Fundraiser Tips: Don't Say You're Sorry

There are legitimate times to say you're sorry -- like when you accidentally bumped into someone, spilling their hot coffee all over them. Or when you forgot your anniversary for the second year in a row.

While those situations call for apologies, you should never feel sorry about making an ask as a fundraiser.

“To go out and to have an apologetic tone when you are asking really sends a mixed, conflicted message to the people you are talking to,” said Timothy Winkler, CEO of Winkler Consulting Group in Charleston, S.C. Speaking at a recent Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits, Winkler listed four reasons you should never say "sorry" as a fundraiser.

• People don’t just hear “sorry.” What you say and what donors will interpret may be different when quickly follow up your ask with an apology. “The secondary message behind what you are communicating to those folks is ‘our mission really isn’t that important. Our mission really isn’t that urgent. Our mission isn’t a priority — there are other more important things you should be focusing on,’” said Winkler.
• Times are tough. Everyone knows that the economy is in the pits. Your donors don’t need you to remind them of that. That’s what news reports are for. When you ask like the donation is a burden, it will feel that way to the donor.
• Communicate the need. Statistics have played out again and again that donors still give during economic downturns. Donors need to feel that your mission is worth their discretionary dollar – so make your case for giving as strong as ever.
• Be confident. “It’s a subtle tone and attitude, but it makes a huge difference in your effectiveness in raising that money,” said Winkler. Like a bad cold, confidence can spread from person to person. Let your donors catch your enthusiasm for the mission.

Can You Be A Five-Tool Fundraiser?

If you are a fan of baseball, you've probably heard fans and professionals alike raving about so-called "five-tool players." These are the rare individuals who can play every aspect of the game at a high level.

Nonprofits would do anything to hire an employee -- especially a fundraiser -- who could do everything at an elite level. There are a lot of talented nonprofit professionals looking for jobs, but asking one person to do it all is asking too much.

That's why organizations are focusing more on the team concept.

During the AFP 50^th International Conference on Fundraising, Chris Looney, Jim Looney and Claudia Looney of CCS Fundraising introduced the concept of the Five Tool Fundraiser, not one person but a team that coheres to provide the tools necessary for successful fundraising.

Those tools are:

• Effective Solicitor. This person is mission driven and passionate, with strong institutional knowledge and fundraising DNA.
• Effective Manager of CEO and Executive Team. This is a teacher and mentor, a senior member of the leadership team who develops tools and resources.
• Effective Staff Manager. This person hires the best, minimizes turnover and is driven to help staff succeed.
• Effective Strategist. This individual is always looking ahead, takes the initiative, is a big-tenter and navigates around politics, keeping drama to a minimum.
• Effective Board/Volunteer Manager. This one gets the best from people who are committed to the mission.

Do you match any of these tools? Head to the NPT Jobs Career Center to start a Hall of Fame career as a fundraiser.

Tips For The Aspiring Fundraiser

It's not easy being a fundraiser. Asking people for money, especially in the middle of a down economy, can be a nerve-wracking experience. This can cause those who are just beginning this job to want to apologize for even asking for assistance with your cause.

This is exactly the wrong approach to take.

During nonprofit software giant Blackbaud's recent Conference for Nonprofits, Timothy Winkler, CEO of Winkler Consulting Group in Charleston, S.C, said you should never feel sorry for fundraising. He argued that talking to donors with an apologetic tone sends mixed messages.


If you are an aspiring fundraiser, Winkler offered the following suggestions to hone your craft:

• People don't want to hear "sorry." By saying this, you send the message that your mission isn't really that urgent, which is the opposite of what you want to convey.
• When you ask for a donation as if it is a burden, donors will believe that it is.
• Communicate the need. Donors need to feel that your mission is worth the money -- so make your case for giving as strong as ever.
• Be confident. Like a bad cold, confidence can spread from person to person. Let your donors catch your enthusiasm for the mission.

Can You Be A Stay-At-Home Fundraiser?

A Fundraising job would seem to be the type of position that would lend itself to telecommuting. You're going to be spending a lot of time on the phone or making visits with donors, so being in the office all of the time isn't always imperative.

This doesn't mean that all fundraisers are of the stay-at-home variety. As Jill Dotts of the American Heart Association pointed out at the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) 49th International Conference on Fundraising, there are only certain positions in development that lend themselves to telecommuting. These jobs include:

• development director
• development officer
• donor relations manager
• special events manager
• grant writer
• database manager
• prospect researcher

Employers would do well to consider offering the option of telecommuting to any of the above positions, as this expands the reach of your job to candidates who live outside the state. If you do consider allowing telecommuting, Dotts said to address the following considerations:

• The real estate premium. Do you really need all that office space? Think of program space vs. administration.
• The recruiting/retention of staff who want flexibility.
• An organizational culture that includes trust and accountability.
• Consistent guidelines for the entire organization.
• Top-notch communication, and not just in day-to-day interaction.
• Awareness that telecommuting does not work well with micro- or insecure managers.

Can You Be An Introverted Fundraiser?

It would seem difficult to be successful at fundraising as an introvert. The nature of the job means you have to deal with people on an ongoing basis. While it certainly helps to have an outgoing personality as a fundraiser, it's not a requirement.

According to Eva E. Aldrich and Tyrone M. Freeman, associate directors of The Fundraising School of The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, introverted people can bring a lot to the table when it comes to fundraising. Speaking at the 48th AFP International Conference on Fundraising, they said that harnessing their strengths can be helpful for organizations.

Here are some of those strengths:

• Relationship building.
• Listening.
• Reflection.

 Aldrich and Freeman then discussed the best ways to get introverts to get past their comfort zones:

• Reaching out.
• Reflecting, and the acting.
• Managing their energy.
• Exploring roles.

As far as working with introverted colleagues (or donors), they suggested the following:

• Allow them time for thinking and reflection.
• Make space in the conversation.
• Make time for relationships, and solitude. 

Facts About Fundraising Staff

Cross-Posted From The Nonprofit Jobseeker

Staff turnover is a fact of life for any nonprofit manager. A very costly fact of life. This is even more of an issue when it comes to fundraising staff. Not only is the work they do very valuable, but finding a replacement can be very difficult and expensive. And to add insult to injury, the time spent finding a replacement can be a prime period for fundraising opportunities. That's why it's so important to improve the retention of your fundraisers.

The NonProfit Times attended this year's Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) International Conference on Fundraising where Penelope Burk, president of Cygnus Applied Research, Inc., spoke on the topic of staff turnover. She said the key to retaining great fundraisers lies in knowing more about them. She shared some facts gathered through a survey of fundraising employees of nonprofits:

• Why they chose a fundraising career. Most fundraisers entered the profession “accidentally” (i.e., through other work they were hired to do), rather than intentionally. Some take an opportunistic view, coming into the field as leverage to other jobs in the sector.
• The profile of a loyal fundraiser (one who intends to stay). Key characteristics include a belief in the mission, having personal/family needs accommodated, being included/respected as an active participant in planning, creative discussion, working with a team.
• Why fundraisers left their last position. Salary or increase in salary is always the primary reason why fundraisers left their last jobs or intend to leave the current one. Flexibility on salary plus offering benefits that fit the times is a first practical step to lengthening their tenure.

Improving Fundraiser Retention

Cross-Posted From The Nonprofit Jobseeker

It's increasingly rare these days to find people who are not only successful at fundraising, but also have enthusiasm for it. That's why, if you hired someone with those traits, it's so important to do everything in your power to keep them. How do you go about improving fundraiser retention? It's a difficult task, no doubt, but it can be done.

The NonProfit Times attended this year's AFP International Conference on Fundraising. Speaking at that conference was Penelope Burke, president of Cygnus Applied Research, Inc. She had some ideas on how you can best go about keeping your most valuable fundraisers:

• Be flexible on your salary and benefits. If they are that good at what they do, they deserve to be rewarded. Doing this also means you can be even more insistent on bottom-line results.
• Allow your fundraisers to work independently. You should check in on them from time to time get updates on their progress, but make sure you are not breathing down their necks.
• Value their input. Taking a suggestion to heart is one of the best things a nonprofit manager can do to show your employees that they are being listened to. It's also a great way to make them want to continue to work for you.
• On a related note, make sure to publicly credit staff when they come up with a good idea.
• Looking for a new senior fundraiser? Consider promoting from within rather than hiring a brand new employee. This will improve employee morale and eliminates the need for extensive orientation periods.

Four Must-Have Skills For Fundraising Jobs

So you want to work in fundraising?  That's all well and good, but do you have the right qualifications?  Having a solid background in finance and numbers will help your cause, but nonprofits look for a wide variety of skills when choosing people for fundraising jobs.  Here are four skills that many organizations look for when going through potential fundraisers:

• A strong background in technology: If you have a great understanding of computers, the Internet, and social media, it will greatly help your cause.  The Internet is an important frontier for fundraising, so using it to research new donors will be a great help to the organization.
• Intellectual capacity beyond traditional book smarts: Being able to think outside the box to solve potential problems quickly is key.  The fundraising world will throw many different problems at you, so it's imperative to have great problem solving skills.
• Communication: A great fundraiser will have excellent written and verbal skills.  You should be very comfortable selling the organization to potential donors.
• Team Player: Fundraisers will often have to work independently, but they still need to be able to work efficiently with a team.  If you think that the donors you get are your property, fundraising probably isn't the right position for you.

Nonprofit Career Round-Up: 5/10/2011

Sorry for the delay in the links, I've been fairly busy today with other work I had to take care of.  So without further delay, here are the nonprofit links for today:

• 'Simple Success Fundraising Plan'-This post from Sandy Rees is a handy step-by-step guide on how to help your nonprofit create a solid fundraising plan.  Must-read material whether you are new to fundraising or not.
• 'What's on Your Wall?'-No, this is not a post about Facebook, it's actually about normal walls!  Yeah, remember those?  Anyway, this is an entertaining yet insightful blog post from Ken Burnett about how to best use your bare office walls; both to make your office look better, and to help office morale.
• 'How to Determine What Salary to Ask For'-This is a topic many job-seekers struggle with.  On one hand, they want to be paid fairly; but on the other, they don't want to look greedy.  After reading this great article from USA Today, job hunters should have at least a better idea on how to negotiate their salary.  I should probably do a post on this subject at some point...

Fundraising Jobs: Some More Details

In fundraising, it's all about the Benjamin's

Yesterday, I talked about the kind of nonprofit careers that are most popular among job seekers.  One of those that I mentioned were fundraising jobs.  I realized that there are some misconceptions about this kind of non profit work that I wanted to clear up.  And in doing that, I can also give you a better idea of what fundraising entails. 

First off, let's get one thing straight: working in fundraising doesn't mean you are going to be on a phone all day begging random people for money; it's much more than that.  In this article from Forbes.com, Gabrielle Mellett, of Earth Justice, says that it has more to do with forming "partnerships with people who then have an incredible opportunity to make a real difference."  In lamen's terms, a good fundraiser is going to be forming strong relationships with potential donors.  In other words, these are not one time contacts; these are individuals you will get to know very well, and it ends up being very satisfying if you accomplish your goals.

In my previous post, I mentioned that one of the jobs in fundraising is a Director of Development.  Another example of a fundraising career you can pursue is a Major Gifts Officer.  In this job, it is your responsibility to identify major donors (i.e. corporations or other big name donors) that are willing to donate large sums of cash to your organization.  You would also be in charge of planning fundraising activities that these donors would be able to participate in.  Although the Forbes article I referenced before is from 2009, it lists Major Gifts Officers as one of the more sought after fundraising careers. But if the listings on non profit job boards are any indication, it is still a position in high demand.  It's also a position that pays a good amount of money, with salaries up to $70,000 (according to The NonProfit Times' 2010 Salary and Benefits Report).

So are you interested in a career in fundraising?  If you haven't studied it before, many post-graduate programs at Universities offer courses in finance and fundraising.  And before you pursue this kind of career, you should make sure you are comfortable dealing with people, and have excellent verbal, writing, and listening skills.

Nonprofit Career Round-Up: 4/6/2011

Another day, another batch of helpful nonprofit job links for you.  Here are today's recommendations...

• 'Seven Tips for Techies in a Nonprofit Job Interview'-This article is from NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network), and as the title implies, it is geared towards those who are interested in the technology side of nonprofits.  So if you want to, say, get a job as a webmaster at a non-profit organization, this is a good article for you to read.
• 'The Wild Woman's Guide to Fundrasing'-Before you ask, yes, this link is safe for work.  Maureen Anderson, a nonprofit career expert, has recently written a book on fundraising as a career.  Why is this interesting to you?  Well, you can submit her questions that will be asked on a radio show broadcast on the link I provided.  Here's your chance to ask any burning questions you might have about fundraising!
• 'Nonprofit Offers International Teaching Jobs in Asia'-Many people I know have decided to take teaching jobs overseas after they graduated college, so I decided to pass along this link I found about that very subject.  Greenheart Travel, a division of the nonprofit organization Center for Cultural Interchange, has announced that it is looking for applicants for teaching jobs in Asian countries.  These countries include China, Taiwan, and South Korea.   I haven't ever done teaching abroad, but everyone I talk to tells me it is a life changing experience, so it's worth taking a look at.