Stacey Girdner

Any nonprofit organization’s success hinges in part on recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest people — and firing those who fall short. That according to Stacey Girdner, the chief people development officer at Russ Reid Company, a Pasadena, Calif.-based marketing and communications firm that serves nonprofit organizations. “[Fewer and fewer] people are available for your positions,” Girdner said at the session “Grooming the Next Generation of Fundraisers: How Do I Find, Train and Retain Good People?” at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2008 Leadership Summit held last month in Palm Beach, Fla. “You have to be more strategic.” Girdner, who has worked