Tell me about fundraising and development

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been trying to figure out what to be when I grow up, and when I think about where my passion lies, I think working for a non-profit might be just the thing.

It looks like the biggest need in that area is for fundraising and development. I’m interested in what the job is like, what the day to day work is, and so forth. I’ve already tried one career that I’m skilled enough for, but for which I’m totally unsuited temperamentally, so I want to find out about the nitty gritty of potential jobs.

One thing I’m thinking of doing is applying for unpaid internships. I haven’t been a college student in almost 20 years, but I’m lucky enough that I don’t need an income right away, and I thought this would be a good way to find out about the work on the ground, as well as getting experience and making connections if I do decide to pursue employment in the field.

Anyone have experience doing this type of work? Any insights into the highlights and drawbacks of doing this job? I appreciate any and all input!

2

I’m happy to tell you all I know about it, but I could write several books (which a decent editor could pare down to a series of paragraphs) so let me ask first: What appeals to you about non-profits, and fundraising in specific? Are you interested in grant writing? Direct marketing? High-level individual donors? Corporate donors? Street corner solicitations? And when you think about a non-profit, are you thinking about a national organization? A local affiliate? An independent, grassroots group? Or perhaps you don’t have any specific ideas in mind at all, and you’re just trying to get a sense of things?

3

Fundraising and development is a sales type job. It depends on your ability to schmooze rich people. That usually requires you to be somewhat rich, or at least embedded within that community to some extent. However, most of my experience in this area is with a small number of large non-profits and this could be quite different across the large world of non-profits. There are plenty of other useful positions within the non-profit world. And sizable institution needs all of the ordinary business skills that for-profit enterprises require. Accounting is a major part of any non-profit, as well as general computer skills, legal skills, the ability to manage and communicate internally and externally. Quite a few people are employed at non-profits to evaluate and administer the funding they provide. I don’t know if someone who is not a student or recent grad would be considered for an internship, but there should be plenty of opportunities for volunteers in general. If you’re not doing anything else you might as well give it a try.

4

My husband is in fundraising and development at a public university, and before that he worked for a symphony orchestra. He has a sales background, which definitely comes in handy because as TriPolar pointed out, fundraising is basically a sales position.

You definitely need to be a people person, because a large part of the job is schmoozing. It’s not a standard 8 to 5 job, because he attends a lot of events at night and on weekends. And although salaries vary depending on what kind of institution you’re working for, don’t expect to be rolling in the dough.

5

I don’t know enough to know the answers, and perhaps TriPolar’s suggestion that I explore other areas of need in such organizations is a good one. Let me give you a glimpse of my meandering, uninformed thoughts that brought me to this question.

First, I have a law degree and a (dormant) license to practice. But I HATED almost everything about my job at a law firm, and I realized the only reason I’ve had “lawyer” on my list of possible careers is because I feel like I ought to use that degree I’m still paying so much for! So I thought to myself, “Ignore the law thing. What do I actually care about and get excited about?” My answer is liberal social causes like LGBT rights, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and so on, and children’s health causes.

So I noodled around a bit on the NC non-profit jobs board and various organizations’ web sites, and the thing that jumped out again and again is fundraising. So that’s what led me to this question.

I would actually be very happy to explore offering my considerable communications, organization, and analytical skills to such groups, but I’m not sure how to get in with them. On paper I’m not such a much - five years’ experience in civil litigation, followed by ten years of raising children. So I’m guessing my best point of entry would be, as I said, some form of volunteering/internship.

Sales has always turned me off, but only because I consider it to be so dishonest. The goal is to pull one over on people, essentially. “Selling” a cause I believe in, whether it’s civil rights or child abuse prevention, would be perfectly fine. As for schmoozing, in my private life I tend to be kind of awkward, but in handling clients I’m pretty talented - as long as the schmoozing is in a professional realm, I could probably do it well.

Luckily I don’t have to roll in dough. I need to make enough to cover the costs of working and make payments on my loans. Everything else is gravy.

6

You are exceptionally qualified for work at a non-profit.

OK, the first one is meant in a light-hearted manner, but the non-profit world is very different from the for-profit world. Concentration on the bottom line won’t get you very far in the business of giving away money. Many people in that world can seem somewhat meandering and uninformed and still be very effective at what they do. The law degree is just gravy. There is a lot of regulation of non-profits and simply being able to understand those laws and having a general legal background will be a great asset in any area of non-profit work.

With your qualifications I’d recommend applying for jobs, not internships. And don’t feel like you have start at the bottom either.

7

Unauthorized Cinnamon, I think a background in law would translate nicely into a fundraising role, as handling donors can be similar to handling clients. I know several attorneys who work in development, and they all say they would never go back to practicing law. :slight_smile: Also, a knowledge of estate law comes in very handy if you’re working in a planned giving type of position.

8

Non-profit Development and Outreach Coordinator checking in. I’ve been doing this less than one year so take this FWIW (actually I was making the same considerations as you are not too long ago.)

#1 - I am not rich or a salesperson. I work for a very small nonprofit (I am the entire development department.)
#2 - Fundraising is asking individuals for money. Development includes this, but if you get into the really interesting stuff, it involves strategic planning for the financial life of an organization. It’s both difficult and fun.
#3 - If you want to work in development, prepare to do a lot of writing. I hope you enjoy writing grants (I personally love it.)
#4 - What is your educational background? If you want a good development position you are at least eventually going to want to get an MSW or related Master’s degree. I’m not saying it’s a requirement - just very helpful (especially because you’ll learn how to do your job while in grad school.)
#5 - Find a development internship. Experience is really the only way to get hired.

Now, let me tell you about my job. Today I’m writing a grant, processing donations, writing thank you letters, and updating our grant calendar with new prospects. In the past four months, I have done pretty much whatever needs to be done - developed a fiscal strategy for the new year, written grants, used donor databases to identify new prospects, created our own database in Excel to organize all of the grant information - this is one of those jobs where you have lots of deadlines and lots of details. I have helped to design new programs, created e-newsletters, published hard-copy newsletters, updated Facebook, prepared financial reports for the Board, and am in the process of designing evaluation protocols for our programs. Heck, I even taught some kids how to make papier-mache mummy heads during our Fall Festival.

That’s why i love this job - I do everything. If you work at a larger nonprofit, you probably won’t get that much variety. But I dunno - during my grad school internship at a large nonprofit, my supervisor allowed me to learn all kinds of stuff beyond grant writing.

If you enjoy writing and research, go for it. It’s also decent pay relative to other social work jobs. I don’t know as much on the donor cultivation end but yes, you have to talk to people and occasionally schmooze. It’s my least favorite part of the job.

Let me know if you have more questions. I love my job and would be happy to talk about it some more.

9

I don’t think this is completely true. You have to create a budget and generate profit just like any business. And marketing - that’s important, too. I consider this organization a business. We have costs, we generate revenue, we strategize for growth and we market like crazy. We will always place our clients first but that doesn’t mean we aren’t trying to make money here. The big difference is that the money we do make is reinvested in our programs so we can serve more people.

10

My point was about a different mindset. For-profits employment can easily be reduced to ‘make money for the company’ in many ways. Non-profits have loftier goals that aren’t as easily measured in dollars and cents. For-profits will be less concerned with where their income comes from and who buys their products than a non-profit. A non-profit is often constrained by it’s donors in the way that resources can be used where for-profits can more easily adjust it’s business to whatever best improves the bottom line.

None of this means the sky is a completely different color in the two worlds. There are just different considerations and I’ve seen cases where people don’t always make the transition between these worlds easily. That said, the same can happen in two different sectors of for-profit enterprise, and I’m sure also for different non-profits.

11

Can’t argue with that.

12

Just to share the joy part of the job with you, Cinnamon, I just got a nice fat check from the first grant I ever wrote as a professional! (It’s the second grant funded, but first I wrote.) :smiley: The feeling of satisfaction I have that my hard work is going to make a difference in this community is the best thing about this job. I’m on Cloud 9. So there’s a perk for you.

13

Well, that’s very nice to hear!

My undergrad degree is in English, and of course law involves a lot of writing and hewing to arcane and Byzantine rules. So I think I have something to offer in the grant writing area as well as more general communication tasks and help navigating non-profit regulations.

olives, if you can share with me the details of grant writing, I would definitely be interested. PM me if it seems too abstruse for general interest!

As for temperament, I’m pretty practical and results-oriented, but at the same time I never had the cut-throat dedication to crushing the competition and maximizing profit that permeates legal culture. If there’s more idealism in the mix at a non-profit, that’s definitely a plus for me.

14

I’ve worked at four non-profits and three of them were amazing. One thing I love about this field is it substantially increases the odds you will have decent people as your coworkers. There is such a sense of camaraderie and caring where I work.

15

I work in NGOs, though not in fundraising. I can confirm that is one field (along with monitoring and evaluation) that is always in demand. There should be plenty of internships to get started with, and usually they do lead to paid positions.

Depending on the organization you are with, I’ll warn that you may not get the moral purity that you are looking for. NGOs are organizations that usually have good goals, but like every organization they also have a need to perpetuate themselves. And to raise funds effectively, sometimes you do have to do some shady sales tactics.

For example, the “child sponsorship” programs pretty much never fund a single child. Instead, the benefits are pooled into a community project that helps any number of children. Instead of buying medicine for 20 individual kids (and potentially leaving some kids out) you can dig a well and have clean water for the entire village. But child sponsorship is hugely attractive to individual donors in a way that wells are not, so in order to do the good, they twist the truth. Other models face similar difficulties. One of the larger problems that NGOs face is that what people want to fund is often not what anyone really needs. Would you write a grant proposal for a program that will help people overseas, but also plays a role dumping unwanted US food commodities on them with potentially bad effects on the local economy? Would you fund yet another gender empowerment workshop, when what people really want is boring unfundable job training? Are you comfortable with making glossy brochures that show lots of smiling girls and women, and never ever show men (no matter how in need, pictures of men are poison to fundraising.)

I’m not saying it’s bad work, but you will probably still face moral dilemmas.

Finally, a word of advice. Studies have shown that for international funding, the best image to use is a girl holding a duck. This is actually true!

16

It’s an amazing area. I’ve worked in fundraising for a big charity and found there were parts I liked and parts I didn’t. I’m not great at the ‘ask’ but luckily my role wasn’t face to face fundraising.

The joy of when you get an envelope in child’s writing with their pocket money is just amazing … as are the hugely generous cheques some people write (imagine putting that many 0’s on something!).

Each charity will be very different in their procedures and processes. The charity I worked for was not into running events to raises funds … others would be. Some fundraise by selling items other focus on gifts in wills; there are often grant applications to be developed to apply for funding from other organisations. A legal background would be fantastic!

Volunteering is a fantastic way to get some experience and some exposure to understand what your contribution can do. I also coordinated volunteers in my role and we tried to give them the best opportunities - they were hugely valued and also provided a fantastic source of future employees.