Many organisations have had difficulties recruiting talented fundraisers. Demand far outstrips supply in this area. The problem has been well documented, particularly in Higher Education. A recent report by the Higher Education Funding Council set an ambitious goal: that by 2022, universities and colleges would be raising £2 billion per year in gifts from 640,000 donors. The fundraising workforce – currently numbering around 1,800, would need to double, if not triple, if universities are to reach this potential. The report goes on to makes recommendations on how to attract, retain and develop the extra staff needed to achieve that target. One of the recommendations is to attract more fundraisers from other charitable sectors into education. I don’t believe this just applies for the education sector – it seems to be a very sensible recommendation to the wider charitable sector as a whole. So why isn’t it happening currently?
I’ve been recruiting fundraisers for nearly four years now for a range of organisations including Tate, London Business School, Science Museum, Macmillan and Oxbridge Colleges and it has often surprised me that more development professionals don’t look to transfer their experience into a different cause, because when it happens it often yields mutually beneficial results for both parties.
Some of the most successful and well respected fundraisers I know have experience working in at least two different sectors. For example, the Director of Development & Audiences at Tate was previously at King’s College, London, the former Director of Development at London School of Economics brought experience from English Heritage and the Science Museum and the Director of Fundraising at Battersea Cats & Dogs home used to be at the British Red Cross. So why don’t more fundraisers transfer their experience into new areas?
One reason is that organisations often prefer candidates that bring sector specific experience to the role because they want their fundraisers to be able to ‘hit the ground running’ and ideally bring a track record of having secured funds for a similar cause. So perhaps it’s the hiring managers that need to be more open to take what they perceive to be a risk on a candidate that has the relevant experience but from a different sector. After all, surely the organisation is a specialist in the cause and can bring the new fundraiser up to speed with that – a lot more quickly than they can train a passionate supporter of the cause to become a good fundraiser.
The candidate has a role to play here too as their ability to secure a role in a new area depends on how well they can convince the new employer that they have a good understanding of what would be similar and/or different fundraising for this new cause. It surprises me how poorly prepared some fundraisers are when I ask this question of someone looking to move sectors. Research is key here – speak to other fundraisers you know who work in the sector – look at resources on the CASE, Arts & Business and Institute of Fundraising websites.
So my recommendation is that organisations need to be more open minded to when recruiting fundraisers from other sectors- focus on the candidates fundraising track record and empathy with the cause rather than a direct experience of your sector. And a recommendation to candidates to take more time to really think through what would be different about fundraising for that new cause and how they would adapt their fundraising skills accordingly.
