Raising the Raisers

For the last year or so, the nonprofit world has been abuzz with the subject of an upcoming crisis in leadership. Even the Inky wrote a piece recently about leadership transitions, featuring our own Martin Cohen.



The crisis that is not being discussed so much, though it seems at least as apparent, is the lack of Development Directors. It's taking organizations many months, sometimes years, to find development directors that suit them--usually at a higher salary than they expect to pay. [Of course, for fundraisers a high salary can just increase the stress--after all, you have to raise that money the board just gave you.]

When you talk to smart people in the field, people who might, with a little training, be excellent candidates for development jobs, noone wants them, even for higher salaries, even for the experience that would lead to Executive Director positions, even for the greater influence over the direction of organizations that comes with fundraising.


Why not? There are some good reasons, primary among them being the stress of having to raise money, the distaste for asking for money... there's also the fact that the fundraiser is percieved as carrying the burden for meeting an organization's budget, but unlike the director, has little control over the spending side. The Development Director is charged with using the board as his or her primary tool for raising money, but often he or she does not have direct contact with the board, or has relationships with the board that have to be mediated through the Director. A lot of responsibility with not a lot of control. Doesn't sound like fun.



It's a position that often, especially in stressed organizations, become a scapegoat. If you don't raise enough money, the board does not want to blame itself, or blame the director--better to blame the development director, whose responsibility for raising funds is built into his or her title.

But even with all this taken into account, there seems to be a stigma attached to fundraising positions that is greater than the sum of the negatives against it.