When to Hire a Major Gift Officer (and More) with Ann Hale

I had the privilege to interview Ann Hale, Chair Elect of AFP International and Chief Development Officer of Anchorage Museum.

Listen to Ann’s words of wisdom as she initially discusses the process she’s leading for AFP’s new strategic plan, as well as how she successfully convinced her CEO it was time to hire their first major gift officer.

Interview Highlights (Transcript)

Watch the full interview above or read the highlights below.

Major Gift Officers Are Helpful for Small Shops

AE:   Many AFP members work in small development shops. Tell us about your work at the museum as a chief development.

AH:   Working in Alaska, most nonprofits are very small. Many have one development person, if they have one [at all]. I’ve been in development for 23 years, and the largest organization I’ve worked for is now at the Museum.

At the museum we have one major gifts officer, who we just hired. I spend a lot of my time planning and looking at the big picture, setting priorities for the team and managing staff. I’m so lucky to have that major gift officer to be doing what we need to be doing.

I always felt we were missing the boat on major gifts because I was not dedicating the amount of time to it that we needed to. We talk about major gift programs all the time and we needed to do that.

Watch the full interview for more on this topic.

On Hiring Your First Major Gift Officer

AE:   How did you make that leap? That’s something a lot of nonprofits struggle with… how do you make the decision to hire that first major gift officer?

AH:   I just knew we were never going to make any progress on major gifts if we didn’t have someone to focus on it for the majority of their time. I went to my CEO and said, “I know we need to raise more money. We can’t raise much more money without any additional help.”

I had to back it up with numbers. So I did a lot of forecasting and looking at our donor base and presenting some potential gift tables, and here’s how much we might be able to raise with a new person in place.

So it was a combination of gut-instincts saying we needed to do this, and also backing it up with numbers.

Watch the full interview for more on this topic.

Overcoming Other Challenges in Small Shops

AE:   What are some challenges you face working in small shops?

AH:   Time. Having enough time for everything you need to do in a day. Time is always a challenge.

…Sometimes with boards that aren’t sophisticated about development. That can be challenging in that they don’t see you as an expert.

AE:   What do you do about that?

AH:   It’s doing, it’s reading, it’s knowing best practices and being confident enough to say it over and over again. If you can’t do that yourself, it’s about bringing someone else in who can help back you up.

AE:   AFP does provide a lot of those resources. Sharing those reports with your board can be helpful.

AH:   That’s true and I’ve done that in the past. I’ve pulled articles from the [AFP] resource center and said this is what people outside of Alaska say is a best practice. Having those kinds of resources and being able to share best practices makes a huge difference.

Watch the full interview for more on this topic.

Working with Boards in Rural Areas

AE:   One of the challenges that I’ve experienced as I travel around the country and work with different boards, is that in more rural parts of the country some people feel like there aren’t enough donors to go around. How do you deal with that?

AH:   I think in Anchorage is that way. It’s a small community. There are many generous people, but many of them give to multiple organizations. Yes, those people may give to a lot of organizations, but we have our own list of committed donors. So we try to work from and focus on that list.

Having a development plan has really helped me with that, too. Being able to say that we’ve done the research and these are the people are our likeliest prospects and this is where we’re going to focus our time.

Watch the full interview for more on this topic.

Closing Words of Wisdom

AE:   Any final words of wisdom?

AH:   I think development is one of the greatest professions around, especially in small shops where you can work so closely with people. You just have to stick with it!

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Ann Hale is a past President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals – Alaska Chapter. She is a member of the AFP International Board of Directors, serves as Secretary and is on the Executive Committee. Ann received her CFRE designation in September of 2001 and was also honored with AFP Alaska Chapter’s Outstanding Development Professional Award for 2001.

If you work in a small development shop, what’s your biggest challenge? Share it below in the comments.