Nonprofit

Fundraising Tip: How to Keep Your Head of Fundraising

Years of experience in fundraising and recruiting have my head filled with ideas.

Author in his office. Photo credit: Author

Another spectacular leader of a nonprofit fundraising team shared this past week that they were leaving their position.

They had been at their current nonprofit for almost two years.

Just two years.

During the same week, a friend of mine who is also in nonprofit leadership spoke to me about the challenges many nonprofits in her city are having with finding a good head of fundraising.

In the article, I refer to the head of fundraising, and there are many titles. It could be the chief development officer, vice president of philanthropy, or development director. Head of fundraising seemed the better way to go!

In my almost twenty years of leading nonprofit fundraising teams, I have experienced difficult circumstances that have caused me to consider leaving and I have hired great fundraising professionals for my team. All of this experience has been on my mind as I consider what happened last week.

I often hear in recruiting circles, “Hire the right rock star and then let them do their job”. I don’t hear those exact words, but am…