Moving Into Fund Raising Jobs

Q. I am a successful paralegal who has been an active volunteer fund raiser for many community and national charities. I also have extensive experience in organizing large corporate events and meetings. I have a very sociable personality and would like to make a career transition into the nonprofit field as a fund raiser or event planner. How should I do this?

A. You’re on the right track, says Marianne Gregson, director of marketing and communications at the NTC Foundation, a nonprofit organization in San Diego that is renovating and preserving a naval-training center, and uses many events to promote its cause and raise money. Ms. Gregson believes your transition into the nonprofit world should be relatively easy, given your volunteer experience. “There is no better way to demonstrate your abilities than to have delivered a well-executed event or campaign,” she says. “If the organizations currently do not have openings, ask them for suggestions and recommendations on other groups that need a motivated and experienced person.” (For more on turning a volunteer experience into a staff job, see this previous edition of Hotline.)

If you’re more interested in event planning than in fund raising, you might want to beef up that part of your résumé with specific volunteer activities related to events. The tough economy might even give you a boost in this effort, says Marilyn Cahill, director of leadership gifts at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. “Nonprofits, especially the smaller arts organizations and health-care agencies, are very short-staffed in this economy, but they still have to do donor events and fund raisers,” she says. “They can always use people to prepare invitations, compile mailing lists, work with caterers, solicit donations, and work the event itself — greeting guests, distributing name tags, troubleshooting, serving drinks.” In fact, she says, smaller organizations may be your best bet, as they will be less likely to have an event staff, and perhaps be more amenable to creating that position after you’ve shown what you can do.

To learn more about careers in fund raising, turn to the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Local chapters organize events that you could attend to meet potential employers. And because there are special concerns with event planning in the nonprofit world that you might not have encountered in your corporate work, check out Special Events: Proven Strategies for Nonprofit Fund Raising by Alan L. Wendroff (John Wiley & Sons, 1999, $39.95). For more on event planning, see this previous edition of Hotline.