July 26, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
After more than a dozen years leading the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Paulette Maehara announced on Monday that she plans to retire by March 2011.
Ms. Maehara, 60, says that it is an appropriate time to leave the organization since it is now on a “more solid financial footing” than it has been since the economic downturn started. She informed the organization’s board at its meeting in mid-July.
In 2000, Ms. Maehara says she made a commitment to stay as head of the organization until its 50th anniversary in 2009. But the end of 2008 proved to be a tough time for the organization, so she decided to postpone her retirement. “We were facing our own financial challenge,” she said.
200 Chapters
The Association of Fundraising Professionals represents more than 30,000 fund raisers and has an estimated 200 chapters. During Ms. Maehara’s tenure, membership increased by about 10,000 and the number of chapters grew by more than 50. Last year, though, the number of members declined by 7 percent, the first time the membership has ever dropped, the association says.
A search committee will be appointed in late August. No search firm has been selected yet. The board will discuss in September what it wants in a new leader.
Ms. Maehara says the biggest challenge her successor faces is stemming the critical shortage of fund raisers, “There’s not enough young people who know that fund raising is a solid career choice,” she says.
Her proudest accomplishment, she says, has been expanding the association’s growth and presence internationally; the culmination of this was a four-year effort to create the International Statement of Ethical Principles in Fundraising, a universal code of ethics now used by some 25 countries.
Born in Happy, Tex., Ms. Maehara graduated from the University of Hawaii and served as chief executive of the Epilepsy Foundation before joining the association.
Ms. Maehara, who lives in Washington, D.C., with her 71-year-old husband Tom, says the couple is building a home in South Carolina and will be moving there. “We’d like to enjoy life while we still have our health.”
