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 MoreHow 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 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. 