Fund Raiser to CEO: Making the Jump

One of the trickiest challenges for development directors who become chief executives is negotiating how much fund

raising they will continue to do. The situation can be especially vexing for organizations that elevate their own fund raisers into the chief executive job.

Most organizations want any chief executive, regardless of his or her background, to spend a lot of time raising money.

But experts say it is best for an organization that hires a veteran fund raiser as chief executive to quickly hire a qualified development director to oversee day-to-day aspects of fund raising. That allows the chief executive to spend time cultivating the charity’s most important donors without sacrificing the management of other key operations.

Another option is to hire a chief operating officer or other qualified person to assume some of the management duties if the chief executive retains a heavy share of the fund-raising responsibilities.

The worst-case scenario is when the former development officer ends up with two full-time jobs: fund raising and running the organization, says Brad Stith, a fund-raising consultant at Ketchum, in Dallas. “You cannot spend all of your time doing both things or both jobs will suffer.”

But Mr. Stith admits that he was in just that situation a few years ago at the Nevada Ballet Theatre, in Las Vegas, when he was appointed executive director after just 18 months as head of development.

“My case was not unique,” he says. “The board still expected me to run the development office.”

Turning Over Duties

It was not just the board’s expectations that caused the problems, he says. The ballet hired two fund raisers while he was chief executive, but Mr. Stith says that it was hard for him to let go of fund raising. “When you make a beautiful cake,” he says, “it is hard for the chef to turn over the keys to the kitchen.”

As a result, he says, the new development officers got used to deferring to him, and they never fully shouldered the responsibilities of the job.

Other fund raisers who have been appointed as chief executives say that with the proper amount of determination, it is not so difficult to leave development duties behind.

Jay A. DiLorenzo, president of the Preservation League of New York State, in Albany, says that his organization spent six months finding a development director to replace him. But during that time, he says, he was careful to set new expectations about his duties with the board of directors.

“You have to be very clear with trustees that you are no longer the go-to guy on development,” he says. “There was an adjustment period, but trustees were clear this was a short-term thing.”

After Mr. DiLorenzo hired a new development director, he says, he took pains to include her in board meetings, refer trustees’ fund-raising questions to her, and encourage her to meet with board members on her own.

New executive directors, adds Mr. DiLorenzo, “can mentor the director of development, but they can no longer act like one.”