4 Reasons Why Your Next Executive Director Must Embrace Fundraising

In a recent blog post we explored the process utilized by myself on several previous occasions for selecting an executive director for a nonprofit. I am going to build upon that process a bit and share a viewpoint regarding the immense need for an acumen with fundraising for that role.

If more than 50% of the nonprofit’s funding must come from various fundraising processes, any new executive director must not only have experience in fundraising but must also embrace it as the top priority of the new role.

Here are the four reasons by way of four realities.

Reality #1

Let’s face it: if the fundraising dollars do not roll in, then the organization is always operating in crisis mode. This is never productive!

Reality #2

No matter how strong of a fundraising team there is in place at any nonprofit, they will ALWAYS produce much more if the executive director is intimately involved! Every major donor, funder and sponsor desires to have a personal connection with the head of the organization and to hear the vision from that person.

Reality #3

If you want a financially committed board who embraces fundraising involvement you had better have an executive director leading by example, since that is who the vast majority of their interactions with your nonprofit happen with!

Reality #4

If your nonprofit has a need for strong operations leadership and fundraising leadership it is rare to find one person who truly excels at both. You are better off with choosing someone with the fundraising ability and hiring a strong operations person as the second in command.

I see this play out daily via my involvement with the nonprofit sector as a board chairman and/or board member as well as a major donor to numerous nonprofits. In addition, my past and current experience in providing fundraising software to over 25,000 nonprofits naturally brings this need and those four realities to the forefront.

How about those of you out there reading this post? Do you agree or not? If you agree, have I missed any other reasons/realities?  If you don’t agree, why?

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