Hiring new fundraising staff is not something to take lightly. These employees are key to helping your organization build a stronger future.
Experts shared their best advice on how to recruit and hire the right fundraisers.
Involve relevant staff
Staff members you should consult include:
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your executive director or president. Top fundraisers will work closely with leadership.
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a leader from the finance department.
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one or more leaders from your program areas. Fundraisers must understand how programs operate so that they can be a spokesperson for program needs.
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anyone else with whom the fundraiser may collaborate—a communications or marketing person, for example.
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the person driving the human-resources process internally.
At Pennsylvania State University, for example, candidates meet with staff in many different roles. “We want to make sure the candidate has a good understanding of the ways in which their role interacts with internal and external stakeholders,” says Andrew Kovacs, associate director of talent acquisition in the university’s development department.
Be mindful of your budget
Hiring an experienced fundraiser won’t be cheap. “You’re not going to get a savvy development professional for $40,000,” says Dennis Sawyers, managing director of talent acquisition at Nonprofit HR, a consulting firm.
Your organization’s budget will have an impact on what kind of a candidate you hire. If you don’t have the resources to put into a base salary, you may be able to make the position competitive by offering other incentives, such as providing time and money for the fundraiser to attend conferences and educational programs, says Amy Eisenstein, a fundraising consultant. Keep in mind that younger, less experienced fundraisers will need training.
And don’t rule out nontraditional candidates. People with experience in sales or marketing who are looking to make a career switch may have the right skills and be willing to work for less to break into the field, she says.
Develop a job description
Job descriptions should give applicants the knowledge they need to make decisions about applying and should clarify the role for colleagues, staff, and hiring managers.
While a job posting that lists 40 responsibilities may scare some people away, smaller organizations may need a generalist—someone who can pursue major gifts, build relationships with foundations, and work on special events, says Gary Laermer, chief development officer at the YMCA of Greater New York. But people with that “alphabet soup of a skill set” are even harder to find, he says.
Small charities should look to hire someone who’s “going to be a team player and truly understands that there’s nothing that’s not part of their job description,” says Amy Eisenstein, a fundraising consultant and the author of Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops.
Consider the important skills
No matter the type and size of your organization, fundraisers must be disciplined, be open to collaboration, have strong relationship-building skills, and be passionate about connecting people with your organization.
At the YMCA of Greater New York, “soft” skills such as a warm personality, empathy, and persuasiveness are important factors when hiring development staff.
Fundraisers must be able to connect with a wide range of people, carry on a great conversation, and effectively discuss the organization’s mission, says Mr. Laermer. That means being not only an effective communicator verbally and in writing, but also a good listener.
“Find people who can tell you about relationships—personal and professional—that they have had over many years, even decades. If they can’t tell you about relationships like that, I don’t think you want them. They’re not naturally relationship builders,” Ronald J. Schiller, principal at the Aspen Leadership Group, an executive-search company, said in a Chronicle live discussion.
Take the time to do a thorough job
Expect to devote several months to the search. “We see nonprofits all the time underestimating the time and effort it will take,” says Kelly Dunphy, vice president of fundraising at Orr Associates (OAI), a consulting firm.
Organizations that rush the hiring process risk paying a significant penalty in both time and money later, says Kathleen Loehr, a managing director at OAI. The time you spend finding and training a new fundraiser comes at the expense of fundraising, she says. And if the new hire isn’t a good fit and leaves, you may fall short of annual goals or lose donors in the long term. “It’s almost a triple or quadruple loss to the bottom line if you don’t do it right,” she says.
According to the 2014 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey, conducted by Nonprofit HR and the Improve Group, just 15 percent of organizations reported having a formal annual recruitment budget. Of those organizations, the median budget was $8,500.
Ask the right questions
Fundraisers are often very polished, so it takes careful, in-depth questioning to assess whether they’re a good fit for your organization, says Lois Lindauer, a Boston recruiter who specializes in filling senior fundraising positions nationwide.
The important questions to pose will vary, depending on the position. Ms. Lindauer has suggestions for what to ask a variety of different types of candidates in her interview toolkit.
In his book The Chief Development Officer: Beyond Fundraising, Mr. Schiller offers a list of questions chief executives and boards should ask themselves when assessing candidates for a chief fundraising position.
Reference interviews are vital for gathering information about how the candidate performed in their last job. Ms. Lindauer provides advice for getting the most out of your conversations with candidate references.
Get your new hire up to speed
Once you hire a new fundraiser, you want to make sure she or he gets off to a good start.
In the first week or two, nonprofits should set up meetings between the new hire and a variety of staff people in different areas of the organization, says Ms. Dunphy. That should include program staff and the chief financial officer. After that, the new fundraiser should get to know key board members and donors. “The first month is an opportunity to really listen and get the lay of land,” she says. New fundraisers should meet with as many people as possible, while also attending to any urgent needs.
Organizations should provide the new staff member with recent fundraising results and the development plan right away, if that information wasn’t already shared during the hiring process, and give the fundraiser a chance to make recommendations, says Ms. Dunphy. If the organization doesn’t have a development plan, that should be one of the new hire’s first tasks.
