Blog: Why is it so challenging for fundraisers to move into senior level positions?Blog: Why is it so challenging for fundraisers to move into senior level positions?Blog: Why is it so challenging for fundraisers to move into senior level positions?Blog: Why is it so challenging for fundraisers to move into senior level positions?
  • About us
  • Membership
  • EFA Certification
  • Fundraising Europe
  • News
  • Events
  • Resources
  • About us
  • Membership
  • EFA Certification
  • Fundraising Europe
  • News
  • Events
  • Resources
Alex Xavier
Blog: How Chartered Status could improve leadership and career development in fundraising
July 10, 2019
Blog: Measuring what matters – why impact is about far more than outputs
December 4, 2019

Blog: Why is it so challenging for fundraisers to move into senior level positions?

September 16, 2019
Categories
  • Blog
Tags
  • Professional development
Ashley Gatewood

Ashley Gatewood, CFRE International

Fundraising offers broad and wide-ranging career opportunities across Europe, but it can be difficult for fundraisers to move into senior level positions. Ashley Gatewood, communications and marketing manager, CFRE International explores the challenges and what can be done to turn the tide.

While fundraising is a rewarding profession, charting a rewarding fundraising career can be complex. Ambitious staff want to move up within their organisation, but many NGOs can fall short in developing the talents of the people already walking their halls.  

No charity wants to be operating in the Dark Ages, disconnected from the latest fundraising methods and best practices. Yet so many do just that when they don’t invest in their staff to reach their full fundraising and leadership potential via continuing education. This makes it difficult for fundraisers to move into senior-level roles with the right body of knowledge and competencies, which are essential to thriving in more demanding positions.   

Four seasoned fundraising professionals from across Europe weigh in on the situation.   

“Fundraisers looking to move into senior-level positions have great opportunities today in Germany,” says Tom Neukirchen, CFRE, CEO of Fundgiver Social Marketing. “The market is expanding and there is a lack of experienced fundraisers.”

But the challenge is often that fundraisers need to create more visibility for themselves within the sector, for example as a speaker or as a volunteer contributing to the profession. 

Neukirchen adds: “They need to acquire skills in leadership and fundraising management to have the self-confidence to apply for a new job, to convince the employer they are able to take on more challenging work, and to perform. Unfortunately, we don‘t have well-developed training programmes for that purpose in Germany.”

Ramses Man, CFRE, senior regional development director of Conservation International Europe, agrees: “I think it is time we realise that the things required to be a great fundraiser are often the exact opposite of the things you need to be successful at a director level. You can kind of get away with it for a while at an intermediate level, but it surely gets exposed at the development director level when you start having to operate cross-functionally, be innovative, and manage a larger team with a broader set of responsibilities. I think that the lack of investing in talent development is the result of lots of Dutch NGOs being penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

“I would urge them to start investing in their high potential fundraisers and teach them the right management skill set so that they can become the future fundraising leaders that the Dutch NGO sector needs so badly.”

The issue persists in smaller countries, too. “NGOs do not act as a key employer [in Slovenia], employing less than 1% of the Slovenian workforce. Therefore, the sector remains less attractive for trained and skilled workers,” observes Livija Rojc, CFRE, director of Agencija LARS. “Consequently, few NGOs have human resources management that would allow fundraisers to take a job and also move up the ladder to become a CEO or executive director.”

When it comes to hiring, Livija notes, “We also need to raise awareness of the areas of expertise and competencies NGOs should look for with their future employees and volunteers to be able to manage organisations efficiently, fundraising being one of those areas.” 

In the UK, Phillip Rothwell, CFRE, director of development at King’s High and Warwick School, sees room for improvement with the way expectations are managed.

He says, “There are a number of attractive opportunities for fundraisers to move into senior-level positions and it may be tempting to move into one of these. The challenge for fundraisers is to filter out those organisations who only have a short-term approach to fundraising from those who are truly committed to philanthropy. The former group will lead to stress and frustration, but the latter will provide a fulfilling career path.”

Turning the tide

As more organisations see that investing in their current workforce with professional development opportunities is key to having an effective team, hopefully there will be more support to upskill existing fundraising staff.

While on the job search, fundraisers must also become more savvy in identifying which fundraising departments care about their career trajectory. Enthusiastic fundraisers never want to find themselves stuck in a quagmire of dissatisfaction due to a lack of learning opportunities at a new organisation.

Fortunately, Europe offers a bounty of fundraising training and certification pathways, including the globally-recognised Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential.

If time and budget can be allocated for staff participation, participating in fundraising and leadership education could be transformative for the sector. The more well-rounded and prepared fundraisers are to ascend to the top of their departments and organisations, the more capable the sector will become overall.

In turn, the stronger the European fundraising sector is, the more attractive a profession fundraising will become. People will see fundraising as a viable career with avenues for growth, including support to acquire the skill set to confidently move into senior-level positions.

Experienced staff who move into these roles will be well positioned to carry the banner for the organisations that do so much to shape our world for the better.

Further reading:

Special focus: Developing the next generation of fundraising leaders

Your voice: We must do more to support fundraisers’ professional development

About Ashley Gatewood

Ashley has more than 10 years’ experience in marketing with non-profits and trade associations. She is the communications and marketing manager at CFRE International, which administers the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential. Since 1981, CFRE has set standards for fundraising professionals. As the only globally recognised fundraising certification, CFRE indicates professionalism, confidence, and ethics.   

Share

Related posts

Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing, ONG Conseil

November 3, 2020

Jean-Paul Kogan-Recoing: Building a crisis-proof F2F fundraising model


Read more
Eduard Marcek

Eduard Marček, EFA President

February 5, 2020

Blog: Uniting European fundraising for a stronger future


Read more

Doug Balfour, Geneva Global

December 4, 2019

Blog: Measuring what matters – why impact is about far more than outputs


Read more

Sign up to our free monthly news and features

  • Latest news
  • Latest features
  • News from EFA
  • Fundraising Europe
  • Advertise with EFA

Search news by country or category

News by date

Popular topics

  • Research
  • Coronavirus
  • Professional development
  • Individual giving
  • Philanthropic trends
  • Digital
  • Events
  • Legacies
  • Collaboration
  • Tax incentives

Events Calendar

< March 2021 >
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
1 2Nonprofit Day 2021 / La grande sfida del nonprofit (Eng/It) all day
Conference
Online (Festival del fundraising)
3 4Nonprofit Women Camp (Italian) all day
Three-day online event
Nonprofit Women Camp Committee Marketing & Fundraising: Two sides of the same coin? (Dutch) from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Masterclass
Online (Fundraisers Alliance Belgium)
5Nonprofit Women Camp (Italian) all day
Three-day online event
Nonprofit Women Camp Committee
6Nonprofit Women Camp (Italian) all day
Three-day online event
Nonprofit Women Camp Committee
7
8 9Case for Support (German) all day
Fundraising Verband Austria (Online Seminar)
Data Driven Fundraising (Dutch) from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm
Masterclass
Online (Fundraisers Alliance Belgium)
10AEFR Inbound Marketing Strategy Series (Spanish) all day
Session 2: Donor recruitment
Online Seminar
11Legacy Fundraising Webinar (English) from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Richard Radcliffe: Legacy Fundraising - How to do it right and successfully
NPO Academy
Online
12Legacy Fundraising Webinar (English) from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Richard Radcliffe: Legacy Fundraising - How to do it right and successfully
NPO Academy
Online
13 14
15 1615th Fundraising Conference for Higher Education (French) all day
3-day online conference
AFF Fundraisers
17Insamlingsforum Online 2021 (Swedish / English) all day
Two-day annual conference (Giva Sverige / Give Sweden)
Online
18 19 20 21
22 23Content Marketing for Nonprofits (German) all day
Fundraising Verband Austria (Online Seminar)
ERNOP Seminar: Sustaining Voluntary Energy (English) from 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Seminar by Professor Lucas Meys from the Rotterdam School of Management
Online CFRE Webinar: How to become a CFRE in EMEA (English) from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Webinar
24AEFR Inbound Marketing Strategy Series (Spanish) all day
Seminar 3: Education, Closure & Loyalty
Online Diploma in Fundraising (English) all day
CIOF: Fundraising Diploma (One year course, flexible study time, fixed assignment deadlines and exam date)
Booking deadline: 3rd March
25 26 27 28
293rd Digital Social Summit (German) all day
Two-day online conference organised by the Bürgerermut Foundation
30 31        

Registered Office

James Wattstraat 100
NL-1097 DM Amsterdam
Netherlands

EFA is registered at the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce
Reg. No. 34212817

Contact

Executive Officer, Denise Dawes
denise.dawes@efa-net.eu

Media enquiries:
news@efa-net.eu

Follow us

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn

Search

© 2021 EFA | European Fundraising Association. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy