Fundraising is a profession that lacks the structured career ladder typical of other fields. “If you’re in teaching, you know your path,” says Rob Henry, vice president for education at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. “If you’re in nursing, you know your path. But in fundraising, people don’t know their path. “
For a package on “The Making of a Fundraiser,” dozens of professionals and experts shared with The Chronicle their stories and advice about the best way to find success and happiness. Here is what they had to say about the midcareer years in fundraising.
Case Study
Fundraisers share their strategies for career advancement and happiness in a field where the rules aren’t always clear.
After unnerving her parents with her career choice, Carleigh McDonald eventually landed at Ocean Conservancy, first in Washington and then in San Francisco, where she focused on individual giving. She created a midlevel-giving program and expanded it more than 250 percent over three years. “That was really where I developed my hard skills,” she says. “My manager was very supportive and really trusted me to figure things out in practice.”
She next took a major-gifts job at California Academy of Sciences — and fell into a rut. “I realized I was doing a lot of the same work, not being challenged,” McDonald says. Her takeaway: “Always make sure a role is a little bit of a stretch for you. Look for ways you can grow and learn.”
In January, she started at the California College of the Arts, a new opportunity to work in planned giving and a first crack at a capital campaign. (The college is seeking $75 million.) To prepare for her new job, McDonald went to a planned-giving “boot camp” and joined a regional association of fundraisers in that field.
She negotiated a professional-development budget as a condition of taking the position. “Before you take a stretch role, verify that you’ll have the resources to be successful,” she advises.
In her new job, McDonald is part of a team of six — and finds that she enjoys being a manager. (Well, usually: “Three of my staff are on maternity leave all at the same time. Oh. My. God.”) When she’s ready for her next step, she sees herself “managing a larger team. I’d like to remove myself somewhat from being in the weeds.”
Tips for Midlevel Fundraisers
Polish your skills.
In midcareer, fundraisers usually buckle down to learn the minutia of a specialty. “I try to do one or two webinars a week. I almost always learn something new or interesting,” says Ronit Yarosky, 50, director of donor engagement and partnership development at Mountain Lake PBS, a public broadcaster in Plattsburgh, N.Y., for which she works part-time from her home in Montreal.
Fight burnout with help from peers.
As fundraisers’ skills grow, so does the pressure to produce. “At midlevel it’s very tempting to leave the field. People get burned out,” says Laura Duvelius, 44, chief development officer of Ivymount, which operates schools and programs in the Washington area for kids with autism and special needs.
One thing that helps, she says: a strong peer network “that speaks development.”
This is a career phase in which fundraisers often assemble a personal “board of directors": peers and mentors who talk through professional moves and challenges and offer a sympathetic ear.
Get to know your charity’s board.
“The people who get stymied at midlevel don’t have direct communications to the board,” says Alice Ferris, a fundraising consultant. “It’s a dangerous position to be in. There’s a firewall between the board and the fundraiser, and the leadership starts to think that the fundraising department’s responsibility is just to print money.”
Serve on boards of other charities.
To move up, midcareer fundraisers need to understand not only fundraising but also organizational leadership. Serving on boards can offer a glimpse at how decisions are made.
Dan Blakemore, 34, director of major gifts and planned giving at the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, a museum in Akron, Ohio, has served on the board of the Young Nonprofit Professional Network for six years, giving him key insights.
“I can approach dealing with my own organization’s board more thoughtfully,” he says. “You need to make sure you’re providing them with the tools, the training, the learning. It’s not their day job.”
Be realistic about your work-life balance.
Fundraisers at midcareer are “a little bit pickier” when it comes to job choices, says Yarosky. She once interviewed for a job at a nonprofit she loved but withdrew because the list of duties was “10 miles long.”
On the plus side, she says, “When the right opportunity comes along, you have the experience to negotiate what you want.” (In April, she started a second part-time job, as national director of an inclusion fellowship program for Canada’s Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation for Philanthropy.)
As a single mother with two children, Yarosky has gravitated toward small nonprofits that are flexible about her working remotely. She sees her expertise in small-shop fundraising as an asset. “Not everyone needs to be CEO,” she says.
If you can, consider relocation.
A willingness to move can give you an edge. The Great Recession has left some job seekers wary of pulling up stakes, says Nancy Racette, chief operating officer of DRI Consulting, a recruiter in Arlington, Va. “People couldn’t sell their houses.”
Don’t job hop.
At midcareer, short tenures are a red flag, says Ira Madin, executive vice president of PNP Staffing Group: “Two years or less? Something’s wrong.”
He adds, “If you’re jumping because you want to build up a trajectory to get to the top job, it’s not going to happen.”
Advocate for yourself.
Too many fundraisers silently hope their supervisors recognize that they want to move up, says Aly Sterling, a recruiter in Toledo, Ohio. “We always tell our placements: ‘You have to be your own very best cheerleader, because no one sees the things that go into getting these big gifts.’ "
Sterling recalls how her duties in raising major gifts, including frequent meals with donors, baffled some colleagues at ProMedica, the health-care nonprofit where she worked before she became a consultant. “They thought I just ate well,” she says. “A lot of people don’t get what other departments do.”
Take a risk in your next job application.
Chad Barger, 38, a fundraising consultant in Harrisburg, Pa., says he’s seen fundraisers miss out on moving up. “We get in our comfort zones at midcareer,” says Barger, who serves on the Association of Fundraising Professionals international professional-development committee. “The itch might not be there, and then we get stuck.”
In Ferris’s experience, people sometimes underestimate when they’re ready for advancement. The consultant encourages them to test the waters, though she acknowledges, “It can be a little scary — because you might get the job.”
