30 Years in the Sector: Observations from One Man’s Point of View
This year marks my 30th anniversary as a fund development professional. I’ve been asked many times over the past few years, what I have seen that has changed in the sector. What follows below are my thoughts to some questions I’ve been asking. Let me know what you think ..
What are the main challenges facing the nonprofit sector today? How different are they from the ones the sector faced a decade or two ago?
These questions come at a good time because I’m entering my 31st year as a fundraising professional in the sector. It’s been an interesting year; I’ve been looking at myself and my role in the sector and done some introspection. As I look at the challenges today in sector, three big ones jump into my head. The first is accountability and how our work as nonprofit organizations, particularly fundraisers, is more and more under scrutiny. When I began my job as a fundraiser, it was common to write “dear friend” letters. We didn’t know who the friend was, we just wrote it, we sent off blanket solicitations. It was very much par for the course. But now demonstrating what the outcomes are and the impact is really much more under examination.
Second, the general sophistication in the sector, fundraising in particular, has increased. This is a significant change and challenge that remains for us, especially for smaller organizations. I began my career in a one-person arts organization so I have a very good sense of challenges that face the arts and small shops, even medium ones. They try to stay engaged in the game while knowing that sophistication is their ally. If you can keep it involved in your work to help with fundraising, you know you can be successful.
Finally, one of the challenges which isn’t necessarily new but still an issue is leadership. We have good leaders in our sector, we just don’t have enough of them. We have good leaders but they’re only human and have only a certain amount of hours in their day so they’re not able to be as active in all areas that we need them to be active in.
What is the sector doing “right”; what can it improve upon?
What we can improve upon is growing more leaders. I’m chairing an initiative in Canada, it’s a small quiet working group called Canada Advancing Philanthropy, a group of only ten people … all feeling passionate about our task. We’re working hard as a task force, focused on one goal and that is to encourage a post-secondary university in Canada to launch a master’s degree in philanthropy. And we are joined and brought together by the common belief that we need to grow more leaders. And so what we have done as a group is we created an RFI (request for information) which we’ve sent out to 34 of Canada’s leading universities asking them to consider launching a masters degree in philanthropy.
Canada needs to grow more leaders in the profession. While not all will benefit from a Masters program, it is hoped that we can encourage potential leaders to pursue further education and develop their leadership potential in a program like this.
Beyond asking, we’ve done research. Approximately 450 Canadian fundraisers were asked about their perception of the need for a Masters degree in Canada. This survey is built upon a research project that Rob Peacock completed on the need and demand for Masters degree in Canada. We attached this research to our RFI so universities can see there is a strong demand and an appetite and willingness to pay market price for a masters degree in philanthropy.
I believe strongly in growing leaders. I’m currently serve as an adjunct professor at the University of Bologna in Italy, I teach at a masters level to Europeans taking a masters degree in philanthropy and am myself a graduate with masters degree in philanthropy from St. Mary’s University in the US. That’s a major piece that needs to be improved on.
In terms of what we’re doing right, we are managing to maintain public trust. And while there are many things we are doing right, maintaining public trust is the one thing we MUST be doing right if we’re going to be able to survive as a sector. Because without it, the whole house of cards collapses.
How are leaders in the sector faring today?
I give them a B minus. If you work in the sector you almost start off with an A because you’re sacrificing a lot of things that you may make elsewhere. But we’re not growing enough of them and some of our best leaders I would like to see spend a greater percentage of time helping the sector and not just the organization they work for. That is always the balance as a leader. You look at any effective leader and they’re working for their sector. I’m a fundraising consultant, who has spent time as Chief Development Officer for such organizations as SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary and the University of Alberta in Edmonton, but I believe in investing back into the profession on the side. For example, I’m editor of the Canadian Fundraising Textbook. These are projects that aren’t going to make me a lot of money but will help advance the sector. So I give us a B minus because we need to be doing way more of it.
What do you wish leaders in this sector could learn from leaders in other sectors, if anything?
I’ve worked with major donors that come from the private sector so I can speak on this. I had a phone call from a senior fundraising volunteer once, he’s a captain of industry, founder and CEO of one of Canada’s top 300 companies. He called me up anxious with the size of my campaign goal and saying we weren’t completing the campaign quick enough. He drew an analogy, saying that in business, when you want to raise money you go out hard, raise money as quick as you can, and get out of the market and onto the next project. I said, “you’re right, we need to keep our eye on the ball but there are advantages to us casting a wider net that may catch a fish you wouldn’t otherwise focus on in the private sector.”
Because we’re trying to change a culture and enhance the culture of philanthropy here; we’re trying to bring different size fish to the table. That’s an example of what we can learn from the private sector: we need to keep our eye on the ball, no question. One of my pet peeves is when fundraisers stay focused on building relationships but forgot the most important fact which is, at the end of the day relationships by themselves don’t count for anything; you need to raise money.
From the government sector I think there are things we can learn too. One important thing is we need to focus on outcomes. The government has been successful in moving in this direction, being outcome-focused.
As for what they can learn from us, people get engaged in life for different reasons, it’s not always a profit motive. And examining what those motivations are is where I think our sector does really well. We are good at understanding what motivates somebody and then trying to match their interests with our needs. We’re not just pitching and selling.
How would you say the fundraising landscape changed over the years?
There’s a lot that changed. I remember going to conferences early in my career and trying to understand how to get ahead of the herd. But the number one thing is relationships, the importance of relationships and defining relationship management as something to focus on in fundraising. And while I say that on one side of my mouth, the other side is saying, at the end of the day if all we have is relationships, we have failed. Because make no mistake about it, fundraisers are evaluated at the end of the day not on the relationships they have. They’re evaluated by how much money they raised. Don’t ever forget it. I’m not saying relationships aren’t important; they’re critical to the process. But if all I had was a good batch of relationships and very little money raised, would your board of directors be satisfied? No they wouldn’t. They’ll say, “Great but I need you to raise money.”
Integration of fund-development practices is important too. For example, many major universities have strong major gifts programs, broad annual fund programs but not always very good planned giving programs. Many of our churches often have a very good annual fund programs and planned giving but almost a nonexistent major gifts program. So how do you get all three cylinders firing at the same time? That is the importance of really maximizing the effectiveness of fundraisers being able to maximize integration.
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Thirdly, there’s the demand for fundraising. We’ve seen the number of nonprofits increase because of the government funding trend has been to decrease funding. We’ve seen demand for fundraisers increase. We’ve seen organizations who didn’t typically see the need to hire professional fundraisers on staff, now moving in that direction. There’s an increasing demand for fundraisers as there is an increase in recognition of the return on investment.
Another big change is the professionalization of fundraising. Just take a look at the key milestones that have occurred in the last 20 years in the profession. I remember starting what was called the Canadian Society for Fundraising Executives in Calgary and then came NSFRE which then became the Association of Fundraising Executives (AFP). That trend took off across the country. We now have 15 strong AFP chapters in Canada as well as CAGP (Canadian Association of Gift Planners) roundtables, all focused on philanthropy and the professionalization of fundraising.
You also have the growth of certificate programs and post-secondary schools offering diplomas and certificates in fundraising. We’ve seen masters degrees in not-for-profit studies, York University particularly. We’ve seen the CFRE program grow in a big way. Along with that came standards of practice and ethics. And all those have become important benchmarks for young fundraisers today. We take for granted that you should not be paid commission for dollars you’ve raised and yet that’s a debate that was hashed out in our profession 15 years ago, that was put in our code of ethics. But I have friends in the private sector who shake their head and say they can’t understand that. But from our point of view, it can affect public trust.
Finally, what’s encouraging is we’re seeing lots of young people choosing fundraising as ‘first choice’ profession. That rarely happened 30 years ago, most of us just fell into it.
What’s the one thing those young fundraising professionals should know?
Don’t hesitate to ask for money. Sometimes I think we worry too much about getting things in alignment, getting our courage up. We have a thousand reasons for why we’re not asking. But we need to ask for money, that’s our job. We need to do it respectfully and in a way that respects donors’ interests and the needs of our organizations. We need to recognize the importance of our passion but guard against universalizing our passion. Passion doesn’t have to be worn on our sleeve, but it needs to be below the surface so donors can see you are excited about what you believe in. And that there is reason to invest in this case and cause.
But just because I’m excited about the cause, I have to guard against expecting the whole world will be excited about it too. There are lots of causes out there that get people excited. I would also talk about the need for continuous self-improvement. We need to be mentoring young professionals today. An important role for us as leaders is to help paint the pathways of possibilities that can exist for professionals as they are looking to explore this profession. We need to have mentors; otherwise they don’t know those paths exist.
Having worked in the arts, social services, and high education sectors, how would you compare the sectors, their challenges moving forward?
I’m very cognizant of the fact that for many arts organizations, the predominant challenge facing them is keeping the lights on, having operating money for tomorrow – immediate fundraising. In social services you still have that challenge but the focus is more on development, finding funds to launch new programs. In higher education it’s an integration of these but mainly focused on brick and mortar or endowments. Every sector has particular challenges but at the end of day we all share the challenge of raising money and keeping donors.
Do you have any mentors who’ve inspired you over the years?
Though I’ve had many, one person has been my primary mentor and still is today: Dr. Terry Flannigan. He’s retired but has held the following positions: He was VP external at University of Alberta; vice-president and founding executive director of the college foundation at Grant MacEwan Community College, and head of development at UBC Kelowna. He spent his entire career in the nonprofit sector and is one of the few leaders in our profession that achieved a PhD early on. I learned many things from him like team building and ethical practice, non-technical things. You can take a course and learn how to write a better direct mail letter but the thing we need more of is leaders who help educate our growing young professionals on those things you can’t take a course on.
