What Happens When Your Boss Has Different Goals?
Nonprofits need to exist as long as their issue exists. Most deal with long-term problems. Thus, they need to exist in the long-term. That’s why we preach retention above almost all other things – the donors you have are the ones who will sustain you. As a fundraising professional, it’s your responsibility to think about –and act– in support of the long-term.
Not everyone shares this goal. NonProfit Pro and MobileCause’s 2018 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study asked nonprofit leaders what defines success. Their results:
Let’s leave aside “number of recipients helped” as the one non-financial/fundraising metrics here and look at the rest:
- 46%: amount of annual fundraising: short-term thinking
- 8%: percentage of donor retention: long-term thinking
- 4%: number of donors: long-term thinking
- 4%: amount of major/legacy gifts: long-term thinking
- <1%: average donation size: one person who was probably confused by the question
Adding this up, 46% of respondents said the most important thing was getting through the year; only 16% said anything related to the long-term.
This means that despite the need to exist long-term, chances are good that your manager or your manager’s manager is trying to look good this year. Maybe it’s for a raise. Maybe it’s to find another job. Maybe s/he’s an invertebrate and wants to avoid an awkward board meeting or three.
Regardless of the reason, this is classic principal-agent conflict. This manager has a different goal from the organization’s goal. And, as a manager, they have the power to manage toward subverting the organization’s goal in favor of their own.
And before you say there must be a balance between the short and long-term, yes, you are correct. However, the question here is what is most important. When push comes to shove, the long knives are out, you’ve gone to the mattresses, or whatever quasi-mafioso metaphor you’d use, this manager will sacrifice the long-term for the short-term. Either 46% of organizations are on the brink of not existing if a year goes bad, or their priorities stink.
To further bolster this, the study also notes that 13% of organizations say their retention rate is 30 percent or below. Considering that eight percent of organizations have retention as their top goal, there are at least five percent of organizations where retention is below 30% and it’s also not their top priority. These organizations are on their way to becoming ex-organizations.
How do we get these goals back in line? First, as Roger has advocated here, we need to tie compensation to long-term value. Beyond this, long-term focus is something that can be hired for and cultivated.
But that doesn’t get you through the day with Short-Term Sally (or Sal) as your manager. The best advice I can give is to get good at telling the long-term story. Every time you are asked to cut acquisition or other investment, show what the long-term impacts of that are going to be. Master your metaphors like the saggy mattress so you can convert either your boss or others who have influence to a longer-term way of thinking.
And let your incentive structure change. Perhaps you now have incentive to polish you resumé and look for an organization that values longer-term thinking.
Nick
7 responses to “What Happens When Your Boss Has Different Goals?”
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Nick – Excellent thoughts.
Least I sound ungrateful, I often find this a difficult proposition for those of us working for, or consulting with, fundraising agencies.
While stressing the advantages of “long-term” may (or may not) work well with Directors of Fundraising, it is often difficult for them to convince Executive Directors or boards.
Asking to make a presentation to the ED or Board sometimes works, but do you have any thoughts on other strategies…or tactics?
Thanks in advance!
Thinking long term is so hard when the average tenure for NPO Executives is so short.
At least this would lead one to link the two together, as you so nicely did above.
Where are the board members who can and should have successful backgrounds in long term thinking from other organizations, either commercial enterprises or other NPO’s?
Thanks for sharing the data Nick!
Nice post Nick! With so much fundraising based on relationships I find there is an inherent tension between leadership expectations for short term funding (to make development pay for itself and generate a positive cash flow) and establishing long term support for an organization. I usually have two revenue approaches going which focus on identifying short term gains and long term engagement. Sometimes you do feel like you have multiple personalities going on 🙂 but as a fundraiser & development professional you are often in the position of satisfying multiple masters.
Terrific post, Nick. Thank you.
What Emily said. And Jay, the tenure for fundraising staff is abysmal.
I’m reading this particular report right now and it’s terribly discouraging in terms of long-term strategy. In looking at the fundraising strategies that nonprofits are using, 86% cite the lowest ROI strategy out there: events. Gah. I suspect that they rarely factor in the time component when they’re evaluating their return either. And I would bet good money that very few of those organizations have a strategy in place to transform event attendees into actual donors.
A “striking 74 percent of respondents said that their nonprofit does not have an in-depth strategic plan.” And only EIGHT PERCENT of those responding actually included donor retention as an outcome? Jeez Louise!
I have always believed that my job, as a fundraising professional, is to build the relationships that take our donor from first time gift…to lifetime. It is a process. One that requires patience, commitment, and faith in the final outcome.
Sorry about the delay – traveling today.
Cindy, some tactics that I’ve tried (can’t say that all of them have been always successful, for sure):
– Always report on long-term metrics whether asked to or not. If they ask for just gross and net, give them gross, net, retention rate, and file size (which we know can be misleading, but if you are trying to simplify…). If they catch on to your game and ask just for gross and net, give them gross and net and projections for gross and net for the next five years if you carry on the current path. If it’s in every report, every time, pretty soon people might think it’s important.
– Pile on those who have come before who didn’t take a long-term view. This is assuming you had such people, but it’s a sadly safe assumption. Show those historical slides and say “and then those morons in 2011 cut acquisition and you can see how that ripples through the program, even today.” (This of course assumes said morons aren’t in the room.) You want a little voice in the back of their head to say “will they be calling me that in the future?” Some won’t care, but some will and you only need a majority or a loud enough minority.
– Volunteer to “help” with new board member orientation. If your apples are rotten, don’t get them from the barrel – get them from the tree. These new board members will also (hopefully) have the longest time horizon for their thinking.
– Use visualization. With people, researchers say you can get people to save more for retirement if they see what they would look like at retirement and thus start thinking as future self. That same thing can apply to organizations – what does the organization look like in five years with half the donor file?
Thanks to everyone for their ideas and suggestion.
Thoughgh I suspect most agencies will continue to sell “more money” in their new business pitches — and more boards will continue to use that as their yardstick for success — it’s comforting to know there are those in our industry who take a more thoughtful approach.
I hate that total $$$$$ raised is the top answe. Makes me sad.