We’ve received a great response to our quest — Can You Beat 27 Years? — to find the Senior Fundraiser on the Planet — a fundraiser who has served (lasted?) the longest time at the same charity or nonprofit.

Many of the responses — and individual ‘candidates’ — surfaced as Comments to the original post, which you can read here.

But another chunk of candidates arrived via emails to The Agitator, and we’ve compiled all of those for you to check out at the end of this post.

Truly a host of inspiring individuals. Roger and I were awed at these records of service.

In reviewing all the submissions, we realized that we couldn’t identify a ‘winner’. Several of the longest standing associations involved individuals whose relationship to the organization changed over time — e.g., from staffer to consultant to trustee. In other cases, fundraising per se might have ebbed and flowed as the person’s primary responsibility. And some have been with the same agency for decades, often with longstanding clients.

But as I said above, when one steps back at looks at the overall record of service, it is truly inspiring.

So we encourage you to browse through the Comments, as well as the emails re-published below.

Here is our Senior Fundraiser on the Planet Honor Roll …

Robert Off — FarmHouse Fraternity International and FarmHouse Foundation — 38 years

Barbara Dougherty — The Met (NYC) — 35+ years

Dan Alpert — Detroit Public Television — 35 years

Ken Burnett — ActionAid (UK) — 34 years

Marty Lonsdale & Dave Toycen — both at World Vision for 30+ years, and their consultant at Russ Reid, Tom Harrison, with 26 years under his belt (Russ Reid has serviced World Vision since 1966!)

Richard Pordes — UNICEF — 33 years (fascinating evolution there — see below)

Pat Goodmann — Wolf Park — 32 years

Giles Pegram — National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK) — 31 years

Stephen Thomas & Mary Attfield — both 30+ years at Stephen Thomas Ltd (Canada)

Reta Lockert — Sonoma Land Trust — 30 years

Paul Fulham — Zachry Associates — 30 years

George Waldmann and Judy Warner — both 28 years at Stephen Winchell & Associates, a firm with a client of 33 years … The Heritage Foundation

Kathy Ward — American Institute for Cancer Research — 26 years

Marilyn Borchardt — Food First/Institute for Food & Development Policy — 26 years

Chris Cleghorn — Easter Seals — 25 years

Carsten Walter & John Von Kannon — The Heritage Foundation — 23 years and 31 years respectively

Joan Smyth, Tom Manning & Jim White — Covenant House — 25 years, 28 years and 29 years respectively

Pamela Puleo — Concord Hospital (NH) — 23 years

Bruce Donnelly — Atlanta Community Food Bank — 23 years

Mark Lutz — Opportunity International — 22 years

Judith Davenport — University of New Mexico — 20 years

Ladies and gentlemen, you deserve a raise! More candidates welcome — 30+ years gives you Platinum status!

Roger & Tom

Read these backgrounds …

Ken Burnett: Re today’s Agitator, I don’t know if this will count as it isn’t quite continuous exposure at the coal face. But it is a 34-year+ connection, and in terms of that crucial institutional memory that Tom talks about, those 34 years have given me a unique handle on the organization in question, and that handle has me and my perspective in demand to this day. The organization is the international development nonprofit ActionAid, formed in 1972.

In 1977 I was appointed as UK director of Action in Distress, a small charity which later changed its name to ActionAid and through effective fundraising/ direct marketing became by the mid 1980s one of Britain’s top 20 charities by voluntary income. In 1983 I left my role as director of fundraising and communication to start my own agency, Burnett Associates. For most of what was left of the 1980s I continued to work with ActionAid as a consultant to their direct marketing agency, Smith Bundy and Partners. Though I was not directly employed by the charity then in any formal role, I was closely in touch with the management of the organization throughout most of this period. Early in 1995 I was invited to join ActionAid’s board as the trustee responsible for fundraising internationally (and the first former staff person to join the board). I was elected chairman of the board in 1998 and continued in that role until 2003, helping to steer through the process we called internationalisation, which led to restructuring of the governance of ActionAid International. After rotating off the board for a year I was re-elected in 2004 to the board of ActionAid International and served as an international trustee until I stood down at the end of my term, in June 2009. Enough, already, I thought then. But I am still involved with ActionAid because I’m in touch regularly with different parts of the organisation. This year I contributed formally to the process that created ActionAid UK’s 2011 to 2016 strategic plan and I recorded a special message which will be shown at the start of ActionAid International’s General Assembly in Dar es Salaam later this month.

It’s worth adding that from 1977 to 1979 I worked directly with ActionAid’s founder, Cecil Jackson Cole, the founder of Oxfam, Help the Aged and other UK international charities. That connection alone is of value to ActionAid. CJC died in 1979.

Such a long connection continues to be of use to ActionAid on several levels, not least because there are few really new things and I can often recall, with reasonable accuracy, the last time we did or considered this or that. But most significant is that, for me, this relationship is unlike any other I’ve ever had. In terms of the most fulfilling and worthwhile things I’ve done it even beats the 20 years in which I ran my own agency. I reckon I owe ActionAid at least as much as it might owe me, probably far more.

Marilyn Borchardt: I have been the development director at Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy since 1985. I believe that Roger may have designed the first direct mail for our organization. That was before my time. So I can’t beat 27 years, but it’s close.

Chris Cleghorn: Here’s my near-27 years tenure tale.  In January 2009 I left Easter Seals headquarters after 25 years.  I started there as director of direct mail marketing in 1983 after working with fundraising legend Don Kuhn.  The initial work was to develop a centralized direct mail fundraising service for Easter Seals then-350 affiliates.  I did that and then many other interesting things along the way.  Like Don Kuhn, I learned there was a lot of satisfaction in going the distance at one place.  It was a wonderful, rewarding career at Easter Seals for all that time. I even got an Agitator “Give Him a Raise” once!  But seeing “retirement” off too far in the distance, I came to the conclusion it was better for Easter Seals and best for me to go do other things.  So I left an executive vice president position to discover what that would be.  No plan.  Between the professional parts and the personal parts, I have no regrets.

We get to work in a great field.

Tom Harrison: OK, I feel old. September 1 will mark 26 years for me at Russ Reid.

Our clients, Marty Lonsdale (VP at WV-US) and Dave Toycen (in development for years; now CEO at WV Canada), have each been at World Vision for more than 30 years. And if you decide to check on client-agency tenure, Russ Reid has represented World Vision since 1966…

George Waldmann: Greetings. Just read about your friend retiring after 27 years with the same company. Thought you might want to know that Judy Warner and I have both been with Stephen Winchell & Associates for 28 years and counting. I started as a copywriter in January of 1983, eventually becoming President.  (Maybe that proves only that if you hang around long enough, you get kicked upstairs.)  Judy started just a few months after I did. Also a copywriter, she is now a Vice President and Creative Director. SW&A was purchased in 2005 by Odell, Simms & Lynch, but we still function as the independent direct marketing division.  And Steve is still in several days a week, generating ideas as always. Speaking of longevity, we’re also proud that The Heritage Foundation has been a client of SW&A since 1978 – 33 years!

Richard Pordes: I don’t know if this qualifies, but I was with UNICEF for 33 years before I retired in 2006. It’s typical of UNICEF staff to be with the organization for 30+ years. Most of our learning is done on the job. When I started working in the UNICEF Program Funding Office the only thing I knew was how to write a report and proposal to a Governmental Foreign Aid department asking for funds.

It took me much longer to learn about fundraising from individuals and corporations, and I was lucky to have the writings of people like Groman, Craver, Huntsinger, Kuhn and Warwick to learn from. In the early days, the challenge was not so much to raise funds, but how to convince our organization (UNICEF) that it was worth the effort to raise funds from individuals and companies, and not just depend on Government largesse for our programs. (You’ve heard the phrase:  “All politics is local”).

At that time a mere 10% of our income came from the public, almost all of it from the sale of UNICEF Greeting Cards. Today UNICEF raises roughly $1 billion or about 30% of its entire revenues from non-Governmental sources. Japan is UNICEF’s main non-governmental supporter, followed by Germany, the Netherlands and then the USA.

Paul D. Fulham: 30 years last month of providing fundraising counsel to not for profit groups in the Southwest via Zachry Associates, Inc.

Pamela Puleo: In my 23^rd year at Concord Hospital in New Hampshire.

Jeff Petrie: Outside my role at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, I serve on the Advisory Committee for the national American Museum Membership network.  Having attended six of our annual conferences, I have had the great pleasure of meeting many of the people in the United States and Canada (and beyond) who have the same job as I have.  I believe that The One with the greatest longevity in our “industry” is Barbara Dougherty, Managing Chief Membership Officer at The Met in NYC. If I recall correctly, she has been there for more than 35 years. When she started working at The Met, I was a third-grader in Eugene, Oregon, and had not yet visited an art museum, nor had I served nine years in the United States Navy.  Now I am looked to as a leader in our field. Barbara is truly phenomenal and an inspiration, running a huge program while staying out on the cutting edge of what’s new with innovation and technology.  Her membership colleagues love her (at least the ones I know), and her fundraising machine hums.

Donna Wilkins, Charity Dynamics: Kathy Ward at American Institute for Cancer Research has been there since 1985.  Pretty impressive! Seems like she deserves a special mention.

Liz Nielsen, Feeding America: Chris Cleghorn (see above) was at Easter Seals for ~25 years! He was my first boss and a great mentor in direct marketing and fundraising.

Erin Bender, The Heritage Foundation: I’d like to put forth two fantastic fundraisers I have the pleasure of working for: Carsten Walter, Director of Development – 23 years at The Heritage Foundation; John Von Kannon, Vice President and Senior Counselor, Development- 31 years at The Heritage Foundation. In addition to the institutional knowledge they bring, John and Carsten have built a foundation of cultivation, relationship building and genuinely caring about our donors in a way that inspires our entire team to strive for greatness and respect the individual who freely chooses to support the cause we share.

Matthew Sherrington, the good agency: Giles Pegram is lauded as just about the most inspirational fundraiser in the UK and beyond. He started as Appeals Director at NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) in 1979, leading the ground-breaking Centenary Appeal in1984, then the Full Stop campaign, and retired only last year. In 2011, he was recognised in the New Year’s Honours List.

Shawn McKenna, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: Max Hart and Jerry Lape at the Disabled American Veterans. Both retired now – Max retired 6-7 years ago; Jerry a year or two before. And yes, institutional memory was an amazing thing. Of course back then they only did 4 housefile mailings a year, and hadn’t even grasped true RFM segmentation.