The Right Fit
Posted on May 7, 2012
Last month, my “Simone” Says blog caused quite a stir as evidenced by the volume and intensity of the emails and phone calls I received. I think we hit a nerve! Let’s stay with it again this month and turn the tables a bit on the perspective of the discussion, to those looking to hire.
Interestingly, earlier this month Penelope Burke shared some important observations of the market right now worth repeating:
- More and more fundraisers are changing jobs as the economy recovers.
- The average tenure of a fundraiser now is 16 months!
- Costs (both direct and indirect) for finding a replacement can top $100,000!
- The most cited reason for change of job? Wanting a salary increase.
Pretty startling stuff. The conclusion? If you are in a position to promote a current employee, DO IT. Continue to train, nourish and develop your own. Do everything you can possibly do to provide flexibility for work/life balance. Keep your people. Promote from within.
For those of you who do not have in-house people to consider, be sure to structure your process to test and confirm credentials, experience, competencies and skills. In addition, be sure to explore the candidate’s intentions, self awareness, curiosity, maturity, listening skills and emotional/social intelligence. Be careful to ensure that the best candidate brings both sets of critical competencies. Consider “fit” with your organization and your donors.
Here are some of my favorite questions to probe these issues:
- What is your fundraising philosophy? How did you get started in the profession and why?
- What is it about our organization and it’s mission that excites you? Inspires you?
- Tell me about your greatest achievement as a fundraiser and why.
- What competencies do you bring to this role?
- What is your leadership style and philosophy when it comes to working effectively with board members and volunteers? Talk about your thoughts on board involvement in fundraising.
- Talk about your view of the relationship between the lead fundraiser and the President / CEO. How do the roles differ? How do they complement one another? When has this worked well for you?
- How do you resolve conflict?
Other notable observations:
- Does the candidate listen well?
- Does this fundraiser “meet and greet” well? Do they readily engender trust and confidence?
- Do they have self confidence?
- Are you comfortable with them?
- Are they curious? Did they ask good questions?
- Can they articulate their own narrative? Do they appear to know themselves including their strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement?
- If you were a donor, would you respond positively to a gift request? Would you want them to visiting your parents? :)
- At the end of your time with them how did you feel? Would you want to spend time with them again? Did they exude energy?
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As always I welcome your thoughts and reactions at: Deb@philanthropiapartners.com