More Charities Enlist Staff Members to Pitch In With Fund Raising

When the Maryland Food Bank began searching last month for someone to coordinate volunteers, the job description included a duty that wasn’t outlined in the jobs of others who’d held the position: helping the charity raise money.

About a year and a half ago, as demand for its food rose by more than 30 percent, the Maryland Food Bank’s new chief development officer sought to enlist more people to seek donations. The food bank’s communications manager and other employees started joining fund raisers at concerts and other events where the charity solicits gifts. Fund raisers trained the employee who asks local businesses for food donations to request cash as well. And the volunteer coordinator began handing out fund-raising brochures to people who visit the charity’s warehouse to help sort and package food.

As the tough economy drags on, more charities are exploring how to encourage people outside of the development department to pitch in with fund raising.

Many fund-raising consultants have espoused that idea for years and say that creating a “culture of philanthropy” can not only bring financial rewards but also help employees better understand how the organization is run and become more committed to its mission.

But charities must avoid simply piling on more job responsibilities, fund raisers say. “If you take someone’s already overwhelming job description and try to add another piece to it, people either rebel or they just ignore it,” says Andy Robinson, a fund-raising consultant in Vermont. Mr. Robinson and other experts say staff members need education and support both in why fund raising matters and how to do it well.

Fund raising should also be incorporated into job descriptions and performance reviews so that employees don’t just feel like they are doing a favor for the development staff, experts say.

For larger groups, parceling out fund-raising responsibilities to more staff members may not make sense.

Joan Mussa, a top official at World Vision, says that in one sense, everyone at an organization is a fund raiser because staff members are the face of the charity and their work helps to make the case for support. But, she says, she wouldn’t force anyone to do something outside of his or her job description.

“I see government relations and fund raising and communications as distinct disciplines,” says Ms. Mussa. “I’m not going to ask people to raise money who are not gifted to do it.”

Lots of Approaches

Nonprofit officials who have successfully encouraged staff members to raise money have taken many approaches.

At the Easter Seals New Jersey, program staff members are evaluated, in part, on how involved they get in raising money. Every year, employees of each program together set a target, which ranges from a few thousand dollars to $100,000, depending on how much donors are interested in supporting that program. Last year, employees of one program that finds employment for people with severe disabilities raised $35,000 through a dinner at a local hotel; employees of its adult-training centers raised $15,000 through raffles and other grass-roots methods.

New employees receive fund-raising training through Webinars and conference calls. The charity, which introduced the approach in 2000, encouraged its employees to go through additional fund-raising training when the recession hit.

Three times a year, their progress is assessed by the charity’s leadership.

While fund-raising consultants advocate doing what Easter Seals has done, some warn against evaluating staff members based on the dollar amounts they raise.

“There’s too much at play,” says Priscilla Hung, executive director of the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training. “It should be around their participation.”

Enlisting Clinicians

A handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates have taken a somewhat different approach. Last fall they started encouraging clinicians who offer family-planning services, such as birth-control prescriptions and tests for sexually transmitted diseases, to ask patients for donations.

Planned Parenthood of Maryland now wins 60 percent more in contributions from patients each month; Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region reports a 25 to 30 percent increase.

Planned Parenthood officials say the effort has worked because the vice president of patient services and managers of the group’s health centers were put in charge of the program and introduced it to their employees. The doctors and nurses also received plenty of support. The St. Louis group’s vice president of development and communications worked individually with clinicians.

At many universities, faculty members have long played an important role in raising money.

Some professors at Wilson College, a small women’s institution in Chambersburg, Pa., are so committed that they notify the vice president for college advancement whenever they plan a trip to learn if any potential donors live near where they’re going.

The California Institute of Technology recently set up advisory committees of donors who work with professors and the college administration to set goals for various academic departments. Since the fall, donors who are part of the committees have contributed $15-million.

The practice builds on a culture of giving at the institution, officials say. One donor has been having lunch with the same faculty member in his laboratory for years; after most appointments, he leaves a $50,000 check.

Both Wilson College and the California Institute of Technology also do something else that many fund raisers advocate: They encourage staff members to give themselves. Last fiscal year, 98 percent of the employees at Wilson—groundskeepers, chefs, the institution’s president—made a donation to the college.

A Party With ‘Sizzle’

At some small nonprofit groups, fund raising is an organizationwide affair.

The eight employees of the Toxics Action Center, which organizes people in New England to fight toxic pollution in their neighborhoods, pause from their work two or three times a year to conduct fund-raising drives.

Staff members—most of whom are community organizers—spend the first of two weeks calling donors who have contributed to the group in the past and asking to meet with them. Working with the charity’s director of development, they talk through the meetings and discuss what campaigns they will emphasize. During the second week, they hold meetings with those donors.

In the last fiscal year, the effort brought in $180,000, about 40 percent of the group’s budget.

Lawyers and other staff members at the Public Justice Center, a legal-advocacy group in Baltimore, have been more involved in fund raising since a budget crunch led to some layoffs three years ago.

The group’s staff members were shocked by the layoffs and wanted to do something to help before the fiscal year ended a few months later. But the charity’s development director was too busy to organize another event.

So two staff lawyers arranged a party at a local restaurant. It had “more sizzle” and less of an institutional feeling than if it had been organized by a professional fund raiser, says Jennifer Pelton, the group’s director of development, and raised nearly $14,000.

Because they are more aware today of how important private donations are to their work, the group’s lawyers have stayed involved in fund raising. Ms. Pelton gets help with grant proposals and thank-you notes and sometimes asks them to join her on visits with donors.

She communicates the value of that assistance regularly with staff members. Each week, Ms. Pelton sends out an e-mail message to everyone at the organization notifying them of which donors contributed in that time and providing staff members the opportunity to follow up.

“I don’t get the complaints anymore,” says Ms. Pelton.

How to Get Staff Members Involved in Raising Money

• Ensure that the charity’s top leaders are behind the effort.
• Don’t spring the plan on staff members during a crisis.
• Provide fund-raising training and support.
• Encourage program leaders to shape the effort.
• Don’t push too hard, as some people may be too busy to help or uncomfortable with the idea.
• Consider making fund raising part of employees’ job descriptions.
• Tie participation in fund raising to job performance, but not based on the dollar amounts achieved.
• Encourage staff members to donate. It’s easier to ask for money after making a contribution.