A Metric System for Development Directors
This month I have been posting about hiring Development Directors. On 3 January, I made the case that hiring passion/talent and training skills was a more effective approach in general that hiring skills/experience and hoping that the successful candidate falls in love with your mission. Last week, I advocated for NOT hiring a Development Director as the organization’s first development position, but rather hiring a detail-oriented Development Coordinator instead. I emphasized the need to take training seriously and advocated for aggressive pay increases when the newly hired Development...
Read MoreHow to Hire Development Staff Part 2
Men and women with five or more years of experience raising money for non-profit organizations are regularly claiming $60,000 salaries and greater depending on where in the country they work and how much money they are responsible for raising. In fact the median salary for a Director of Development is now $69K; $62k for environmental organizations. So as an Executive Director of a land trust, do you swallow the price tag and hire proven experience, or do you hire less experience for a smaller salary? In a little bit, I will argue for the latter, but first I want to make the case that most...
Read MoreThinking About the Best Board Chair
The best Board Chair is one who knows how the organization works. S/he is a good public ambassador for the organization articulating the land trust message accurately and confidently, and lending credibility to the organization through his/her association. S/he leads with her own giving, which is significant for her, and manages the administrative side of the job well. Such a person wasn’t recruited to the Board yesterday. In fact, s/he has probably been on the Board for five years or more. Furthermore, such a person is not likely to be idle when you have a Board seat to fill. It might take...
Read MoreAnonymity isn’t Necessarily Friendly
A land trust was recently confronted with a peculiar problem. A major donor with a keen and personal interest in protecting a specific piece of property offered an enabling gift equal to, and restricted to, the entire purchase price of the property. The gift amount equaled about 75% of the total “conservation costs” of the project, including stewardship endowment, closing costs, and so on. The condition was that donor’s identity and even the dollar value of the gift were to remain completely secret. Refusing the gift was never seriously considered, but the land trust was confronted with...
Read MoreRecruit Advocates; Be a Storyteller
James Read is a Creative Director for Grizzard Communications. His recent article on “Lessons from Young Charities” presented the following five principles that characterize today’s most innovative nonprofit organizations. Each of these ideas can also be applied to well-established organizations also and are worth considering related to yours. They are: Focus on a powerful idea Recruit passionate advocates, not merely donors Be a storyteller Invest in the brand experience Prove your impact A couple of things jump out of Read’s article for me. The question of how to recruit...
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. 