So, a bit of a departure from my usual story post, but this topic has come up a lot over the last few weeks so I thought I would just jump right in:

Why is the position of Development Director so hard to hire for?

• It is well documented that there is a high turnover of Development Directors (DD).
• Many CEO’s say they struggle to hire and retain DD’s.

This is my opinion. Just for background; I have worked in Fundraising for over 20 years, 8 of which I was a DD. I have worked in-house for charities and for funders, so I have worked closely with approximately 350 charities from start ups to big brands and all other shapes and sizes in between.

Yesterday, I googled job vacancies for DD’s, I read 32 job adverts and job descriptions (JD’s) for big, medium and small charities in 4 different countries (UK, America, Australia and Canada). And yes, I probably do need to get out more…

This is clearly not a scientific study by any stretch of...

You are the Fundraising Director or Head of Department.  You’re in a Senior Leadership Team meeting, about to commence item 3 on the agenda “The Fundraising Strategy”.  Everyone is keen to hear from you as your charity has been in survival mode for years.  You’re expected to show them how you’re going to absolutely keep a deficit at bay, grow the income and at least start the upward trajectory towards the dream world of “thrive mode”.  Everyone around the table is thinking – please for the love of God let there be growth!

So, with resources low and expectations high you turn on the projector and dive into your presentation:

• The objectives are (as they are automatically every year) grow new income and retain existing business by increasing team targets.
• You go through each income stream and show how you are going to increase activity which will in turn increase income.
• Increase staff numbers – but only in...