BLOGS & ARTICLES

HIRING FUNDRAISING STAFF

Highlights from this Podcast:

  1. Challenges abound when hiring new development staff, including fierce competition for experienced development staff, arts fundraising is unique, and limited resources for offering competitive salary and benefits package.

  2. Ineffective recruitment techniques include relying solely on general job board postings, ignoring internal candidates, focusing on technical skills rather than relationship-building acumen, inadequate onboarding support for new hires, and approaching hiring as a one-time event rather than an ongoing process.

  3. Successful approaches include starting with clearly defining the role and responsibilities you seek, leveraging networks and partnerships, using a comprehensive recruitment process, investing in new staff once hired, and fostering a culture of collaboration and appreciation.

Whose Patron Is It, Anyway?

Highlights from this Podcast:

  1. Collaboration can be difficult. From misaligned goals to communication breakdowns to scarcity of resources, it is tempting to focus on just what we need to do to meet our own goals. 

  2. Collaboration with our marketing or fundraising counterparts will pay off. By establishing a shared vision, scheduling regular opportunities to strategize and coordinate, and sharing data and measuring success together, we can achieve more than we would on our own.

  3. Get started by being sincere and consistent in adopting a Patron-Centric approach, prioritizing personalized communication and engagement strategies, and finding easy opportunities to work together.

Expanding the Annual Fund Donor Base

Highlights from this Podcast:

Adopt the mindset of getting donors, keeping donors, and increasing donors every single day.

Build your donor base through best practices like focusing on your consumers, segment and personalize your stories and other communications, and looking for opportunities beyond transactions to connect with donors.

Avoid a number of pitfalls, like overlooking donor retention and ignoring donor feedback. Successful growth programs don’t limit relationships to transactions, nor do they fail to adapt to available technology.

Properly Setting Fundraising Goals

Highlights from this Podcast:

Do’s: Know your organization, benchmark wisely, engage stakeholders, diversify revenue streams, and track and adjust

Don’ts: Set unrealistic goals, neglect data analysis, forget donor relationships, underestimate costs, and ignore feedback

Common Errors: Failure to align fundraising goals with organization strategic plan, chasing after quick wins, and the “spray and pray”

Changes for 2024 - Part 2

Highlights from this Podcast:

  1. Leverage existing assets.

  2. Prioritize data-driven fundraising strategies.

  3. Take a collaborative approach.

Changes for 2024 - Part 1

Highlights from this Podcast:

  1. Individual Giving is shifting toward fewer, larger donors.

  2. Relationship development is crucial, but can be simple.

  3. Hiring fundraising staffing is challenging.