Whether you're a small nonprofit just starting out or an established organization with a fabulous fundraising team, it's essential to familiarize yourself with what a development department is and how to build an effective team. We've put together 5 tips to help you assess your current fundraising needs and build (or expand) your development department appropriately. This process can also help you set fundraising goals for the coming year--so it's a win-win!
Table of Contents
5 Tips for planning your development department
- Assess your needs
- Create exciting, achievable goals
- Hire a star
- Empower your current department
- Support your current department
What is a Development Department?
A development department is a very formal term for the team directly responsible for gathering the funds you need to keep your organization running. While nonprofits function best with an "all hands on deck" attitude, it's your development department that's responsible for spearheading your fundraising drives and goals.
Your department should be equipped to handle the variety of fundraiser sources your organization accesses and oversee the three main phases of an event: Pre-event planning and promotion, event launch and oversight, and post-event processes.
5 Tips for Planning Your Development Department
We’re here to help you build (or expand) your development department in five (mostly) easy steps!
1) Assess your needs.
We've put our finger on what a development department does, so of course, the next question is how big does your department need to be? With giving considered an economic luxury, we completely understand the need to keep overhead as low as possible so you can focus as many resources as possible on your mission. But, saddling one person with the whirlwind of fundraising, donor relations, and other development tasks is a recipe for burnout and quick turnover.
A well-equipped, structured team will be faster and more efficient--meaning more money for your calling and mission!
How do you decide if it's time to create a development team, and how big do you go? Start by assessing the state of your workload, timeline, and budget. Does your donation department's workload increase during a certain "most wonderful time of the year"? How do you know a social media campaign is really worth the time you're taking to develop and run it? And how much of your workload is just poorly managed time and effort?
To get the answers to these questions, take some time to map out your organization's fundraising activities over the fiscal year. Look at every way your organization tries and does earn money.
This strategic document should include all the information about your various fundraising campaigns, donors, fundraising event plans, social media calls-to-action, and any other relevant information. You want this to be as detailed as possible (and don't worry… it will come in handy when you're training your new development team, too).
2) Create exciting but achievable goals.
Let's think forward! Now it's time to use that document to assess your goals against your current workload. What is and isn't working? What does sustainable growth look like for your organization? And where can you better direct your current or future development staff?
With this assessment, you'll be able to compare the amount of time your organization spends on each fundraising strategy against the data you've been collecting about your donors and donations. If a profitable fundraising strategy is taking too much time, that may signal the need to increase your development staff. This way, you can keep one member working with that strategy and free other people to explore new fundraising avenues.
If you're a smaller nonprofit with a budget that would struggle to support a new hire, consider outsourcing the easier or infrequent fundraising activities to temps or volunteers.
When it comes to creating donation goals, you can use the fundraising overview document you just created as a baseline to set ambitious but attainable objectives.
Fundraising expert Seth Rosen recommends looking over your prior year-to-year revenue growth and considering a 4-6% revenue increase. One bonus to the fundraising document you've created is that if you do decide to hire, you'll have an exact list of expectations for anyone coming on board!
Ok, we promise this was the hardest part. Let's get into the fun stuff… the people!
3) Hire a star.
Now that we know what a development team does and what you need it to do, let's start putting together a great group of fundraising all-stars. It's time to decide what qualities you should be looking for in your next development professional.
Well, obviously, they should have a passion for your mission!
But don't stop there. While it's essential to hire people who share your organization's goals and vision, you should seriously consider your team's skillsets. Here's a quick rundown of what you should be looking for in your next fundraiser:
- Fundraising experience: Practically speaking, fundraising is a marketable skill, like salesmanship or writing. You want to ensure you'll be hiring the best talent your organization can get to maximize donation return.
- Diverse skill sets: As you know, the best fundraisers are "jacks-of-all-trades." A background in event planning would be invaluable for fundraisers. Marketing, communications, and social media interaction are incredibly important these days to build relationships with donors and establish consistency throughout your brand and fundraising efforts. Think about those different fundraising strategies your organization uses and look to hire staff with the right skills in those areas.
- Soft skills: Look for a detail-oriented development professional who is results and checklist driven and who does well under pressure. Great fundraisers have a seemingly endless supply of creative, new, out-of-the-box ideas. And probably most important of all, find someone who's excellent at building and maintaining relationships with donors.
- Can they ask? We hate to be super obvious, but you want to hire a fundraiser who is comfortable asking for money--we're talking big money. Consider asking two pointed questions of your interviewees: "What was your best ask?" and "What was your biggest ask to date?"
Let's stop and think, who in your organization already has these qualities? You may not want to hire someone from the outside if you already have a great staffer who can transition seamlessly into that role!
4) Empower your current department.
Speaking of staff, if you're a mature organization, you probably already have a development department--or at least a few awesome staffers who are doing a great job of keeping your lights on. Organizations are always looking for the golden egg— that one fundraiser or tactic to solve all their financial problems. Well, that golden egg is your development department. So don't overlook them!
Make sure you're empowering them with the best tools they need to fundraise and plan successful events. Soapbox Engage's apps are all powered by Salesforce, the perfect tool for your organization to get all the data you need to achieve those fiscal goals.
Powerful donation pages will make promotion and donations easier. The mighty Events app will help your planners coordinate details and attendees.
Next, focus on equipping your team with access to training and room for personal growth. An employee who has the opportunity to develop their skills with the blessing of their higher-ups will be one that you keep for the long-term.
Pay attention to building your department's soft skills: communication, relationships, and interactions. These skills directly affect their relationship with donors, and that expands your fundraising opportunities.
Finally, it's no secret that turnover is high among development professionals because of compensation competition. If you can't afford a salary increase, look at offering increased benefits like flex time, vacation time, child care, or sick time. You want to make your employees feel valued and appreciated and compensate them equitably for their hard work.
5) Support your current department.
When it comes to keeping an employee for life, you want to create a space where your department wants to come to work. Give real support and gratitude to your team. If your executives aren't doing this already, make sure they're intentionally investing in your fundraising team. Hold regular meetings to hear about their successes, failures, challenges, needs, and wants.
Second, be sure to encourage communication between departments. If your marketing department isn't merged with your development department, you should certainly think about having them regularly collaborate to create a consistent face and voice for your organization.
Going further, cross-train your employees with developers to really bake in that invaluable "all hands on deck" mentality that's so crucial to your organization's success. Plus, having everyone involved (at least a little) in the fundraising process ensures that the entire organization appropriately values the hard work your development professionals do!
We want you to think of your development team as the foundation of your organization. If the mission is why your organization exists, the development department is the fundamental team that keeps everything standing and running smoothly towards your end goal.
Invest in them with the best resources and the right people to increase your fundraising efforts. After all, building a robust and effective fundraising infrastructure is the only way to get where your mission is taking you!
Here are three more resources to help you continue building and expanding your nonprofit's fundraising strategies.
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