How to Hire Fundraising Staff, Part 1
Happy New Year! I will spend a good part of 2012 helping two organizations find and train new Development Director positions, and the prospect has spurred me to devote some time to researching and sorting out my own thoughts about hiring fundraising staff for land trusts. It seems like a good January topic, and I am planning to devote the next several Blog Posts to it. Let’s start with some survey facts from the Association of Fundraising Professionals: The average tenure for a Development Officer at an organization is 18 months The median salary for a Development Officer is $69K; $62K for...
Read MoreTaming the Social Media Monster
In a recent blog by Nancy Schwartz, Getting Attention Blog, she outlines seven guidelines for “taming the social media monster”. Good, solid communications stuff here. Her guidelines and my comments related to land trusts follow: Be crystal clear on why you’re using social media. Most land trusts that I work with are engaged in social media because they think they have to. Take a step back. Define more general communications goals for your land trust, and identify a piece of that structure for social media. Common goals are to generate increasing community awareness of the LT, engage...
Read MoreIn Development, “Audit” isn’t a Dirty Word
Most non-profit organizations think about an “audit” as a necessary evil, with CPAs combing through the finances, offering opinions as to the state of the organization, and making recommendations about improvements needed. Afterward however, their work is appreciated in subtle ways. The Board has greater confidence in the overall organizational management, funders have a better understanding of how the organization works and the degree to which it is positioned for success, and deficiencies (and inefficiencies) are addressed and improved. A Development Audit works the same way and offers...
Read MoreDavid Allen, Development for Conservation LLC
I am a fundraising consultant who has devoted the majority of my professional career to the service of land conservation. This blog is intended to help conservation organizations and land trusts pursue excellence in all aspects of their conservation endeavors. I welcome your comments and feedback to these posts. 