Nonprofit needs its first fundraising/development person. How?
January 25, 2022 10:48 AM Subscribe
I'm a longtime board/committee member for an existing 501(c)3 that is considering establishing a development/fundraising job for the first time. We have a few employees, but nobody with expertise or experience in that particular realm. Consequently, we don't know what's realistic in terms of salary/commission/other compensation, or any other quirks of the professional fundraiser trade. Do you know these things, or know who could fill us in better?
More background:
We received a small windfall from which we believe we could fund a year of such a job, but no more than that. So bringing in at least enough to pay for themselves each year would be an essential part of whatever the job turns out to be.
We're in a relatively high cost-of-living state.
There's some debate about whether we should start with a part-time role, or a full-time job split between that and other office duties. Is the latter a thing in this realm?
What else do we need to know?
More background:
We received a small windfall from which we believe we could fund a year of such a job, but no more than that. So bringing in at least enough to pay for themselves each year would be an essential part of whatever the job turns out to be.
We're in a relatively high cost-of-living state.
There's some debate about whether we should start with a part-time role, or a full-time job split between that and other office duties. Is the latter a thing in this realm?
What else do we need to know?
You are not going to get a good candidate if the job is structured as needing to raise their salary every year. As a fundraiser, that's an extremely difficult thing to do, because people do not generally want to donate money or give grants for things like general operations and salaries. People like to give money to programs and capital campaigns and other things they can see and feel. Further, the development person is going to spend all of their time trying to fund themselves, rather than laying the groundwork for a sustainable gifts and grants program. It also takes more than 1 year to get something like this going.
If there is not money available for a development person in perpetuity, you might consider using the windfall to hire a development consultant to work with the board and have board members take on more fundraising as part of their board duties.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:07 AM on January 25, 2022 [10 favorites]
If there is not money available for a development person in perpetuity, you might consider using the windfall to hire a development consultant to work with the board and have board members take on more fundraising as part of their board duties.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:07 AM on January 25, 2022 [10 favorites]
I want to second Lutoslawski's opinion on hiring a consultant to develop a fundraising plan and work with the board.
posted by entropyiswinning at 11:14 AM on January 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by entropyiswinning at 11:14 AM on January 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Thirding Lutoslawski on hiring a consultant to develop your fundraising plan first. That will allow you to go to market with a more specific set of requirements, and means your new fundraising manager is able to start fundraising more quickly. Otherwise they will spend as 3 to 6 months on-boarding and developing the plan, then another few months developing the collateral needed for fundraising (assuming they’ll be starting from scratch and won’t have an internal team or an agency to support them). This is contrary to the expectation that the role will fund itself after year 1.
I don’t necessarily think it’s unrealistic to bring in enough to cover their own salary if they can raise undirected funds, so-called “overhead” is a normal part of how funds are used even when campaigning for a specific cause.
I work for a mid-size fundraising consultancy, and in our Australian state it is HARD to recruit in-house fundraising staff at the moment, the market is very hot. So this should factor into your own plans if the market is similar where you are.
posted by third word on a random page at 12:00 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don’t necessarily think it’s unrealistic to bring in enough to cover their own salary if they can raise undirected funds, so-called “overhead” is a normal part of how funds are used even when campaigning for a specific cause.
I work for a mid-size fundraising consultancy, and in our Australian state it is HARD to recruit in-house fundraising staff at the moment, the market is very hot. So this should factor into your own plans if the market is similar where you are.
posted by third word on a random page at 12:00 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
What do you do for fundraising now? Are you in regular communication with your supporters? Do you have significant email and mail lists? You're going to want to build on what works, with supporters you are already in touch with.
If you're not doing anything for fundraising now, I'd agree that it might make more sense to bring in someone who can help you develop a plan, rather than hiring a staff person to start from zero. If you don't have the email or mail lists, depending on your mission and approach, building those lists might be more valuable than starting out with fundraising right away.
I'd also look closely at whether you might see more return on your investment from grant applications or outreach to funders versus looking for donors. In my world, it often seems like non-profits spend a lot of money chasing a relatively small amount of donations when they could likely generate more income through grants.
posted by ssg at 12:27 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you're not doing anything for fundraising now, I'd agree that it might make more sense to bring in someone who can help you develop a plan, rather than hiring a staff person to start from zero. If you don't have the email or mail lists, depending on your mission and approach, building those lists might be more valuable than starting out with fundraising right away.
I'd also look closely at whether you might see more return on your investment from grant applications or outreach to funders versus looking for donors. In my world, it often seems like non-profits spend a lot of money chasing a relatively small amount of donations when they could likely generate more income through grants.
posted by ssg at 12:27 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
The very first piece of advice I learned in doing non-profit work was, "Never take a job where you need to write the grant that funds your own salary."
This model is common in non-profit, and it often attracts recent grads with no experience and people looking to transition careers with no experience. It fosters burnout and toxic workplace culture: will someone maintain good work-life balance if their employment is completely contingent on finding someone to pay for their salary next year? Will they have good relationships with staff who are salaried as part of operational budget? Will your org be likely to retain this person?
Would hiring someone in this way resonate with your org's stated mission and vision - e.g., to make sustainable change, to empower people, to lift up marginalized voices, to be creative and innovative?
I strongly agree with the idea of working with a professional consultant to formulate a strategic fundraising plan - if you have X dollars, it makes infinitely more sense to pay a significant portion of, if not the whole X, to a professional who can give you professional advice you can act on with confidence than to pay that same amount of money to someone with little/no experience for a year's worth of stumbling in the dark.
I bet there's some useful content in the Fundraising section of Nonprofit AF.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
This model is common in non-profit, and it often attracts recent grads with no experience and people looking to transition careers with no experience. It fosters burnout and toxic workplace culture: will someone maintain good work-life balance if their employment is completely contingent on finding someone to pay for their salary next year? Will they have good relationships with staff who are salaried as part of operational budget? Will your org be likely to retain this person?
Would hiring someone in this way resonate with your org's stated mission and vision - e.g., to make sustainable change, to empower people, to lift up marginalized voices, to be creative and innovative?
I strongly agree with the idea of working with a professional consultant to formulate a strategic fundraising plan - if you have X dollars, it makes infinitely more sense to pay a significant portion of, if not the whole X, to a professional who can give you professional advice you can act on with confidence than to pay that same amount of money to someone with little/no experience for a year's worth of stumbling in the dark.
I bet there's some useful content in the Fundraising section of Nonprofit AF.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
That last response was salty - apologies! I have Major Feelings about salary in non-profits.
A further elaboration: if you pay a professional to, e.g., develop a fundraising strategy and help decide on the tools you'll need to deploy it - CRM/payment software, website/social media/print, schedule of campaigns and events, targets and strategic decisions if they are met/not met, etc. - looking to hire someone at the entry level to carry out that plan can be entirely reasonable. (Especially given that a significant portion of any fundraising strategy is likely to involve the time and effort of the board and other non-fundraising staff!)
To research salaries, since it seems you're in the US, you could check out Glassdoor (estimate for "fundraiser" salary averages $42k) and Idealist.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2022
A further elaboration: if you pay a professional to, e.g., develop a fundraising strategy and help decide on the tools you'll need to deploy it - CRM/payment software, website/social media/print, schedule of campaigns and events, targets and strategic decisions if they are met/not met, etc. - looking to hire someone at the entry level to carry out that plan can be entirely reasonable. (Especially given that a significant portion of any fundraising strategy is likely to involve the time and effort of the board and other non-fundraising staff!)
To research salaries, since it seems you're in the US, you could check out Glassdoor (estimate for "fundraiser" salary averages $42k) and Idealist.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2022
Fourthing hiring a consultant. If all goes well, you can consider a salaried person.
Paying a fundraiser based solely on what they're bringing in is against the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Code of Ethics.
posted by anotheraccount at 3:57 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Paying a fundraiser based solely on what they're bringing in is against the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Code of Ethics.
posted by anotheraccount at 3:57 PM on January 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks all. I'm afraid I don't quite have the vocabulary to ask the question correctly here.
We're a not entirely-broke membership organization, but we've hit a ceiling in terms our ability to raise more funds from the current membership and board. We do very little other fundraising so far. The bulk of our staff is part-time, but we pay ok and our Executive Director makes a very competitive salary. We're not looking to trick anyone into working for peanuts, though we do understand that we can't add a perpetual professional salary to our existing budget without a corresponding increase in reliable income. We're trying to learn how to do that.
We got a surprise, non-replicable donation that could conceivably allow us to commit to a one-time batch of expenses, possibly up to the low six figures. The idea is to invest that in building the fundraising machine that will allow us expand the organization in a durable way.
There's a very real contingent on the board who'd rather just add it to our investment portfolio than try something new with fundraising. Perhaps they're just right, but a number of us want to have at least considered other options. Perhaps my question is better phrased: How much will it realistically cost (and maybe how long will it realistically take) to establish the existence of a person who could help us grow by building new streams of income sufficient to not have to lay them off when we run out of these funds?
posted by willpie at 10:52 AM on January 26, 2022
We're a not entirely-broke membership organization, but we've hit a ceiling in terms our ability to raise more funds from the current membership and board. We do very little other fundraising so far. The bulk of our staff is part-time, but we pay ok and our Executive Director makes a very competitive salary. We're not looking to trick anyone into working for peanuts, though we do understand that we can't add a perpetual professional salary to our existing budget without a corresponding increase in reliable income. We're trying to learn how to do that.
We got a surprise, non-replicable donation that could conceivably allow us to commit to a one-time batch of expenses, possibly up to the low six figures. The idea is to invest that in building the fundraising machine that will allow us expand the organization in a durable way.
There's a very real contingent on the board who'd rather just add it to our investment portfolio than try something new with fundraising. Perhaps they're just right, but a number of us want to have at least considered other options. Perhaps my question is better phrased: How much will it realistically cost (and maybe how long will it realistically take) to establish the existence of a person who could help us grow by building new streams of income sufficient to not have to lay them off when we run out of these funds?
posted by willpie at 10:52 AM on January 26, 2022
The question you asked in your update is exactly the kind of question a development consultant could help you answer. You 100% should contract with one to help you craft a development plan.
posted by decathecting at 5:28 PM on January 27, 2022
posted by decathecting at 5:28 PM on January 27, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by parmanparman at 10:54 AM on January 25, 2022