Stepping up to your First Head of Fundraising Role – Seminar Follow Up

On Tuesday evening Charity People hosted a seminar with Fundraising coach and trainer, Kim van Niekerk. This event marked the launch of a new series of events from us designed for professionals in the charity sector seeking inspiration, advice, insight and networking opportunities. For those of you unable to join us Kim has just summarised and shared her tips in the piece below.

Stepping up to your first head of fundraising role
Kim van Niekerk

There is no doubt about it, the fundraising profession is exploding. Every day I speak to charities that are investing more in fundraising. They are expanding teams or taking on fundraisers for the first time. And in the midst of this there is a need for talented Heads of Fundraising who have the confidence and skills to grow their organisations.

Whether you are working out how to get there, or wanting to shape the ‘Head of’ role that you are in, the most important thing to remember is that your development is a very personal journey and there is no one size fits all answer.

One of the most valuable places to start is by working out what your questions are. What do you want answers to? I commonly hear, ‘How do I confidently move from a manager to a leader?’ or ‘How do I manage Board expectations around fundraising?’ Working with a coach can be the perfect way to explore these questions and check you are getting to the really pertinent bit...like do you have a definition of leadership in fundraising to work towards or do you understand your Board well enough to manage any expectations?

In the meantime, I want to share with you some of the traits that the most successful Heads of Fundraising use to achieve their goals. I’m sure you will be ticking several of them off as you go, but hopefully there are some to get you thinking too.

1) They know how to listen. And no it’s not as easy as it sounds. It means interpreting and understanding everything they hear and using this information to shape their decisions and strategies for growth. Behind every conversation there is a mind asking ‘Why am I hearing this response? What is causing it? How can I shape this to support fundraising?

2) They know how to influence. And yes this can be learnt, but it takes dedication and practice. It means being an expert in fundraising, knowing how to build relationships, positioning yourself as essential to the success of other teams and being able to throw in a good dollop of charisma.

3) They know the meaning of commitment. This doesn’t mean spending every waking hour at work, but it does mean throwing your emotional, intellectual and social skills behind the purpose of the charity.

4) They know what indicators to look for across every fundraising discipline even if they aren’t a specialist in that area. Acquisition, retention, life time value, return on investment and market orientation are just some of the familiar metrics. 5) They audit their fundraising on an annual basis. This is a step so many teams miss out because they are pushed for time, but auditing gives clarity on what is working, what isn’t and why. It looks at internal and external factors and tells a charity what is feasible for income delivery each year, what opportunities for investment exist, and where they should prioritise their efforts.

6) They know their donors. Really know their donors. They take time to understand what they are thinking, feeling, saying, doing, worrying about and hoping for, not just how much they are capable of giving. And only then do they develop communication plans for each audience that are piloted and rolled out.

7) They make short term decisions that play into long term goals. With so little to invest in fundraising there can be a temptation to fund only the immediate fundraising needs of organisations, but strategic thinking links these decisions in to the broader long term ambitions of growth.

8) They set up several scenarios for development and investment to discuss with their teams and across the organisation. This is how they create buy in and work up solutions and ideas that benefit as many stakeholders as possible.

9) They experiment. Fundraising is not about perfection. It is about careful research, best made plans, careful observation and constant iteration to find solutions that really work.

10) They make recommendations and plans based on evidence, not assumptions. The fundraising world has become extremely sophisticated and academics, professional bodies and consultants are publishing data all the time for us to use. We can also borrow from dozens of other disciplines if we know how to apply them into the fundraising sector and of course we can produce our own internal data. Wherever the information comes from, this is the stuff that builds confidence in fundraising plans and investments and gathers the support of Boards and SMT alike.

It is a thrilling, rewarding role being a Head of Fundraising, but it can also be lonely and incredibly stressful when you have no fundraising expertise around you to back your decisions, or worse still, if you are surrounded by people who find fundraising uncomfortable and want nothing to do with it. It takes stamina and determination to craft the culture you want.

As I watch fundraisers grow into awesome leaders, I’m also completely biased about the role I think coaching can play in helping individuals reach the goals they set themselves. If you have been on training courses and are comfortable reading and self learning, but you want guided direction and very individual support for your development, then I cannot recommend it highly enough. Find someone who you connect with, who you trust to bring out the best in you and who gets results and I promise you will cherish the investment you made in yourself.

You can also find a wealth of information behind auditing and strategy in books such as Fundraising Principles and Practice by Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang. And if you are thinking about your next steps to becoming a Head of Fundraising why not think about becoming a Trustee where you can gather great exposure to governance and SMT activity. For more tips and advice to develop your fundraising skills join me at www.kimvanniekerk.com