1. Michelle L. Janssen, CFRE Dean for College Advancement Wabash College Indiana. Michigan ALDE June, 2015 CEO’s, Nonprofit Boards & Advancement Professionals “Calling Dr. Phil!”

3. CEO’s, Nonprofit Boards & Advancement Professionals—”Calling Dr. Phil!” Context He Said/She Said Call to Action

4. Context  Underdeveloped: A National Study of the Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising  A joint project of CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund

5. Context Stand-Up Exercise

6. Context  Notes on Terminology  Executive Director—Survey uses this term to mean the head of the nonprofit organization.  Development Director—The staff person in the highest ranking development position in the organization.  Fund Development—The process of cultivating relationships with people who will support a nonprofit organization.

7. Context  Notes on Terminology  Culture of Philanthropy—Most people in the organization (across positions) act as ambassadors and engage in relationship building. Everyone promotes philanthropy and can articulate a case for giving. Fund development is viewed and valued as a mission-aligned program of the organization. Organizational systems are established to support donors. The executive director is committed and personally involved in fundraising.

8. Context  Widespread Concern  2,700 executive directors and development directors were surveyed from across the country.  Wide-range of:  Budget types  Mission types  Diverse geographic representation

9. Context  Widespread Concern  One critical commonality:  At many of these organizations, the development director position has been vacant for months or even years!  Median vacancy length of six months, with 46% reporting longer vacancies.  Overall 16% of executive directors reported vacancies of two years or more

10. Context  Large numbers of current development directors expect to leave their jobs  Half of development directors (50%) anticipated leaving their current jobs in two years or less.  Proportion of development directors reporting they had already given notice or were actively considering a shift exceeded comparable figures for executive directors.  Smaller organizations are even more vulnerable.

11. Context  Many development directors aren’t committed to staying in development  Beyond the rates of organizational departure, significant numbers of development directors reported they anticipate leaving the field of development within two years.  This reflects a significant potential drain of fund raising experience from the sector in the coming years.

12. Context  Repeated turnover and long vacancies are costly in any position; not having consistent leadership of a fundraising program almost guarantees an organization will not achieve consistent results.  “The purpose of fundraising is not to raise money, but to raise donors. You don’t want gifts, you want givers.”  Kim Klein-Fundraising for Social Change

13. He Said/She Said

14.  Perspectives from the Executive Director:  Organizations aren’t finding enough qualified candidates.  56% reported an insufficient number of candidates with the right mix of skills and experience.

15. He Said/She Said  Many executives aren’t happy with the performance of their development directors.  Nearly one in three aren’t happy with the performance of their development directors.  25% reported their previous development director was fired.  31%--poor performance as a fundraiser  31%--poor performance overall  22%--poor fit with organizational culture

16. He Said/She Said  Executives report a significant number of development directors lack key fundraising skills.  26% of development directors overall—and 38% among the smallest nonprofits report little or no experience securing gifts.

17. He Said/She Said  A struggle to compensate for experienced development directors  Compensation is significantly associated with skill level.  23% of development directors earning $50,000 or less have no experience at securing donations.  Only 8% of development directors earning $50,000 or more have no experience securing donations.

18. He Said/She Said  An Executive Director says:  “I think some kind of self-perpetuating cycle is going on where, on one hand, the jobs are really hard and not that many people are successful at them, and then there is the issue of salaries, they just keep going higher, and higher, and higher. So, development directors who are good can write their own tickets and command what they want. And the larger organizations pick off the best. And so, then there’s scarcity, so all of us have to pay more for a shrinking pool.”

19. He Said/She Said  Perspective from the Development Director  Remember the Step Up exercise?  Beyond creating a development director position and hiring someone who is qualified for the job, organizations and their leaders need to build the capacity, the systems, and the culture to support fundraising success.

20. He Said/She Said  Comparing sample to a subset called “high performers”  Many nonprofits lack basic fundraising systems and plans.  One in five nonprofits—23%—have no fundraising plan in place.  32% of organizations with budgets under $1 million have no database.  Only 7% of high performers report a lack of a fundraising plan.

21. He Said/She Said  Fewer than half of development directors say they have a strong relationship with the executive director  Executives were considerably more likely to think the relationship was strong.  21% of development directors characterized the partnership with their executives as weak or nonexistent compared with 14% of executive directors.

22. He Said/She Said  Development directors’ influence on key organizational activities and goals is uneven  Despite the fact nearly all (89%) of development directors serve on management teams, a majority reported little or moderate influence on the engagement of other staff in fund development or in budgeting.  High performers indicated they have “a lot of influence” over setting financial goals, and that the goals are realistic, compared to 42% of the rest of the sample.

23. He Said/She Said  Where the rubber meets the road—Executives and development directors disagree about the fundraising culture in their organizations  One in five executives (20%) strongly agreed that a culture of philanthropy was in place at their organizations, compared to just 12% of development directors.  34% of executives strongly agreed that there is an understanding in their organizations that fund development has a documented body of knowledge, code of ethics, certification, research, and continuing education.  The comparable figure for development directors was 18%.

24. A Call to Action  Let’s Break the Vicious Cycle  Lack of success conditions begets;  Premature development director departure begets;  Short tenures/volatility in development function begets;  Inability to develop and sustain success conditions.

25. A Call to Action  The 10 GET’s not to ForGET 1.Get a New Mindset 2.Get Over It 3.Get a New Generation Involved 4.Get a Different Board 5.Get a Transition Management Model 6.Get Invested 7.Get Creative 8.Get Real 9.Get Accountable 10.Get Busy!

26. A Call to Action  Get a New Mindset  Boards and nonprofit leaders need to shift their thinking and come to embrace fund development as a central and valuable part of their work, OR fundraising success will continue to elude too many organizations.

27. A Call to Action  Get Over It  People hate to talk about money—so people who get paid to talk about it can be viewed with a sense of suspicion.  Fundraising is still fighting to be recognized as a profession despite:  A code of ethics, a body of knowledge, education/degree programs, professional associations; and certification.

28. A Call to Action  Get a New Generation Involved  Development directors are predominately over 40, female, and white.  We need young people from communities of color and underserved populations.  Capacity builders who focus on leadership development work at the executive level should expand their programs to focus on emerging development directors, too.

29. A Call to Action  Get a New Board  Despite all of the board training in the nonprofit section, levels of board engagement in fundraising are still woefully inadequate.  And, while training is important, commensurate attention must be paid to the conditions for success. Lack of these conditions contributes to the vicious cycle.

30. A Call to Action  Get a Transition Model  Executive transition programs are now widely embraced.  Apply these models to the development director hiring process.  Assess fundraising capacity and strategy as well as other organizational elements for success  Better hire + more thoughtful onboarding = Creating conditions for fundraising success.

31. A Call to Action  Get Invested  Look to funders to strengthen organizations’ fundraising in a way that strengthens organizational capacity. Examples could include:  Support to leaders to develop skills.  Development director transition model.  Creating cultural change related to fundraising success.  Building needed systems, platforms and policies.

32. A Call to Action  Get Creative  Embrace social media, online fundraising, crowdfunding, and other forms of acquiring, cultivating and retaining donors.  Tools allow multiple stakeholders—boards, executives, and other stakeholders to play a role in fund development.  Also has the potential of engaging a new generation of development directors who are digital natives.

33. A Call to Action  Get Real  Nearly one-third of those surveyed reported they have been charged with unrealistic performance goals.  Performance expectations defined in financial terms alone deny the reality of what it takes to get givers, not just gifts.  Goals should include:  Development and maintenance of the department.  Cultivation and stewardship of relationships.  Board and staff relationship-building.  Contribution to the vision, strategy, and overall leadership of the organization.

34. A Call to Action  Get Accountable  Include development goals in the annual performance evaluations of all senior staff.  Boards of directors, with strong leadership and modeling from the chair, should include fund development goal- setting as part of their own annual work planning and monitor their own performance regularly.

35. A Call to Action  Get Busy!  Development Directors  Step it up!  Embrace being a leader and drive the change required in your organization.  Stop looking.  Executive Directors  Look in the mirror!  Examine your own beliefs and behaviors about cultivating, soliciting and stewarding donors.  It is impossible to be a champion and a role model for creating a culture of philanthropy without your support.

36. Questions and Reactions  Thank You!  Contact Information  Michelle L. Janssen, CFRE  Dean for College Advancement, Wabash College  Janssenm@Wabash.edu