There are ways to prepare for the role of CDO, including serving on the board of a nonprofit organization in your community, finding mentors with the skills you need, or asking your own CDO to help you gain experience in areas that fall outside your current areas of responsibility. Excerpted from The Chief Development Officer: Beyond Fundraising, published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2013
Managing up—the ability to influence the people to whom fundraisers report—is a big factor “that differentiates people who are able to advance in their careers and those who are not.”
Seasoned nonprofit leaders offer their thoughts on how to get ahead professionally.
Successful organizations in the modern economy require leaders to access their rational/analytical, AND emotional capabilities.So, how do we reconnect with and increase our innate capacity to understand and share the feelings of another? The first step is to go back to basics and retrain ourselves to listen.
In most searches, one of our best candidates does not make it to the second round because—as reported by hiring manager after hiring manager—almost all of the talking was done by the candidate. Having experienced this candidate behavior on a regular basis, and having watched strong candidates fail to advance in a search by making this simple but critical mistake in first interviews with our clients, here is advice to better manage your airtime in an interview.
Turnover can be costly. When a donor’s key contact leaves—whether it’s the president or development officer—the donor’s relationship with the institution is disrupted. The result? Delayed or decreased giving.
Fundraisers would do well to embrace qualities of the most successful salespeople—a focus on the customer, a commitment to active listening, and prioritization of long-term relationships over short-term gain.
Susan entered a new leadership position. While successful in her previous roles, she struggled in this one. She didn’t consider that new leadership practices are required for new situations.
A nonprofit colleague recently told me: “I know that we need to be paying attention to women – I don’t need more facts. Just tell me HOW to do it.” There is no magic bullet, but you can start by adapting your fundraising behaviors. Start with discernment.
There is no single decision-making process and structure that will work for every organization in every search. But laying out important considerations and making choices in advance will help hiring managers — and the search firm partners who assist them — achieve the best possible search outcomes.
