Hiring a First Development Staffer? Thoughts and ideas to help smaller nonprofits in your process

Is your nonprofit organization considering hiring its first or a new lead Development Staffer? Wondering about the process and when to pull the trigger?

Here are some thoughts and ideas I've learned over the last two decades of hiring and watching and helping organizations hire fundraising staff.

When to consider first hiring a lead Development staffer

• A sort of rule of thumb: at/closely above $1 million in annual revenues from multiple (think north of 20) revenue sources

• When Executive Director and other staff are spending too much time (think above ~ 40%+ for ED, 20%+ for other program staff) on fundraising

• When significant growth is planned + realistically expected

• When current funders have agreed to help offset this new expense to help build the org (Yes, make this ask of funders, some are interested)

• When your Board of Director directs that a hire is needed

• Ideally, not when a financial hole is realized

Some considerations for the process of hiring a lead Development staffer

• Do consider a consultant to start (+ perhaps to help with build of Development Plan and or initial hiring) and/or “temp to hire” position; Ideally targeting three to six-month evaluation timeline

• A true search firm is likely not needed for this position within this size of an organization, but by all means talk to them to hear their pitch, and look at/learn from their listings for position descriptions

• Search similar sized organizations to see levels of expertise in similar situation + to help understand salary range

• Create position description; have staff and at least one Board member review it; as possible, share with outside nonprofit colleagues for their input.

• Do a (informal) salary survey. Many publicly-available 990s will include this salary detail or colleagues at similar-sized nonprofits may share pay ranges, as may some headhunters.

• Other expenses to consider resulting from this hire: Typically plan for 30% benefits on top of salary level. Also consider travel expense this new position may require if not just a locally-focused org. And your new employee will need access to good laptop and work equipment.

• DO NOT offer to pay a bonus based on fundraising success (though can be based on other success points if a org-wide policy) as it is considered unethical and frowned on by most funders.

• As compared to overall annual org operating expense budget, “Development” costs should be around 7-12% of overall expense, and ideally at or under 10%. This should provide some perspective on salary levels vs. organization size.

Some perspective on types of candidates to consider

• Experience. Experience. Experience.

  • Ideally a candidate with 5+ years of increasing experience including at organization of size doing the hiring

  • Candidate new to lead role should have experience working directly with: funders, org leadership, Board, key staff, direct report(s)

• Candidate you can see as a salesperson without all the negatives of salespeople

• Someone you can speak honestly with.

• Candidate who has pitches/proposals/campaigns they have put together that you can review; have them pitch you your product (this may be most important part of interview …)

• Candidate who has passion for your product. This is hard to fake and when real, a powerful intangible to funding targets.

• Candidate who resonates with Board members. (Yes, ideally, at least one of them should be in on interview process to get Board buy-in). Also, if you have an IT staff, have that lead person interview your top candidates. These two positions work closely together. Same, of course, with your lead accounting person.

• Candidate with strong references. You will ABSOLUTELY want to check these references. Ideally they put you in touch with a funder or two that they have directly solicited.

Some of the key roles and responsibilities for your new hire

• Create/Refine/Implement an annual Development Plan and annual calendar

• Design/Build/Launch/Oversee robust development CRM system/database

• Staff and serve Board Development Committee/full Board

• Provide at least monthly updates (efforts, results, projections, challenges) to leadership

• Create/share responsibility for an organizational “Annual Report” to provide results, impact, goals of org each year (think publish in March/April of following year) + to include overview of past years financials

• Responsibility for all online presence of org related to fundraising (donation pages, listing of funders, embedded asks, social asks, listings updated and correct on 3rd party charity ranking sites, fundraising within event listings, etc.)

• End-of-line responsibility for all donor solicitations, proposals, fundraising events, etc.

• End-of-line responsibility for all grant reporting, donor acknowledgements, donor lists, etc.

While Rising Tide is most definitely not a search firm -- and there are many good ones out there to choose from -- we have helped organizations in their hiring process from time to time. Feel free to reach out if you think we can be helpful, from answering a question, to bouncing off an idea, to hiring us to help guide your process.