World’s Worst CEO And Board Member
Yesterday I turned 75. A great age for a tree.
After mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, and handling the congratulatory phone calls from my ungrateful heirs I did give a tiny bit of thought to the past. And a lot of thought to the future.
My principal Diamond Jubilee Insight is this: Our sector is led by boobs.
I’m not talking about fundraisers (I forever will believe we’re capable of learning and redemption). I’m talking about CEOs and Board Members.
After 53 years as a fundraiser I’ve come to the conclusion that until we address the issue of the incompetence of the sector’s top leadership we will forever spin endlessly in a vortex of mediocrity and frustration.
So, for at least this issue of The Agitator I’ll avoid any talk of strategy, tactics, trends and so forth. Rather let’s go to the top. (As in the old adage that ‘a fish rots from the head’.)
Some years ago Tom and I ran a survey playing off a study that CEOs didn’t much care for their development folks. Instead we wondered how development folks thought about CEOs. And we wrapped it all up in a survey.
In the post Fundraisers Rate Their CEOs, we summarized the survey’s findings as follows:
According to our Agitator survey, only 22% of respondents would “nominate your CEO for The Agitator’s BEST CEO Award” (50% said No, and 29% ticked “are you guys nuts”).
More seriously we asked: “Rate your CEO’s understanding of and commitment to effective fundraising. He or she is …”
- A superstar — 16%
- Gets the basics, but not a leader in this area — 38%
- Pretty hands-off — 23%
- More of a hindrance than a help — 23%
Almost half (49%) would replace their CEO if they had the chance!
Asked which statement best described fundraising planning ‘at the top’ in their organizations, fundraisers said …
- Program goals are discussed with fundraising an integral part of the discussion — 26%
- “Tell us how much you can raise” — 17%
- “Here’s what we need … go raise it” — 58%
Asked about support from the top, 37% said fundraising support from their CEO and Board was “lacking” … 20% said “they’re clueless”.
And what about appreciation from the top? 40% said their CEO treats them “like an occasional visiting relative” … 24% “like the gardener”.
Whoa!
These were comments from fairly seasoned fundraisers — almost half (47%) in the biz more than ten years; 71% over five years. Working in good-sized nonprofits — 27% with $1-5 million in private contributions; 30% with over $5 million.
It sure seemed like both sides of the table were less than blissfully happy with the other.
Not a healthy situation.
What’s the problem? Too much pressure on everyone these days? Cultural incompatibility? Inconsistent agendas? Just a ‘failure to communicate’?
Frankly, I think it’s none of these. After studying, writing about and experiencing all degrees of idiocy for 53 years, I think most CEOs and Board Members are just plain clueless.
An Agitator Proposition
I believe the first step on the journey to a leadership cure is to make the leaders themselves aware of how woefully ignorant they are about the process of attracting, involving, holding and serving donors.
How do we fix that? A radical idea: let’s tell them, show them, and illustrate their idiocy.
To that end what if The Agitator provided a free, weekly bulletin to CEOs and Boards on major issues about which they need to be aware.
Of course, I’m assuming at least 50% of the CEOs and board members in our organizations can read. So, the real problem is getting something into their hands that they will read.
Perhaps it’s with catching e-mail subject lines like, “Why You’ve Been Named the Dumbest Nonprofit CEO in the XXX (fill in U.S, Canada, U.K. Netherlands, Germany, Australia, etc).
Or, “Your Donors Hate You and You’re About To Be Exposed.”
You get my drift.
Whether narcissistic, other-wise-occupied, or just plain dumb, I do think we owe it to these so-called leaders to be truth-tellers and tell ‘em what they’re up against.
So, will you help us? Here’s how:
- Tell us whether this is a good idea or whether it sucks;
- Let us know whether you’ll serve on the anonymous advisory Taskforce on Ignorance by emailing me at Roger@theagitator.net
- Suggest the names of 3 CEOs and 3 Board Members (or even 1 or 2) we can put on our email list for this project.
That’s it. And while you’re working on that I’ll start drafting my first post for our new collective weekly bulletin: “Why You’ve Been Voted the Worst Nonprofit CEO in The World.”
Roger
9 responses to “World’s Worst CEO And Board Member”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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The “top” is the problem!
My best performing client began a required 1 hour class called “Philanthropy 101” years ago for board members, C-Suite, doctors, nurses, employees, and volunteers.
Today, this hospital foundation has a donor lifetime value, which is 4x the average in the nonprofit healthcare sector!
If a food service person is in a patient room and heard a positive comment, the food service employee simply looks the patient in the eyes and says, “May I have our foundation contact you?”
+3,000 people carry a tri-food business card called “Foundation Fast Facts” and are equipped to give an elevator speech on behalf of the foundation 24/7!
I feel like I’m being punk’d. Is this for real, Roger?
Regardless, congratulations on your successful completion of another trip around the sun. And here’s to many more!
Hey- you are giving boobs a bad name. I prefer calling them schmucks. 🙂
You are 5 years and 2 weeks ahead of me in age. However, you are 43 years ahead of me in fundraising (other than Girl Guide cookies)! You have definitely become one of my go-to people with Tom as I learn to be a fundraising leader for a small non-profit.
Happy Birthday!
Roger,
Great article. I could not have put it better myself! You’ve put your finger on it and named the “elephant in the room”.
–Ray
My initial thoughts are this Roger:
1. Weekly may be too much, monthly might be read or better yet viewed if it is a video
2. It would be treated as more valuable if it is gated with a pay window of some nature
3. You will need some big name CEO’s endorsing it
4. Worth a try, could be a milestone to celebrate on your 85th!
Though my career has been much shorter than yours, I’ve thought about this a lot after working with medical professionals, higher education faculty, and nonprofit executives who rose up from the programmatic side. The challenge I find is that these are generally smart people who cannot reconcile their own high estimation of themselves with our thought that they are missing some understanding of basic elements of human behavior and motivation. It’s very hard for them to realize that they’re less than perfect or not the smartest human at everything and that taking a step back to adopt a learning mindset will take them forward leaps and bounds. Continuing on the trend of the last few days’ posts, this is a trait that’s shared across many demographics and is much more informative than the leader’s age, gender, race & socioeconomic status!
This is a terrible, terrible idea.
At best it will be viewed as spam and be immediately deleted.
At worst, it could get good people into hot water they don’t deserve – especially the more targeted the communication is, because the recipient’s first question will be, “Who gave this guy my name…?”
(I’d wager the commenters on this post are quite certain their superiors will never read this blog.)
Over the years I’ve read so many essays, blogs, rants, etc. about leaders who don’t understand we fundraisers, but it’s always just preaching to the choir.
I have never seen a practical proposal to actually deliver “the message” to a Board or CEO.
These rants (this one included) are typically insulting and condescending and would never be received well – no matter how well-deserved we may think the recipient is.
Do good work. Earn their trust. The more competent you appear to them, the more your advice will be listened to. It’s another relationship, remember? It will take time and effort, courage and diplomacy.
If there’s a shortcut way to deliver “the message,” I still haven’t seen it…
Maybe I’m the lucky anomaly, but I’ve had a good rapport with my CEO for several years. We don’t always see eye-to-eye and I sometimes feel like I’m going through hoop after hoop to get to a conclusion that I already see the answer to. But along the way new angles often come up and the end results are always better for the added effort it took to get everyone (the CEO) satisfied – and a little more educated along the way…
I understand James Carruthers’ skepticism.
In any serious change effort, I’ve found by far the most valuable resource to be the Heath Brothers’ “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.”
Here’s a useful 6 Minute Summary including a link to an audio from one of the authors. http://tinyurl.com/gwltjmo