As the world has changed, so have the strategies nonprofits employ to raise money and evaluate fundraisers. And more groups, facing hiring freezes, are outsourcing some of the development work.
By and large, charities are not changing the dollar goals for individual fundraisers, aside from giving more grace when those goals aren’t met, says Josh Birkholz, CEO of BWF, a fundraising consultancy that works with many large charities.
“People are still trying to push folks to perform, and frankly a good portion of the fundraisers are doing as well as they did before,” he says. “The aggressive fundraisers pre-pandemic are the ones still hitting their goal now.”
But the work environment has changed, and some charities are weaving those factors into their evaluation plans. The Nature Conservancy, for example, adjusted expectations for staff who have shifted to flexible or part-time schedules due to caregiving responsibilities brought on by the pandemic. The group is also increasing its focus on donor stewardship.
Some nonprofits are in an enviable position: They’ve had a surge in new donors, some of whom are major-gift prospects. As a result, one of those groups, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, has increased the threshold for what counts as a major gift to encourage fundraisers to concentrate on the supporters who can give the most.
“This shift is helping to focus gift-officer time and energy on those who are most interested in building a deeper relationship with the organization,” Mark Mathyer, the organization’s director of development services, said in a Chronicle spot check of fundraising at 116 large charities. Additionally, the food depository introduced evaluation metrics to encourage new, increased, and multiyear major-gift commitments.
Other nonprofits have reduced overall fundraising goals. Their focus is on retaining donors rather than identifying new ones.
The American Technion Society of the Israel Institute of Technology expects that many large donations will be delayed due to the pandemic. For that reason, the fundraising group for the university is placing less emphasis on outreach to learn more about a donor’s capacity to give and instead encouraging gift officers to focus on their best prospects, people they often already know, Kevin Hattori, associate director of communications and content, wrote in our survey. During annual performance reviews, managers will also consider how “fundraisers managed to pivot and continue to perform during this challenging time.”
New Measures of Success
In a profession that’s often obsessed with metrics, 29 of 90 respondents that answered a question on the topic said they have changed the way they measure the success of major-gift fundraisers in 2020, according to our survey.
In a time of social distancing, what counts as donor engagement is inherently different, says Karin George, managing principal at Washburn & McGoldrick, a fundraising consultancy that works with colleges and universities.
“The definition of substantive contact with someone that might lead to philanthropy — that has had to change because we’re using different modes,” she says. “Gift-officer productivity can’t be measured just in-person.”
With in-person visits largely on hold, fundraising departments are counting other meaningful interactions like virtual meetings and phone conversations with donors and prospects.
In some cases, fundraisers are now able to engage a broader network of alumni, donors, and prospects. The stakes are lower when meeting with a gift officer is as simple as clicking a link.
“It’s easier for someone to say ‘yes’ and do a virtual call with me because it’s not going to take them 30 minutes to get dressed, get to the coffee shop, spend an hour and then another 30 minutes to get home,” says Chad Dillard, chief development officer at United Way of Greater Atlanta.
That’s allowed him and his colleagues to do more stewardship of corporate donors, especially, he says. “You have busy CEOs, and they don’t always have time. But when you only ask for 20 minutes to give somebody an update on what’s going on in the community, what’s going on with their philanthropy, you’re getting a lot of people that are more than happy to have those calls.”
In the past, fundraisers at the YMCA of the USA were judged using a range of metrics to ensure they were securing funding for the future. Now the group has suspended its business-as-usual metrics and is looking at just a few highlights. Fundraisers still have a dollar goal, but they also have goals to qualify a certain number of new donors, or determine if they should spend more time cultivating them going forward.
Layoffs and furloughs have reduced the fundraising team’s staff by 46 percent, but the number of fundraising opportunities is increasing rather than decreasing, says Rebecca Bowen, the YMCA’s chief advancement officer. “We’ve suspended formal metrics in favor of realizing the immediate need and opportunity.”
Save the Children wants to encourage fundraisers to collaborate, so it’s looking for ways to make sure everyone who is part of a team effort gets credit for the resulting gifts, says Luciana Bonifacio, vice president and chief development officer. For example, a wealthy corporate CEO who gives as an individual, through a foundation, and through her company may connect with fundraisers on multiple teams.
“Typically, we will look at them through one lens,” she says. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that we’ve changed how we measure it yet, but we may need to be much more flexible.”
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is also emphasizing collaboration. “Working from home requires us to be more communicative with one another and innovate the ways we work together to achieve our fundraising goals,” the group wrote in our survey.
‘More Work for Everyone Else’
Some organizations, like the Patient Access Network Foundation, have been able to increase the size of their fundraising staffs during the pandemic. But other nonprofits have had waves of layoffs and furloughs. Development staff aren’t always spared.
“I had to let go some wonderful fundraisers,” says Clyde Jones, senior vice president for institutional advancement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “You’ve got to have people to ask people for money, and when they’re not there, it’s just more work for everyone else. Our fear is that there are opportunities that we just won’t have the resources to respond to.”
Other groups, like Unicef USA, have had hiring freezes for jobs deemed nonessential. The charity hasn’t had to lay anyone off, but they also haven’t filled vacant positions, says Ann Putnam Marks, vice president for major gifts.
Birkholz, with BWF, says his clients are increasingly outsourcing work from their development offices, partly due to hiring freezes.
“There’s certainly been a lot more outsourcing than I’ve ever seen — probably more requests in the last eight months than I’ve seen in the last 16 years,” he says.
In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for a nonprofit to outsource work like direct mail or gift processing, but now his firm is getting more requests to take on work in areas like fundraising analytics, research, or technology operations. “Staff are frozen, and there’s essential work that needs to be done,” he says.
As remaining fundraisers continue to work remotely, the idea of spending the day in front of a computer screen instead of talking to people face-to-face is a struggle, says Jones with the Met Museum. “It’s challenging because fundraisers are by definition very social people.”
Emily Haynes contributed to this article.