272 | Are we using the wrong approach for retaining fundraising talent?

Nonprofit bosses and hiring managers, are you trying to understand why your fundraiser just bailed on you? If so, this is the podcast conversation you need to hear. I met Kate after speaking at Ottawa’s Fundraising Day back in May, and we subsequently struck up a conversation on social media. Kate insists that we have got to stop sending a million emails as if we’re communicating with passive consumers and start treating our donors like human beings who actually matter to us. What quickly emerged from our conversation was the idea that perhaps fundraising needs to make some bets on our donors as loyal citizens instead of relying on marketing gimmicks that are, by design, sending all the wrong messages. Kate believes that the “iPad babies” aren’t going to tolerate the cheap, shallow tactics contemporary fundraising has gotten itself way too invested in.

Kate insists that humanization is the most important part of fundraising and that perhaps those who are handing in their resignations right now are begging us to humanize the work and stop treating those on either side of the gift exchange like they are widgets in a well-oiled machine. Our conversation begs the question of how fundraisers can identify new opportunities where they are more than reluctant salespeople only accountable for closing deals. I would venture to say that Kate, just the like donor on the other side of the table, want organizations to stop making claims that anyone is at the center of their thinking, to stop looking for the next shiny gadget that will solve all your stewardship problems, and instead start thinking about how to create an environment in which the relationship between fundraiser and donor can thrive.

As always, we are especially grateful to our friends at CueBack for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast, email us and let’s hear what you’ve got on your mind. Email me at jason@responsivefundraising.com

Reminder, you can download Responsive’s latest edition of Carefully & Critically here. 

As always, we are grateful to CueBack for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast.