percent of them have considered and/or been recruited for roles outside the nonprofit world.
The results are part of the 2023 Career and Salary Survey conducted earlier this year by the Association of Advancement Services Professionals, Lindauer, and BWF. Since the pandemic, the hunt for fundraising talent has been especially fierce.
The share of professionals being approached by employers outside fundraising shows just how tough it is to hold on to talent, says Deb Taft, CEO of Lindauer.
“We’ve been seeing this huge demand for advancement-services and digital-data and analytics individuals,” she says.
While the demand for these professionals is still high, recent job cuts in the tech field may even the playing field as fundraising teams search for data folks.
“Being laid off from a big tech company can create a strong employee desire for community and meaning in their lives,” Taft says. “This could really create opportunities for more [advancement departments] to either retain or attract top talent.”
The study is based on survey responses from 1,741 “advancement services and frontline advancement professionals” in March and April of this year.
Few paths for advancement. One reason staff may be considering leaving is they see their current organizations as dead-ends, career-wise. The survey asked respondents to rate opportunities for career advancement at their current jobs, and only 3 percent said there were many options. Nearly a quarter — 23 percent — said the chance for advancement “doesn’t exist.”
Remote and hybrid work are important. Seventy percent of respondents said being able to work remote or hybrid was the most important (18 percent) or among the top three most important (52 percent) factors in taking or staying at a position. Only 6 percent said it wasn’t important. Most people (84 percent) agreed or agreed strongly with the statement that hybrid and remote workers can be successful in advancement roles.
Salaries varied. What people in the field get paid varies widely, according to the survey. Only 4 percent of respondents made less than $50,000 a year. Most respondents (64 percent) earned somewhere between $50,000 and $124,000 per year. Nearly a quarter of respondents — 23 percent — made between $125,000 and $199,000 annually, and just 9 percent earned $200,000 or more each year.
Professional development wanted. When asked where they wanted to develop their skills, survey respondents’ top picks included: “More impactful/cleaner data available,” “greater collaboration/integration of advancement services and frontline departments,” “better understanding of major gift fundraising and/or philanthropy,” and “deeper insight into donor motivation.”
To learn more, read the full report.
Corporate Giving Data
Corporate philanthropy dropped in 2021 compared to the previous year and then was largely flat in 2022, according to a new report from Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose.
“Giving in Numbers: 2023 Edition” collects data from corporations that have at least $2 billion in annual revenue. According to the report, the median company donation in 2022 was $36.8 million, compared to $36.6 million in 2021. These are both down from a median donation of $42.9 million in 2020. Sixty-one percent of companies decreased their corporate philanthropy between 2020 and 2022. Most of those were fairly big increases, with 23 percent decreasing their giving by more than 25 percent, and 26 percent decreasing by 10 to 25 percent. During that same time, 7 percent of corporations had flat budgets, and 32 percent increased their giving.
Funding for environmental programs grew 51 percent between 2020 and 2022, while disaster relief dropped by 39 percent. K-12 education was a priority for the largest share of companies (28 percent); two focus areas tied for second place (20 percent): “community and economic development” and “health and social services.” Tied for last place on the priority list, at 1 percent, were “arts and culture” and “civic and public affairs.”
For more data on corporate giving, view the full report.
Global Philanthropy Healthy; U.S. Trending Toward Rich Donors
People around the world continue to be philanthropic, according to a new report from Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions. It notes that in the United States, giving is trending toward the wealthy.
Philanthropy and the Global Economy v. 3.0: Perspectives on the Future of Giving says that “pro-social behaviors (i.e., donating, volunteering, and helping a stranger)” in 2022 were “significantly above” their pre-pandemic levels in 2017-19. The report brings together data from other reports, including Giving USA and a variety of smaller studies, and also includes short essays from experts on what the data means for the future of philanthropy.
“More people are giving their time and money in service of society,” the report says. “However, the biggest growth among the three metrics is in helping a stranger, which sits notably outside organized, formal nonprofits.”
The report says that in the U.S., the “donor base increasingly skews affluent, with higher-income groups more likely to give and less likely to stop donating before and during the pandemic. The U.S. donor base is also becoming more institutional as charitable giving shifts away from individuals toward corporations and, more substantially, foundations.”
This increased reliance on institutional funders is also driving greater demand for organizations to show their impact. The report notes individual donors “tend to offer unrestricted funding for the nonprofit to use as they see fit,” but institutional donors are asking nonprofits to spend more time tracking and measuring their impact.
The report adds that technology can help improve connections to donors, noting that “digitally mature non-profits reported stronger relationships with their stakeholders.”
For more insights, read the entire report.
