Leyna on Nonprofit Leadership

For the past two years, I’ve managed the auction for my synagogue’s big fundraising gala. I volunteer as a fundraiser because we are a scarce breed, and because this work enables me to walk a mile in the shoes of the people I recruit. (Preferably red stilettos, but that is another blog….)

The two fantastic volunteers who created the gala and have run it for six years just officially “retired”. This year’s very successful event was their last. Pondering how we are going to replace Lisa and Susie got me thinking about the importance of succession planning for development staff, especially leadership.

With a little help from my friends, here are some tips for fundraising succession planning:

Know Thy Systems: Having a database doesn’t ensure institutional memory.  Robert Weiner, fundraising technology consultant, often encounters problems in the transition between Chief Development Officers. “I encounter problems when the prior CDO has had a custom system built, or really didn’t use or care about the database.  I also see lots of organizations that have a donor database, but where the CDO does all her tracking in Excel.” (Leyna: Yikes!)

Document, document, document: Make sure you have a written fundraising plan, including major strategies, calendar, tactics, and responsibilities. Be sure that your fundraising budget is annotated with clear information about variances in both income and expenses.

Share the Love: Laura McCrea, of Laura McCrea & Associates, says, “Development Directors often develop a wonderful understanding of their major donors and the nuances of how to keep each donor engaged and inspired.  All too often, this knowledge – which can’t typically be summarized in database fields – is not shared with other staff and volunteers on a regular basis.”   You don’t want knowledge of the passions and pet peeves of your biggest donors walking out with exiting staff.

Build Bench Strength: Your annual fund development budget should include a line for professional development, and not just for your Development Director. The best development leaders continually groom staff for more responsibility and provide skill development opportunities. (Example: Fundraising Day!)

Plan for the Unexpected: Prepare an emergency succession plan. There is no better way to identify your vulnerabilities than to develop a plan for dealing with the unexpected departure or absence of your Development Director. Theresa Nelson, an experienced interim Development Director, suggests creating a transition binder containing all the key information that your Director of Development would want were she new on the job, and updating it annually.

Pray. (Can’t hurt!)

Next month: Building a strong ED/DD partnership.

The last time I wrote, I told you that the secret to hiring success is to hire happy people. Easier said than done, I realize. I can’t say I have a perfect track record, but I do have some ideas on how to screen for what we might call the “contentedness factor”.

Making the right hire (finding a good fit for the job and your organization) has a lot to do with expectations. You want to find someone whose expectations fit what you can offer. I learned this years ago when I was the VP of Human Resources for Smith & Hawken (may it RIP.)

Prospective S & H employees used to come crawling on their knees as though toward Mecca, out of a desire to work for such an environmentally correct company. I had to convince candidates that the company’s green mission wouldn’t matter for long if they hated data entry.

Here are some things to consider in determining whether a candidate is looking for more than you can offer (i.e. happiness or meaning in life), or worse, looking for a place to spread the misery around.

Do the reasons the candidate left prior jobs make sense, and seem unrelated to performance or professional relationships? Does she make any negative references to former employers? Does your job seem like the next logical step for this candidate? If not, what does your gut tell you about their reasons for being interested?

Determine through resume, interviews, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. what kind of life this person has outside of their profession. Got friends? Family? Other passions and ways of blowing off steam? All good indicators. (Yes, you should Google candidates and read their Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles.)

Last, references are just as important as interviews. You can ask a reference: Is Jane a happy person? You can ask how Jane got along with colleagues. You can ask if Jane was a mentor and support to others. You can even ask if Jane was fun to be around. (I promise, these questions are not illegal.)

Of course, you need to hire someone with the skills and experience to do the job. But I’d pick a happy person who needs a bit of training over a miserable yet highly skilled person any day.

I’ve been hiring line staff, managers and executives for my own team and for clients for the past 25 years. I’ve overseen human resources for two national companies, and taught classes on recruiting and hiring. All my years of experience and wisdom about how to “get the right people on the bus” can be boiled down to three words: Hire happy people.

I’m serious. I don’t care how talented, experienced or educated a candidate is, if she is unhappy with her life she will be a bad hire. We’ve all experienced this scenario: A single employee or board member impacts your entire organization through negative behaviors. A person who feels the need to build himself up through putting others down, or who sees every glass as half empty, or who constantly expects the worst of people, can wreak havoc upon your organization. And because this person may be very competent at doing his job, it is often hard to get rid of him (or “free up his future” as I like to say.)

Hence my advice: Hire happy people. So what do I really mean? I’m not talking about screening for bubbly, ever-smiling, “power of positive thinking” types. What I mean is that you need to discern whether someone genuinely likes herself — is comfortable in her own skin. You want to hire someone who has a life outside of work; a life rich with activities that provide enjoyment and meaning. Because a job with your organization, no matter how fabulous and meaningful your mission, cannot provide your employees with their life’s meaning. Trust me on this one.

Hire people who have healthy, nurturing relationships with close friends, a partner, kids or a spiritual community (or all of the above!) Hire people who have a passion for beekeeping, salsa dancing, dachshund racing, or something else entirely unrelated to their day job. Hire people who speak well of former employers, take personal responsibility for past career mishaps, and who will be okay whether or not they get offered your job.

Now, am I saying that you don’t have to screen for the right skills, experience, aptitude and cultural fit? Of course not. But no matter how skilled, qualified and mission-driven an applicant is, don’t hire her if she is unhappy. I promise you — unhappy people bring their unhappiness to work with them , and spread it around like a bad cold. You have enough work to do without having to worry about preventing an unhappy virus from infecting your staff.

So how do you screen and interview for the “happiness” factor? That’s another blog…

Most of us in the nonprofit community are familiar with the statistics about the short tenure of senior development staff. Is this rapid turn-over the result of all development folk being restless climbers? I don’t think so.

The reason development directors move around has more to do with unrealistic expectations, and the short length of their “honeymoon” period, than with the draw of greener pastures. Of course, sometimes the fit just isn’t right, or an offer no development professional could refuse comes along.

Here’s my list of hiring mistakes you do have some control over:

1. Hiring a Development Director when what you really need is a development coordinator/administrative assistant. You can’t hire a professional fundraiser with a track record of success and then expect her to do her own data entry. Too many nonprofits go from zero development staff to advertising for a director level person, without considering the support and tools a seasoned fundraiser requires.

2. Assuming that salary and benefits are what a Development Director will cost you. One of the most prepared candidates I’ve worked with provided the prospective employer with a list of the expenses she anticipated — in addition to her salary and benefits — during her first year of employment. These expenses included the costs of membership in professional associations, the cost of an outside consultant to do grant research, the cost of laptop to allow her to work remotely, the cost of attendance at AFP’s annual conference, and so on. You get the picture?

3. Not budgeting enough for fundraising expenses. It costs money to raise money. It really does.

4. Expecting the DD to raise her own salary in the first year. Even the most seasoned professional has a learning curve. If your programs are complex, or your new hire hasn’t worked in your field, she’ll need time to be able to effectively engage funders and donors. Be realistic about the foundation upon which your new DD has to build. If you’ve never raised major gifts from indivduals, it is going to take time for your DD to help grow that capacity.

5. Assuming that “Development Directors” is a generic term. Don’t expect your new DD to be all things to all people — she is going to be fiercely talented in some areas, and not so strong in others. To make a good hire, you need to know where you are going as an organization, the strategies you are employing to get you there, and what areas of fundraising you want to strengthen and grow.

6. Thinking that once you hire a DD, you can wash your hands of fundraising. If you hire an effective development professional, you should expect to be more engaged in fundraising, not less. The difference is in how your time will be spent. You should find yourself spending much less time on details, and much more making direct asks for large amounts of money.

7. Not including your board in the hiring process. I don’t know of a single nonprofit that can rely solely on grant funding in today’s economy. Raising money from individuals requires your board’s active involvement, and therefore your board needs to be engaged in the hiring process. If you hire a DD who doesn’t work well with your board chair or your development committee members, you’ve just hired the wrong person for your organization.