December 16, 2015 | Read Time: 5 minutes
Patricia Hvidston was in an important meeting with her boss, the president of Catholic Charities USA when an administrative assistant interrupted to ask her to take a phone call. Seeing the president’s skepticism, Ms. Hvidston, then senior director of development, hesitated to oblige.
But the assistant insisted. As they left the room together, she told Ms. Hvidston: “This is that major donor you want to meet. I recognized her voice. I didn’t think you should leave her hanging.”
That was the right decision. And when the donor’s big gift came in, Ms. Hvidston told everybody how her assistant helped make it happen.
“I think that kind of sensitivity and the group process is so important,” she says.
Other nonprofit development officers agree: Sharing credit for donations — instead of only recognizing the employee who sealed the deal — is one key to alleviating the tension that can arise among colleagues in a fundraising department. It encourages employees to focus on supporting the organization’s mission rather than competing for personal gain.
“Where people are celebrating shared successes, you see better results, happy people, and a better environment,” says Karen Rotko-Wynn, executive vice president with the Alford Group consulting firm and an officer with the Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation.
To foster a cooperative atmosphere, development officers recommend setting realistic goals, recognizing everyone’s contributions, collaborating across departments, and putting donors’ desires first.
Set Realistic Goals
Although it’s good to push a fundraising team past its comfort zone, it’s important not to set targets that are too high to reach.
“If a seemingly unachievable goal is set by the top, that starts feelings of insecurity, frustration, fear, and also resentment,” Ms. Rotko-Wynn says. “In any work environment, if feelings like that exist, people become disenchanted and frustrated. They quietly retreat or leave.”
To avoid making this mistake, she recommends seeking fundraisers’ input before plugging numbers into the organization’s budget. That conveys respect for their opinions and makes them more likely to support a big objective.
“When it’s working really well, people feel elevated to be working toward a common goal,” she says. “The spirit of teamwork is energizing.”
Recognize Everyone’s Contributions
Celebrate the “life cycle of a gift,” recommends Patrick Feeley, executive vice president and chief development officer for Caron Treatment Centers. It’s a practice he learned while working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where leaders take time during monthly staff meetings to acknowledge the contributions each staff member made to securing recent gifts.
Rather than give all the credit to the major gift officer, Mr. Feeley says, managers should note that “the receptionist or gift processor may have been the critical first step in making that gift possible.”
That’s exactly what Ms. Hvidston did at Catholic Charities USA.
“The shepherding and stewardship of that donor is very important,” she says. “People in administrative support positions are often very close to that donor; they answer phone calls, see if the check came in.”
Collaborate Across Departments
Fundraising is more effective when development department teams work together and communicate with staff members who work in other departments, leaders say.
Inside the development department, Mr. Feely recommends that managers take a holistic view of fundraising goals in order to encourage collaboration among teams of fundraisers who work on special events, major gifts, and other areas. For example, if a special-event fundraiser helped one of her donors graduate into the major-gift category, and revenue from her next special event took a hit because the donor didn’t participate, her manager should praise her efforts to cultivate the donor relationship, not focus on the event shortfall, Mr. Feeley says.
Outside of the department, fundraisers have to work with the expectations and practices of marketing teams and program officers.
With the former, it’s important to coordinate the timing of campaigns, Ms. Rotko-Wynn says: “If a subscription campaign is happening at the exact same time as a major annual fund drive, you’re going to run into problems.” She recommends that managers of different departments hold regular meetings to make sure no plans clash.
Restricted giving can be a sore spot at some nonprofits and institutions because it may make program leaders feel like they are competing for attention and money. If a fundraiser senses that a donor is pursuing a new angle, he or she should warn program leaders and recognize that they may feel “bruised and beaten up because the donor is interested in something else,” Mr. Feely says. And when the donor actually makes the switch, the fundraiser must present the news to the program officer and “give confidence that you’re going to find new donors.”
It’s important to educate everyone at the nonprofit about the fundraising strategy so that no program officer asks for a restricted gift when a unrestricted gift could have done more good, says Tom Jacobson, senior vice president of advancement at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. For example, a curator who doesn’t know how his museum’s development plan works may ask a donor for money to purchase a specific painting and throw off the development department’s goals for that donor.
Fundraisers who have built relationships with program officers can better depend on them to help build relationships with donors, Mr. Jacobson says. To that end, the natural history museum has a philosophy that “every single person at the institution is a fundraiser,” he says. “We support them, and they are supporting us.”
Put the Donor First
There is one guiding principle that fundraisers use to navigate the tensions that can arise around raising money at nonprofits: Put the donor first.
If a donor wants to make a big gift this year instead of supporting a special event, or wants to give to the physics department this semester instead of the geology department, let him or her guide your work, Mr. Feely says. Or, even better, encourage the donor to consider augmenting his or her donation to support multiple programs.
After all, Ms. Hvidston says, no matter who receives credit for bringing in the money or where it goes, “it’s better for everybody if the institution gets it.”
