Save the Fundraisers

The best defense is a grateful offense

Someone plans to poach your fundraiser. And they want to do it at the worst possible time, right before year-end Giving Season!

Before the Great Resignation, consulting firm Bentz Whaley Flessner found that over half of fundraisers were contacted by potential employers six or more times a year. That means about every two months, a poacher tried to lure your fundraiser to another job.

Can you imagine what that rate is now with unemployment so low and job openings at all-time highs?

Nearly every fundraiser (and ED who fundraises) we’ve talked to this spring has either recently switched jobs or is at least entertaining a move to greener pastures ...

Money isn’t usually the main reason fundraisers choose to stay at an organization. But if your top development staff haven’t had a pay bump and a title change in a while, now’s the time to act. Inflation isn’t going away anytime soon.

But here’s where the real grief lies…

What's a nonprofit leader with a limited budget to do?

There's no need to panic. There are proven short- and long-term strategies for retaining your best staff, including that hardworking fundraiser.

Short-term Plan: Show Gratitude Now

Fundraiser churn is nothing new. A Chronicle of Philanthropy survey in 2019 found that over half of fundraisers were planning to leave their jobs within two years. And nearly a third wanted to leave fundraising altogether.

Their stated reasons for resignation include:

• Unrealistic goals (Fix that with real data)

• Lack of support from leadership 

• Lack of appreciation for what they do

In fact, 55% of fundraisers said they “often felt unappreciated.” 

There’s been a slew of articles recently that suggest showing real gratitude is the secret to retaining employees of all kinds — and “the most essential leadership skill today.” One of the better articles in Forbes suggests blocking time on your calendar each week for gratitude tasks, making appreciation personal, and getting teammates involved.

Fundraiser Appreciation Day on June 30 makes that easy!

Fundraiser Appreciation Day is a chance for nonprofits to pause and simply say “thanks!” for all the hard work. It’s tied to the end of the fiscal year when so many nonprofit managers ask their exhausted fundraisers, “So, how much more can you raise next year?”

To slow that roll, Fundraiser Appreciation Day offers a FREE toolkit of appreciation supplies, including a Fundraiser Wall of Fame and gratitude ideas from actual fundraisers.

There’s something in it for you, too. When you say thanks, research shows your brain releases dopamine and serotonin — two feel-good hormones that help you counter stress.

We all need more of that right now.

Long-term Plan: Form a Retention Strategy

Is your organization among the 80% of nonprofits that admit they don’t have a formal employee retention strategy in place?

Fear not. The National Council of Nonprofits recently released an Employee Engagement Toolkit. It contains some pretty thorough and useful resources. Stuff like:

• 7 ways to re-engage your workforce 

• Nonprofit retention strategies (video & transcript)

• Workplace flexibility fundamentals

It probably got lost in your inbox, but it’s worth checking out this summer to retain as much of your team as you can.

In the meantime, tell your team that you’re prioritizing employee retention. A good first step is scheduling “stay interviews” — especially with fundraisers — to identify pain points and find out how you can keep them. 

It might be as simple as an extra day off to use when they want. Or paying for an online course to boost their skills and sense of upward mobility — a key issue, especially for younger staff. 

What’s the Half Full?

It costs far less to retain a good fundraiser that it does to replace them. Researcher Penelope Burke says each time a fundraiser leaves, it costs nonprofits at least $127,000 in direct and indirect costs. Ouch!

That’s money that could be better spent on your mission.

And a fundraiser who has enough resources to steward the donors she knows well will almost always out produce a newbie who has to learn the ropes … and make expensive mistakes along the way.

This June, do yourself a favor and take a moment to pause and say “thank you” to the fundraisers. Tell them they’re important to your organization’s success and show them what you can accomplish together.

That way, you’ll have something else to celebrate at year’s end. A record-breaking Giving Season!

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