Video Transcript
Did you know that development directors who stay in jobs longer are able to raise significantly more money than if they were to hop from one organization to the next?
It should come as no surprise.
If fundraising truly is about relationships, development directors need to be at their organizations for enough years to develop solid relationships in the community.
It Takes Staying Power to Raise More Money
Unfortunately, the nonprofit sector has a real problem in that development directors simply don’t stay in their jobs very long. If you have been in your current job for more than three years, you are the exception, not the rule.
Recently, I was discussing hiring a new development director with a client and we decided we were not going to consider any job hoppers. We wanted someone with staying power.
What we meant by that was that a qualified candidate would have to have held one job out of their last two, for at least five years. And, when looking back at their last four jobs, I wanted at least two of those jobs to have been for five years or more each.
The Sad Truth
Unfortunately, so many development directors routinely hop from job to job, and resumes that demonstrate real staying power are few and far between. Those candidates who have held jobs for seven years or more really stand out.
Not only that, but the research project I completed recently was very clear in the results — and there is a direct correlation between longevity of a development director and the amount of major gifts raised.
So the question becomes:
How long does a person need to stay in a job to have real impact?
And more importantly:
How do we keep development directors in place long enough to establish solid relationships and truly raise major gifts?
8 Ways to Keep Your Development Director
Here are my top 8 ideas for keeping your development director (in no particular order):
- Invest in their continuing education, including training (e.g., AFP, conferences, etc.)
- Offer appropriate and generous compensation
- Provide a fun and happy work environment
- Require time off – insist they take their days
- Reward work well done with praise and appreciation
- Offer increasing levels of responsibility
- Provide realistic goals
- Offer flexible schedules
I’m sure there are many more than I’ve listed, but most of the ideas above are simple and doable, and would help increase the amount of time that development directors stay at their organization.
A Final Plea
Finally, before we wrap up, I would say to any executive director watching, if you have a great development director, ask them:
What can I do to keep you?
In other words, what do they need or want in order to stay?
It could be as simple as another week of vacation or a better title. Whatever it is, if you have a great development director, do anything in your power to keep them. If you don’t they just might start job hunting.
What would it take to keep you at your nonprofit?
This is so helpful for us development directors to think about – and we need to empower ourselves to ask for what we want .
Yes, what you want and deserve! Go get it, Laura.
Amy, thank you for this article! I have been in my current position for 3.5 years, and my prior one for 7! My experience is that it takes at least a full year to learn the ropes of the new job — going through the complete cycle of development activities; in the second year I was able to benefit from the experience of the first year, everything was more familiar and I could implement meaningful improvements based on that experience (beyond any obvious quick fixes in the first year); in my third year I could begin to get truly creative. I’ve also found that, while a Development Director (especially in a small shop) has to do everything, I could focus in-depth on one new project a year, whether it was significantly improving one development activity (e.g. segmenting appeal mailings) or adding a new one (planned gifts). And after a long enough time, I would cycle through them and improve them further.
Your point about needing time to develop solid relationships with donors cannot be over looked. While at first you may benefit from the “Wow” factor of being new, I have found it takes two to three years for the donors to feel comfortable with me. At first they may be wary that I’ll only be there for 1-2 years, and why should *they* invest much time in such a fleeting relationship? With each additional year, I sense that I am regarded much more as a member of the community, and offered more of those privileges as a proven member, which can only come with time.
Excellent points, Kathryn! Thanks for sharing.
This premise essentially goes without saying in only the most ideal circumstances. In my experience, the culture and leadership of most of the organizations I worked for stymied my professional development, discouraged original thinking and innovation and created such hostile work environments that I either ended up leaving or was let go after between 6 months and 4 years of tenure.
My job searches since that time have been difficult for reasons at which I can only guess. I stopped looking sometime ago and am now self employed..
I urge you and your readers that are in the position to hire seasoned or newbie development managers with spotty or what you would consider “brief” tenures to ask applicants the conditions that predicated their departure and truly listen to what they say. You may realize that many of these professionals may very well have wanted to stay with their former employers but found themselves in challenging predicaments that made it difficult for them to do so.
I like the suggestions you’ve given for ways to keep your DD (most of these were either nonexistent or inconsistent at the organization’s I worked for) and the importance of an ED asking how they can help (never asked by any of the ED’s at any of the organization’s I worked for. A lot of us suffer for the mission at major personal sacrifice and when things go “wrong” are the first to be blamed. A gesture of consideration would mean a lot..
I found this report (https://www.compasspoint.org/underdeveloped) a godsend in helping me figure out what was happening to me, my colleagues and the field in general as regards high DD turnover and ED disconnect. EVERY nonprofit leader need to read it.