While I could list many ways to support your development team, I will focus on three key points.
- Culture
- Availability
- Flexibility
Flexibility in working hours usually ranks at the top of complaints I hear from development people. Trust goes a long way in keeping your development team productive and hired. Here are some comments I have heard in my coaching.
“My boss wants me at the office and piles on tasks from 8-5 p.m. so I have a hard time getting out and also many of our donors and events call for evenings and weekends.”
“We had a major event that required me to work long hours in the weeks just prior to the event. I asked for the Monday off following the event and was told that I would have to take vacation time. Why should I bother putting in the extra hours to make the event a success”
“I attended an event late one night. The next morning I made the office at 8:30 to have my ED comment that I was late.”
You get the point. Development people need to be at work when the best return on investment is present and need to spend at least 60% of their time out of the office. That means visiting donors, working weekends, evenings, or early mornings when donors can meet and activities are happening. To hold them to a set schedule creates a habit of watching the clock, buried in busy work and making the checklist more important than bringing in donors. It says very loudly that you would rather have the forty hours than productivity. It erodes trust and loyalty. In addition it hampers the effectiveness of your fundraiser.
But!! The executive director says. How do I hold my development director accountable if they are not in the office?
Through the years, I have found ways to manage accountability through technology, a solid action plan with measurable and monitoring growth in the donor base, number of new gifts, increased gifts and targets identified. Requiring contact reports as a part of a development routine is not only good practice but can help with your nervousness. My favorite saying when I managed a team of development people was “if a contact is not logged into our system with a next step, it didn’t happen.” And that included my contacts! In most databases, there are ways to monitor contacts such as dashboards and reports. Reading such reports are important. For example, when a development person traveled, I required an itinerary. Initially I set this up for safety of the travelers in case something happened or a family emergency at home. But it proved helpful. I reviewed contact reports of a traveling development person and after a couple of trips, I became concerned about the lack of substance and the next step. So I decided to call a couple of the donors to touch base and see how they connected. I found that the visits had not been made. As you become more comfortable with reviewing contact reports, you will notice patterns of productivity. Frequent email correspondences, few one on one calls or visits, and attendance at lots of events but no next steps are indicators of a need for mentoring. I strongly suggest that you work to set up mechanisms that build accountability and trust so that flexibility can be achieved. If not, productivity will suffer and you will not retain quality development professionals.
- Fundraising is a culture that must permeate the whole organization. Set the stage by setting the example. Have fundraising as a key part of every staff and board meeting. Brainstorm ways that each staff person can participate. Let the receptionist know that every call is a potential donor and a program person that every successful program can be shared with those who made them possible so create the story, the pictures. Your interest and attention to development illustrates importance — our organization exists due to donors. In addition, make sure your contacts are noted and set that stage with the board as well. Having an administrative assistant put them into the database adds engagement. I made a habit of taking a couple minutes after every contact to email my report and next step for me to enter or for when I had the luxury of an assistant to do so. Creating that culture starts with the leader. Being engaged even though your plate is full is a powerful endorsement and establishes and maintains a development culture.
- Be available. Prospective donors want to hear from the leader. Sometimes no matter how good the development professional is, they need you. Make it a top priority to touch base frequently with your development team to ask how you can support them. First and foremost, participate actively in an annual fundraising plan that establishes goals and metrics and expectations of you and your team. Then be committed to following up. That plan should call for you to engage in strategy, calls, visits and handwritten notes. Your engagement and recognition of how important their role is to the sustainability of the organization is motivation. The lack of attention from leadership or appreciation on how hard fundraising can be is so demotivating. I still recall vividly how hard I worked for a million dollar gift. It took me over a year to bring it to fruition. The only word I received from leadership — when is the next one, we need more. My bubble was popped and my willingness to stay working the long hours for that person flew out the door. Attention, non-tangible rewards such as a celebration of gifts or goals, extra few hours off are all signs that you are engaged, committed and believe in them and want to retain their loyalty and commitment. Sometimes we fail to recognize how key this is to our development team.
Throughout my fundraising career, leadership has made my job enjoyable or miserable. As I succeeded, I became more discriminate on who I would work for as I understood the importance of these three key factors.
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