Since COVID-19 upended our working lives, there has been much discussion about the Great Resignation and high turnover across industries. Fundraising has been impacted, but it’s not a new problem in our field. Ten years ago, the landmark report UnderDeveloped diagnosed some of the key problems that lead to high turnover, including lack of investment in systems, unrealistic expectations, and failure to make fundraising an organization-wide priority.
Most of the report’s recommendations focus on ways to increase retention. While this is a worthy goal, we also need to prepare for the reality of turnover. Even with ideal working conditions and a supportive environment, the competition for good fundraisers is fierce, and your top performers are always at risk of being lured away. There are also the numerous “life happens” circumstances behind resignations that are out of everyone’s control and can leave organizations in the lurch. If we approach this problem realistically, how do we prepare? What steps can leaders take to increase their organization’s resiliency and minimize the disruption of turnover?
Scrutinize Staffing and Job Descriptions
Is your development operation set up for success? Are staff roles and responsibilities reasonable, and desired results achievable? I know that many organizations, especially smaller ones, are constrained in their hiring, but putting the work of two (or even three!) jobs into one is a recipe for disaster. Overwork leads to burn out and more churn, hindering overall success.
Bring a critical eye to your job descriptions and think about how ancillary duties can be carved out to allow your staff to focus on core fundraising work and relationship building. Is your skilled gift officer spending large chunks of time on the website, emails, or print communications? Is their plate cluttered with administrative work? Outsourcing tasks or creating new support roles is a valuable investment, freeing gift officers to focus on high-impact work.
Cross-Train and Document
To the extent possible, it’s a good idea to cross-train staff members in core functions. Exactly how this looks varies tremendously by organization size, but spending time to get to know the whole operation, especially those in “behind-the-scenes” key roles, is invaluable.
However, sometimes you are dropped into new positions and cross-training either hasn’t happened or is not possible. To prepare, make sure that you have thorough documentation of critical tasks. The most illustrative example of the importance of this is gift processing. This work is complex and extremely detail-oriented, often with numerous data points to enter for every transaction. It also requires a high level of familiarity and comfort with your database. Although technology has come a long way, it’s often far from intuitive. If the person handling this work is out and it grinds to a halt, donors are not thanked promptly, and results are damaging.
If you take no other steps, make sure that your gift processing guidelines are extremely detailed and accurate, without any assumed knowledge brought to the task. This will ensure that staff members can step in to keep this essential process running when unanticipated situations arise. Over time, work to codify all fundraising processes. Think about everything that must happen in order to identify, cultivate, solicit, acknowledge, steward, and process a gift. Yes, it’s a lot! Consider forming a taskforce to lead this project and engage a diverse group of staff. Junior level staff can play an important role as they are often the ones executing processes and they tend to have fewer opportunities for leadership positions.
Solidify Your Culture of Philanthropy
It’s very easy for leadership to say that they support a culture of philanthropy, but what does this look like in practice? What concrete actions can make this a reality?
A true culture of philanthropy has solid plans to back it up and disperse responsibilities. This includes clear goals and expectations for board members, a communications calendar that supports fundraising and the entire organization, and an annual development plan with distinct roles and shared responsibilities.
These plans will serve as a foundation and save you from starting from scratch with new hires. In Part II of this series next month, I’ll discuss building this out even further to create 3-5 year organizational plans that will keep your work on a steady course despite disruptions. Stay tuned!