BLOG POST
Hiring a Fundraiser for your Nonprofit
Regardless of an organization's budget, access to talent, or fear of investing in a fundraiser who eventually departs, hiring a fundraiser to raise money for your nonprofit is possible.
Article from the Growth & Co Blog | Posted on February 4, 2022 by Larissa
Many leaders of small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations I work with face the challenge of hiring a fundraiser to increase their revenue. Hiring can be difficult for many reasons. Perhaps their budget won’t allow them to hire an experienced fundraiser. Maybe they have the budget but are unable to find a qualified candidate. Even if they believe they could employ a suitable person, they are afraid of investing in someone who may quit in the future and put the organization’s fundraising efforts back to square one. Regardless of how a nonprofit leader views this challenge, rest assured there is a solution to raise more funds while building fundraising sustainability into your organization.
Organizations recruiting to fill a fundraising position do not need to hire a professional fundraiser with fundraising knowledge and many years of experience. Training can provide fundraising knowledge, and the fundraiser can apply newfound knowledge to the organization through valuable coaching and guidance. Instead of limiting your search to individuals who have years of experience and can demand the salary to match that experience, be open to someone with proven skills in sales, student recruitment, or another goal-oriented position. A salesperson who understands that they must make and follow a plan to contact a certain number of people to secure a certain number of sales will transfer those hard skills to a fundraising role. Utilizing technology to maximize automation and manage donor information is a must, and most CRM systems operate similarly. If your recruit has experience with a CRM, they can likely learn another. Many recent graduates and professionals looking to make a career change have the ability, ambition, and eagerness to prove themselves in a nonprofit ‘sales’ role that makes a meaningful contribution to society, and their transferable skills can make their success possible.
Organizations hoping to hire a fundraiser should look for soft skills that are often easier to find than fundraising experience. When selecting your candidate, look for a strong work ethic to meet goals and resilience to handle rejection. Communicating with donors will be their top priority, so excellent verbal and written communication skills are required. Since most organizations need to execute various fundraising strategies to meet their revenue goals, time management will also be critical for the fundraiser to manage multiple funding applications and reporting deadlines. These are all skills that easily transfer from other sector experiences.
Even if an organization has the budget to hire an experienced fundraising professional and talent is available, I often uncover fear of the candidate leaving and the organization’s fundraising abilities halting. To mitigate this risk, organizations can make sure whoever they hire is building the systems and processes during their tenure at the organization that will last following their departure. Then the organization can manage the staffing change without significant interruption to the fundraising operation.
As a nonprofit leader, there are key fundraising areas to monitor to ensure your fundraiser builds a lasting fundraising machine. Leaders managing the fundraiser can hold them accountable to create a fundraising plan that includes specific action items and deadlines for fundraising strategies. This plan allows others to step in if a staffing change occurs. Leaders can ensure a ‘Case for Support’ exists and is updated annually. This document clarifies the organization’s fundraising priorities and financial needs so leaders, volunteers, and other staff can continue presenting this message to donors in the absence of the fundraiser. By providing the resources to acquire and maintain a donor database and understanding how it works, personnel other than the fundraiser can access and monitor information about donors, planned actions, and revenue forecasts. The database enables leaders to monitor the activity and effectiveness of the fundraiser’s work and manage donor relationships easily if the fundraiser is no longer with the organization. Finally, having the fundraiser report on prospects identified, researched, and added to the gift pipeline throughout the year will help ensure the organization cultivates a healthy number of prospective donors so that revenue does not drop if the fundraiser exits the organization.
Regardless of an organization’s budget, access to talent, or fear of investing in a fundraiser who eventually departs, hiring a fundraiser to raise money for your nonprofit is possible. By hiring for soft skills rather than fundraising experience and providing fundraising training and coaching to your new hire, leaders can onboard fundraisers who will build and enhance a lasting fundraising system that will have an impact far longer than their tenure.
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