What Makes You Tick? What Makes Other Fundraisers Tick?
Back in 2013 the landmark study, Underdeveloped: A National Study of The Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising, a joint project of CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund sounded the alarm about the development and fundraising profession.
The study presciently warned that instability in the nonprofit sector would result in 50% of the development pros leaving their positions within 2 years.
It sure got attention. Here at The Agitator we ranted about leadership in the profession [World’s Worst CEO and Board Member] and fretted about turnover and churn in the profession [Fundraisers Abandon Ship, Before You Quit, Rate Your CEO, Fundraisers Rate Their CEOs, and I Hate the Way We Fail New Fundraisers.]
Now….9 years later it’s way past time to revisit and update findings and insights about what motivates or drains fundraisers in their jobs and determine how they’re experiencing their jobs both as a person and as a professional fundraiser.
That’s exactly what Adrian Sargeant, Jen Sheng and the team at The Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy have set out to accomplish.
What Makes You Tick? What Makes Fundraisers Tick?
I urge you and every Agitator reader to participate in this important research project. Frankly – given the pandemic, war, economic problems, and pressures on our sector – we need and deserve a solid look at ourselves. And frankly, few researchers are as capable of performing this task than Adrian and Jen.
The survey will take 15 minutes. I’ve taken it. It’s a serious piece of work that evokes both serious thought and emotion. You owe it to yourself and to the profession to invest your time in this.
There are two links to the survey.
- The first is for folks who ARE currently employed in a fundraising/development role in a charity nonprofit.
- The second is for folks who have been employed as a fundraiser in a charity/nonprofit but who are NOT currently.
Of course, as Adrian notes, your responses will be treated as strictly confidential. And when the researchers have completed their work those who respond to the survey will receive a link when the results are available in September.
Let’s all make our thoughts and feelings known.
Roger
P.S. If you have any questions or wish further information about this project please email harriet@philanthropy-institute.org.uk
5 responses to “What Makes You Tick? What Makes Other Fundraisers Tick?”
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Wow, has it really been 9 years since the Underdeveloped report!
Thanks for the shoutout Roger. I hope the response is overwhelming so we can see what does make the people we so adore tick!
How apropos … because, of course, it’s “tick season” … as anyone who lives in the Northeast US knows (and runs screaming from).
Alas, there’s no survey link for “consultants who work with lots of nonprofits and know insider stuff [a.k.a., good gossip].” That might be an interesting angle….
Still, w/ the Shang/Sargeant Institute doing the research, any results will be pure sunlight. I’ve seen their rigorous investigations turn “normal” fundraising operations upside down … leading to far more money raised.
A few years ago Bob Carter and I served on a panel about his issue. Clearly nothing has changed. Please read this posting and take it seriously. The quality of our nonprofit work force is depleted. As was stated 3 years ago, 50% of nonprofit employees would find other jobs, and 50% of CEO’s would get rid of their fundraiser. Very sad
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That study was a breakthrough in the field and I was grateful it came out. It reinforced the work my team and I were doing around building a Culture of Philanthropy. The problem is, even with that study, I’ve seen little resources about how to identify where your culture is ‘off’ (steeped in scarcity thinking) and how to build a Culture of Philanthropy. Random behavior changes or new structures do little to alter the overall culture. And one person cannot change the entire culture by themselves.
So, at the risk of sounding self promoting, I’ve written the book on how to do that. It’s called Choose Abundance: Powerful Fundraising for Nonprofits — A Culture of Philanthropy and it’s available on Amazon. Included are tools to build a team, conduct a Culture of Philanthropy self assessment, identify the change you want, and systematically design and implement the desired future. Building a Culture of Philanthropy overnight, but it has proven to be very effective at deepening donor partnerships, engaging board members, creating stronger partnerships between the executive directors and development staff, and ultimately raising more money.