Eva Aldrich: Retain your fundraisers with professional development

With EFA’s Certification Symposium taking place in April, this month we focus on professional development and recruitment in Fundraising Europe. In this blog, Eva Aldrich provides some sound advice for how to retain fundraisers by providing them with opportunities for professional development.

Turnover in fundraising staff is a huge challenge—and costly problem—for nonprofit organizations.

The average tenure for a major-gift fundraiser is generally under two years.

Couple that with the cost of losing a staff member (which the Society for Human Resource Management estimates at 90 to 200 percent of the individual’s salary), and it becomes clear that retention is a key issue that successful nonprofit organizations need to address.

While it is important for nonprofit organizations to look at increased compensation, flexibility in work conditions, and internal promotion opportunities as methods for keeping great fundraising professionals, Harvard Business Review points out there is another affordable and accessible retention tool that staff members really want: professional development.

How Professional Development Impacts the Bottom Line
Professional development isn’t simply good for your fundraising staff—it’s good for your organization’s retention rate. Studies have shown that organizations that prioritize professional development opportunities for staff enjoy retention rates that are 30 to 50 percent higher than those of their peers.

Confirming & Solidifying Knowledge: Certifications
While conferences and webinars are part of a well-rounded professional development plan, professional certifications are key for retaining high-performing fundraisers.

Professional certifications do more than impart knowledge—they enable fundraising staff to network and learn outside of their organizations, demonstrate their competence and breadth of knowledge, and raise fundraising professionalism within your organization.

Fundraising staff who have invested in themselves by completing a fundraising course accredited by EFA or earning the accredited CFRE certification credential are the kind of fundraisers organizations need.

Smart organizations support individuals in their pursuit of certification by providing funding and time off to study or take associated exams. They know they’ll reap the benefits by keeping highly engaged and motivated fundraising staff who are effective and confident in their work.

The Strongest Investment You Can Make
But it’s also a reality that sometimes an organization’s professional development budget is smaller than its aspirations. It can take time and effort to make the case for the investment of more resources into professional development.

Even with a tight budget, organizations can make sure they support a learning culture in which professional development is valued and encouraged.

Here is how to provide professional development for fundraisers at no or little cost:

• Give each staff member an hour each week for on-the-job professional development. Need ideas on where to find programs? There are over 600 free programs listed in CFRE’s My Education Finder, a searchable database of fundraising training from approved education providers.
• Start a fundraising reading group at work.
  Select a book on fundraising or on skills that fundraisers need—and provide them with some on-the-job time to complete the reading. Then have your fundraising staff meet to discuss what they’ve learned and how the knowledge can be applied to improve fundraising at your organization. No time to read an entire book? Select a recent issue of a magazine serving the fundraising profession. Choose an article or two that could provide your organization’s fundraising with some new ideas.
• Coach your staff.
  Often, on-the-job conversations are transactional and task-oriented. Create time for one-on-one discussions with your staff where you can learn their professional aspirations and co-create a plan for realizing them.

High-performers want to learn and grow in on the job.

If they can’t learn and grow at your organization, they’ll find one where they can. Investing in professional development is a smart, cost-effective way to retain the dedicated, knowledgeable professionals that your organization’s fundraising depends on.

Eva Aldrich

About Eva Aldrich
Eva E. Aldrich is President and CEO of CFRE International, the first globally recognized fundraising credential. Prior to joining CFRE International, Aldrich was Associate Director of Public Service and The Fund Raising School at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Before that, she was a member of the consulting team at Johnson Grossnickle & Associates and was Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Franklin College. Aldrich has been widely published in fundraising journals and is one of the editors of Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, 3rd Edition, from Jossey-Bass. She holds a Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy