Recruiting and Retaining the Best and Brightest

When the terms of engagement are made clear by both the employer and employee, chances are the organization will have a highly motivated and “engaged” fundraising professional. Engaged employees feel incredible passion for their work, provide higher levels of service, and are creative, innovative and productive.

Engaged employees also tend to stay with the organization longer and hardly ever miss work. They take responsibility for managing their own careers and possess the will and means to do the job effectively. They are focused and energized.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But guess what? You can’t go shopping for engaged employees. You, as the leader of your organization, must create them.

Remember, even your best employees — after being successfully trained and mentored — always will have the freedom to roam and, in this abundant nonprofit marketplace, can’t help but be tempted. And while not every employee resignation translates into lost donors, staff turnover presents huge challenges to leadership credibility and donor loyalty, especially when it comes to major-gifts officer positions.

Word of mouth in our small community of development professionals will forever haunt the fundraising leader who isn’t effective as a manager of great talent. Recruitment efforts will become more difficult, and turnover will continue.

What’s in it for me?
Today’s Generation Xers value flexibility in the workplace over most other factors when considering new positions. Quality-of-life issues — location, community life, a flexible work schedule and a manageable commute — drive their choices and limit your capacity to recruit many “up and comers.” These aspiring fundraising executives want flexibility in their benefits packages, perhaps because they watched their over-achieving parents work tirelessly 24/7.

“Finding and Keeping the Best People,” published in 2001 by Harvard Business Review, includes a collection of cutting-edge articles to help organizations understand how to keep top employees in today’s fiercely competitive job market.