Yesterday I wrote about some of the great advantages of working in fundraising. Today I’m going to talk about what are some of the disadvantages. I enjoy my work a great deal but it is not all roses and rainbows. The largest perceived disadvantage is pay. Fundraising sometimes gets a bad wrap as the pay is a lot better than it use to be. I consistently make around $10,000 under market, but I still make enough to do the things I want to do.
You have to rely very heavily on the work of community volunteers. This can be really exciting but can also be difficult and frustrating as they have thousands of other things they are working on. And, because involvement is connected to hearts and wallets volunteer work can sometimes become rather political.
It can be hard to measure success because what you are doing is so relationship based. Measuring only by dollars raised can lead to low employee moral especially in difficult times. Fundraising leadership is very different than what you’ll find in other industries as most decisions are made by consensus. Leaders have less of an ability to autocratically lead which can make leadership more challenging.
My biggest frustration is about how much staff actually get to ask for money but I’ll write more about that in my next post. How about you? What do you see as a disadvantage about fundraising work?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Scott 11.21.08 at 6:43 am
Everyone in fundraising has down days that they feel weren’t productive or were met with cynisism (sp?). I try and overcome that by concentrating on only today .The down times are there because we project those times into the future which magnifies the negative immeasurably. By trying to anaylize the bad or negative chaos (especially with volunteers) of today I get to the root problem and overcome my mistake or misrepresentation ,so that I have more up days in the future. I say “I” because in my anaylsis it is usually “I” that I need to overcome not others. The feeling of contributing to something positive is fullfilling in itself, lets remember our objective and mission and forge ahead into the relationships that make the engine crank!
Janice Chan 11.21.08 at 11:02 am
I think another frustration (perhaps not the right word?) is that we’re kind of distanced from the results of our work. Obviously, it depends on the size and type of organization, but a lot of times we’re asking people for money (or doing the support work) and we don’t get to see people benefitting from the services our organization provides. There’s always so much to do that it’s easy to get wrapped up in solicitations and events and processing gifts and strategic plans and meetings, that it’s easy to forget why we (and our donors) are with the organization in the first place–to help people (or animals, etc.). It’s easy to look at taking time to go visit a program site as an extra rather than a necessity. But I think it also comes from program staff understanding that fundraising is not completely separate from the work that they are doing as well and passing along stories and pictures, etc. We’re getting better at it at my organization, but only as part of a really conscious effort.
The other thing is, going back to a point you raised, Jason, about performance being measured in dollars. I understand, it is simple and concrete and we wouldn’t be able to do the things we do without it. But sometimes it’s easy to overlook say, volunteers who are passionate and maybe can’t give much or any money, but tell others about the great work you are doing. Or in general, just other aspects of building relationships with supporters that cannot be measured in money, but say, might be helpful in other ways such as through their networks or their ability to raise awareness of your cause. I know PR firms have a way to put dollar amounts on publicity (I don’t know how they calculate, just that they give us numbers), but what value can you place on positive word of mouth?