What to Look for When Hiring a New Fundraising Staff Replacement

Have you ever had one of those weeks? Everything is lovely and you may get to play your first round of golf for the year soon. Your wife or husband is talking about vacation plans. Your niece just gave birth to her first beautiful healthy baby boy. Your daughter and son-in-law are building a new house. It looks like you may get a new consulting client. Your church names you as chair of the parish council. There are many things to be thankful for, and then your boss comes in the office. He closes the door and says he is being transferred.

That same afternoon your major-gifts director says she is leaving for a dream position. The skies open up, and your first golf game is cancelled. You must stop the presses and begin to look for a staff replacement. You know this process will be time-consuming and hard to find good replacements.

When this happened to me, I stopped and took a deep breath. I thought of my dear friend and colleague Dr. Lilya Wagner, director of Philanthropic Service for Institutions.

Wagner has been a valued colleague for many years. In addition to her day job, she has been associated with the Fund Raising School at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy for a number of years. She is so talented I remember the time she was supposed to speak at my board training session and placed her notes on the lectern. A previous speaker finished his presentation and ran to a cab for the airport.

He mistakenly took Wagner's lecture notes with him. She walked up to the podium and spoke without notes for two hours, smiling as she went with the flow. She has written many articles through the years. I continuously reference her book "Careers in Fundraising," published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons. This book is timeless as a number of professionals contributed their wisdom to the book.