On Indeed alone there are over 180,000 nonprofit jobs posted right now and for many of these organizations, well-matched resumes are few and far between, especially when it comes to the search for development staff. While we all need to look more closely at what our organizations offer for compensation, benefits, and flexibility to fundraising professionals, we also need to remind ourselves that fundraising is a very difficult job and the environment we created within our organizations must take that into account, daily. This means shifting how we all fundamentally treat and take care of development professionals.
Here are three things we have heard from development professionals who have left our sector in the last few months that truly break our hearts as their colleagues:
"I just couldn't take any more meetings with my director and be exceeding my fundraising goals year after year to get minimal raises."
"I brought in an extra $100,000 they were not expecting in 2021 and was told I was not eligible for a 3% raise- while other departments received it."
"I couldn't take one more week of not hearing any positive feedback from leadership. I spent months being told how to change what I was doing, by board members, program staff, even though my changes were resulting in more resource flow and committed donors."
While we can not change everything about the culture and capacity of our organizations overnight, we can acknowledge that without proper development staffing, it is very hard to raise money and even more important, it is hard to build community. This month we invite you to show your fundraising and development staff some love, care, and appreciation. Make sure they have what they need to do their job well, even if traditionally it has not been made accessible to them. We will get through this pressure point around staffing if we shift culture to be more creative and inclusive plus, embrace new strategies. Below, we list a few services from our team at Wright Collective that can help fill the gaps as you seek new staff.
Stay in touch! We are here to help your mission and we love fundraising professionals so very much.
Filling the Gaps in Fundraising: We are thrilled to offer a few services that can help you continue to grow your development efforts while you await new hires or embrace transitions.
Wealth Screening Package: We will run your existsing donor database through IWave technology to give you a comprehensive overview of the capacity and giving interests of your existing donors. After organizing this data based on your funding needs, we meet with you for a 90 minute-session to discuss top opportunities and the most important meetings to get on the books.
Development Tech Audit & Guidebook: Not sure how all your technologies and systems work together for fundraising success? Let us conduct and audit and make recommendations so your new hire steps in with a fully integrated system and thorough understanding of how those technologies can increase your revenue this year.
Brand Partnerships: Let us help you launch a new revenue stream in brand partners so that your fundraising team can easily steward corporate gifts in 2022. We create a brand partner profile, then leverage our research technologies to identify 10 potential partners. This scope of work is rounded out as we send out the initial emails and calls to make the research come to life.