10 Qualities to Look for When Hiring a Fundraiser for your Charity
—Guest post from David Hutchinson, president of Cause Leadership
Charities and nonprofit organizations rely heavily on people as their greatest asset. Therefore, placing the right people in executive and leadership positions is vital to harnessing a charity's organizational potential. Therefore, investing time and resources toward attracting key executive players is imperative to nonprofit organizational success. But where to begin?
It is a competitive market for charities looking to fill C-level positions within their teams. Top talent can be lured away by other organizations. Therefore, external recruiting specialists for charity leaders can help to ensure your job posting has a broad reach within the social profit sector to find the best fit for the role and advance your organizational cause.
The best C-level, nonprofit executive searches come from proactive, positive outreach that champions diversity within the sector.
Also, a fully-managed executive search is more productive than traditional job listings. The right nonprofit executive search company handles nonprofit leadership searches to meet the organization's specific requirements and gathers a shortlist of candidates who share the client's vision and advance their cause.
Hiring a Charity Fundraiser
Nonprofit executive and leadership recruiting methods are as specialized and unique as the client organizations and their communities. Therefore, it is not surprising that hiring an exceptional fundraiser is as complex as hiring a development officer or philanthropic director.
To begin with, the place to start is to ask yourself, What makes a good fundraiser in our Charity? What kind of leader should we consider hiring? Now, we offer some juicy tips to use when searching for and hiring a fundraiser.
1 - A Great Motivator
Motivation is a crucial aspect of fundraising. Volunteers, donors, and general staff like to be motivated before contributing. A fundraiser who understands the importance of motivation will go a long way to making the entire exercise a success. However, don't confuse inspiration with persuasion. A donor needs to be inspired by a cause to begin giving.
When hiring a fundraiser, make sure the person understands philanthropy and how it brings joy to donors. It is also essential that the fundraiser understands the psychology behind generosity. In straightforward terms, individuals can be influenced by many motivating factors to contribute to a charitable cause. Therefore, a good fundraiser will be good at finding the things that motivate donors.
2 - Good Listening Skills
Good listening skills promote effective communication, making them a more effective fundraiser. The best part is that you can learn listening skills. Good listening skills help the fundraiser learn and understand what motivates an individual.
Also, listening skills help promote a good relationship with the donor. Taking time to understand the donor's interest is more important than persuading them to contribute. Hire a fundraiser who will listen to other staff and donors well.
3 - Integrity
Integrity encompasses such qualities as morality, speaking the truth, and accountability for finances. It is among the most important virtues that any individual should have. But the highest sign of integrity is how someone acts with others. For example, never overlook the questionable character of someone who deals with raising funds for your organization.
4 - Passionate About the Work
It's essential to find out whether the individual is passionate about the organization's mission and job function. Passionate people are proud of what they do and work every day to improve. Hire someone passionate about the mission and the work of fundraising if you are eyeing to win.
5 - High Energy
Someone with high energy can make the work of fundraising fun and lively for others. Find a fundraiser who has worked to grow their energy around giving and resourcing charitable work. They will help to bring excitement around your cause or project.
6 - Dedicated Worker
Dedication is almost similar to passion, but the difference is the amount of time and energy you invest. A dedicated worker is an individual who sets goals and works towards them regardless of the obstacles along the way.
Look for someone who understands the importance of hitting targets. Dedicated workers take the blame whenever they fail to attain set goals. They will develop strategies on how to get things on track again.
7 - Endurance and Perseverance
Perseverance is an important quality to look for because fundraising has many challenges. Without perseverance, an individual can quickly get frustrated or have difficulty finding donors. In addition, there are a lot of challenging logistics involved in the fundraising process that require patience and determination. One way to promote perseverance is to find someone who knows to set realistic and attainable goals, as this will help them avoid giving up when things get tough.
8 - Presence, the Ability to Command Attention
Fundraising is well-served when the donor's attention is captured correctly. How a fundraiser commands attention is so vital to the organization. They will garner more attention by looking and being more professional. But relationally engaging people will attract the attention of more donors.
9 - Concern for People
A good fundraiser is concerned with people and their needs and can give special attention to the donors. Listening to what donors say helps you judge the donor's interests correctly. Listening to a donor's concerns can also help the fundraiser understand how they wish to contribute. It is not always about giving money. Sometimes, the fundraiser needs to show their concern for the people served by the organization, therefore showing the value of the people being served.
10 - Have High Expectations
Having high personal expectations motivates the fundraiser to work hard toward achieving them. Getting someone with the exact expectations of the organization will help you find the correct donors. Aligned expectations will, in turn, inspire the organization to higher levels. Listen well in interviews to ensure that they have the same level of expectation on themselves that you need.
The Bottom Line
When you are familiar with the qualities to look for in the best fundraiser, you will find the right person for this critical role.
Author Bio
Since 1997 David Hutchinson, the president of Cause Leadership, a nonprofit executive search firm, has successfully placed senior-level candidates with a broad spectrum of organizations in the charitable sector. He also has a great interest in helping charitable organizations diversify, become younger in their leadership, and better represent their own clients.
The best fundraisers have the full support of the organization’s board of directors. If you’re looking for more resources around managing your board or helping your board learn how to fundraise, too, check out these related articles:
