Retaining Development Professionals
Nonprofit development positions turn over way too frequently, negatively impacting the financial health of your organization, both in the short-term and long-term. According to a study by Penelope Burk, the average development professional stays at his or her job for 16 months before assuming another position. Because fund development has its roots in developing and maintaining strong donor relationships, this revolving door can cause a significant drop in giving, impacting your bottom line while relationships go un-nurtured and people go un-asked.
How can you best support your development professional and decrease the likelihood and frequency of such turnover?
Treat them like professionals. Development has its own set of research, and your development professional has expertise in this field. That’s why you hired them. Too often I see executive directors or board members undermine that knowledge by asserting their own preferences rather than trusting the development professional. While voicing an opinion can help support their work, undermining their authority and knowledge base will drive them away.
Give them reasonable goals. Everyone needs goals, and most development professionals thrive on them, but only reasonable ones. Just because the organization has a million-dollar deficit does not mean that your development staff person can raise that amount of money. Work with them to identify the organization’s needs AND a reasonable goal based on the organization’s prior history with development and the capacity of the donors. Then, support them and hold them accountable to achieve that goal.
Give them adequate resources. Developing meaningful relationships with donors and prospective donors requires time, money, and flexibility. Do you expect a gift after each meeting or give them time to develop relationships? Do they have a reasonable budget to take donors to coffee or lunch or send a card? Do you expect them in the office from 9-5 every day, even if they attended a gala the night before (or hosted one!) or had dinner with a major donor? Do they have an assistant, or do you expect them to process all the gifts, schedule their own appointments, send thank you letters, AND meet with donors? These all make a difficult job even harder and may cause them to look around for other opportunities.
Support their work. Successful development requires a strong, dedicated team, led by your development professional. Do you make donor calls when your development professional asks? Often a donor wants to talk to the executive director or board members. This does not mean that your development professional cannot close the deal, but that they have adequately prepared the prospect for you to work with them. Do you and your board members introduce prospects to them? People give to people, a warm handoff can make the development process much more effective.
Provide them with professional development opportunities. Let them hone their skills and learn new ideas. It will rejuvenate them and allow them to stay current in the profession. Better yet, join them for some professional development opportunities so that you can better understand their roles, responsibilities, frustrations, and challenges and better support them.
Let them network with other development professionals. Many organizations have only one development staff person, which can become pretty lonely and ineffective with no one with whom to share ideas or commiserate. Give them the resources and the latitude to develop relationships with their colleagues, whether through professional development opportunities or purely social ones.
Compensate them appropriately. Your development staff has a lot of responsibility for raising the funds to help your organization meet its mission. Pay them appropriately. As a profession and a challenging job, they deserve that recognition.
Maintain open lines of communication. Understand their frustrations. Celebrate their victories with them and publicly. Problem-solve as needed. People will more likely stay with an organization where they feel valued and empowered. Communication can help you achieve both of those goals.
While nothing will guarantee that your development professional will never leave your organization, these tips should help minimize the chances that they will begin looking for their next opportunity as soon as the ink dries on their contract with you.
