I have come to believe that those who contribute the most to the leadership in our profession, as well as achieve the greatest success raising funds for their organizations, are those people who were mentored and inspired by other development professionals.
Bernard Ross is an authority on fundraising in the nonprofit sector and an inspiring public speaker, but he wouldn’t describe himself as a motivator.
In fact, the influential 50-year-old director of the London-based Management Centre thinks the idea of motivating anyone to do anything often is nothing more than a conceit that managers harbor about themselves.
For the past 27 years, I’ve been recruiting senior-level development professionals and training younger, aspiring individuals to be fundraising consultants and executive recruiters in the nonprofit world.
In all my years of consulting with nonprofit leaders and their boards, I’ve learned that finding and holding on to great talent is no easy feat, yet it’s one of the most pivotal factors contributing to an organization’s success in fundraising.
The job of a nonprofit executive director involves numerous and ever-changing roles and responsibilities, which can lead to personal burnout — and paralysis for an entire organization, write Mim Carlson and Margaret Donohoe, leadership development consultants and authors who draw on robust careers in the nonprofit sector to deliver a new book, “The Executive Director’s Survival Guide.”
Carlson and Donohoe provide suggestions for tackling duties such as fundraising and creating a budget, as well as juggling internal priorities of staff and volunteer development, financial management, program effectiveness, resource development and board relations.
