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Customer Success Manager at Blackbaud Canada

jane griffith photoJane Griffith Practice Leader - Academic and Not for Profit at Four Corners Group, Inc  joined today’s Fundraising Mastermind call to talk about trends and hot topics in the not-for-profit world. Her advice and comments were so powerful that I immediately sat down and wrote this blog post.  Here is Jane’s advice for competing in the competitive landscape of not-for-profit executive search jobs. It’s a competitive landscape It seems awfully competitive out there because it is! People are not retiring like they used to, and the people that ARE competing for jobs in the not-for-profit sector are also coming from the private sector. There is a huge amount of competition.

Every year I do a list of “aha” moments from congress . (See my blog post from a few years back.) But this year, I’ve changed up my tune. I’m sharing the five implementable moments from congress – things that I can incorporate right away into my daily work that will change my way of working. It's impossible to be in every session at Congress. There's too many! If you are interested in hearing what the "collective brain trust of fundraising mojo" had to say about their favorite parts of congress, JOIN ME on a Google Hangout on December 11th, from 1-2pm EST. Send me an email at [email protected] or follow this link  and I'll put you on the reminder list for the webinar. Now, back to my "do-now" discoveries from Congress.

help!I have had the most amazing week! I received a book in the mail from a friend from far away. Do you know Brené Brown the author and sociologist? The book I received was Daring Greatly. Haven’t heard of her? Stop what you’re doing and watch this video NOW. Brene’s work is all about letting yourself be vulnerable-  to let yourself “be seen” by others, messy parts and all. (Here’s my blog post about providing board members with a space so they can be vulnerable with each other.) I think as fundraisers – especially in isolated, small shops – we think we can figure things out, get to the end of the appeal letter, the to do list, and the board retreat documents if we just work harder, put in more hours and cram one more thing onto our already busy work week. Fundraisers are not good at letting themselves be vulnerable (and I am including myself in this bucket!) We are crappy at saying “I need help.” And if we get to the point of needing help, we have no idea who to turn to because by then we’ve cut ourselves off from the very community that might be able to help…because we’ve been too busy. We need to change this.

Studying for my CFRE exam has forced me to reflect on the differences between amateur fundraisers, and professional fundraisers. There is a place for everyone - and we need both – but it’s worth enumerating the not-so-subtle differences between the two. This list will help many small to mid-size charities clarify fundraising motivations to the board. Many Board members consider themselves fundraisers. The question is: are they amateurs, or professionals?

soar like an eagleOne of my most frustrating moments as a consultant came when I was working with programming staff, trying to collect some stories – stories that I needed in order to fundraise. I was working with excellent programming people:  they were good at their jobs and dedicated to the mission of the organization. Wow – was it ever challenging to get stories “from the field!” To understand people’s actions, you need to understand their perspectives.
  • Programming staff: rewarded for executing programming, project focused, well connected with their volunteers and their community, action-oriented (at least the good ones!)
  • Development staff: rewarded for getting personal, spending time with donors, telling compelling stories, and raising money by connecting emotionally with individuals.

leadershipAs a people-focused profession, fundraisers have a natural advantage as managers: we understand that people drive our projects, and that success begins with the people that work in our offices, move our mission forward, and communicate our messages externally in not-for-profit workplaces everywhere. If we are good managers, we think about the connection between these two things – people and projects – and how we can support our staff so that they can contribute as fulfilled, and unique members of our teams.

diceFull disclosure for this blog post: I barely passed statistics in university. I was an Economics minor that took the remedial statistics class. I memorized my formulas and squeaked my way through the course. Fast forward a few – almost 20 – years, and it turns out that I use statistics quite a bit in my daily life as a fundraiser. Thankfully I am not calculating statistics, but rather I use statistics to emphasize a point, demonstrate a need, or to highlight a social inequality.

Statistics – the big, the bad and the ugly

Not-for-profits spend a lot of time talking about big statistics:

The Dinner Party. It was a social fixture in the ‘60’s, but in the last few decades it has lost some of its allure. If you are a not-for-profit development officer, read on: there are some really good reasons why revitalizing the dinner party can lend meaningful support to your organization. The best story I have ever heard about hosting “home turf” dinner parties was shared with me by my friend, Kate Jaimet, a writer and journalist here in Ottawa. She was hired by the Chelsea Club - a women’s club for Ottawa’s high society ladies - to compile a mini-history of the organization. The interviews that Kate conducted shed enormous light on how networking happened in Ottawa high society during the past few decades. Here is the story of one of her interviewees.

Mr. and Mrs. Dick Bell

Mrs. Ruth Bell, now 92 years old recalled how her husband, Mr. Dick Bell, an elected Member of Parliament, had a long list of friends, supporters and fellow parliament members that he needed to “spend some quality time with.”