Tips for Hiring Fund Raisers From Outside the Nonprofit World

By ELIZABETH SCHWINN

James R. Wood knows firsthand how difficult it can be to find experienced fund raisers. As a trustee of Hanover College, a liberal-arts college in Indiana, he was on the search committee for a new development official.

But after a search turned up few strong candidates, Hanover’s president, Russell Nichols, surprised Mr. Wood by offering him the job. “I thought he was kidding me,” says Mr. Wood, who retired last year as a top executive of SunTrust Banks.

Mr. Nichols says Mr. Wood’s management experience at the bank and familiarity with the college made him perfectly suited for the work. “He knew how to manage people, knew some faculty and the trustees, and he would be able to work comfortably with people who have major-gift potential,” Mr. Nichols says. Not only that, the retired banker was “a known quantity” to Mr. Nichols because the two had worked together in a previous job.

Not all charities are so lucky. When it comes to hiring a fund raiser from outside the nonprofit world, figuring out how to evaluate candidates with little or no professional fund-raising experience can be challenging.

Some tips from veteran fund raisers and recruiters:

Find out who a candidate knows. Since the best fund raisers usually have bulging Rolodexes, nonprofit groups should look for job candidates whose previous jobs involved getting to know lots of people. And just as important, say recruiters, is what kinds of people a candidate knows.

Cynthia Weber, a development consultant at Girl Scouts of America, says one council recently hired as its chief fund raiser a woman who had been a regional manager at Avon Products, the cosmetics line sold primarily through personal contacts. “She knew just about every woman in the territory,” says Ms. Weber.

Charities looking for someone to make a lot of one-on-one connections with donors should consider people from fields such as insurance, banking, and investment counseling, because those professions require a lot of personal contacts, executive recruiters say. Lobbyists and salesmen are also good candidates.

If a job will involve helping donors plan their charitable gifts, natural candidates are estate and tax lawyers, certified financial planners, and people who have worked in the trust department at major banks.

Charities seeking to bring in very large gifts might consider approaching top government officials, particularly those who hold an elected office, says John Kuhnle, a recruiter at Korn/Ferry International in Washington. Such candidates often have extensive experience at political fund raising and probably already know many people who have the potential to become major donors.

Consider volunteer experience. Service on charity boards, in particular, can provide excellent training for fund-raising jobs, hiring experts say. They recommend that charities first do what Mr. Nichols of Hanover College did and look to their own boards as a starting point when searching for good candidates. Such trustees usually are prominent business leaders, are interested in the charity’s mission, and have probably already done some fund-raising for the organization.

Dan Busby, vice president for member and donor services at the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, says that in the past year a couple of members of the council have hired board members to lead their fund-raising efforts.

Another possibility is volunteers who have led their employer’s on-the-job giving drive, say executive recruiters.

Even if past volunteer efforts didn’t involve raising money, it’s still important for candidates to have had some experience with nonprofit groups. Volunteering or other charitable work indicates both that a candidate might be interested in a nonprofit job, and that he or she understands the values of the nonprofit world, says Jerold D. Kappel, a longtime fund raiser and director of development at the American Association of Museums.

Look for good listeners. In the interview, charities should check that a candidate has three key skills: the ability to listen carefully and thoughtfully, to articulate a group’s mission clearly, and to build and nurture relationships, says Patricia Doukas Zandy, director of major gifts at Yale University.

To test those things, Ms. Zandy tries to draw out candidates about their current job: details about what they do, and information about what they like and don’t like about it, to get a sense of how much of their work involves personal interaction and whether they’re comfortable with it, as well as how responsive and articulate they are. The candidate goes through rounds of interviews with seasoned fund-raising employees before being chosen, she adds. Ms. Zandy, who has hired several people from outside the fund-raising profession, says she has found that with such job candidates, what’s said in an interview is far more important than what’s on the candidate’s résumé.

Give local candidates the edge. Strong local ties are crucial to success for many charity fund raisers, notes Jay Berger of Morris Berger, a Pasadena, Calif., recruiting company that works with nonprofit groups. What’s more, he says, since hiring from outside the fund-raising profession carries some risks, charities taking the chance are better off not having to pay relocation expenses.