It’s about more than just ‘doing good’: Why do fundraisers change jobs, and what will motivate them to stay? from Rogare has been written by British fundraising consultant Hannah Kowszun. It is based on her organizational psychology Master’s degree research exploring fundraisers’ job satisfaction and turnover intention.

Reasons for leaving

With many fundraisers leaving roles after as little as 18 months, the report finds that a key cause is boredom, due to roles being routine and not providing an opportunity to perform a full range of tasks.

Another reason they leave is a lack of ownership or control of their roles, with targets and processes often dictated to them from above.

While their attitudes towards the charities and causes they work for are major reasons why they become fundraisers in the first place, relying on this inherent pro-sociality – their drive to do good – is not enough to keep them in their jobs, the research found.

The research shows that job satisfaction among fundraisers is generally high, but that those who are unhappy in their roles are very unhappy. While this might appear an ‘obvious’ conclusion, Kowszun sought to go beyond that in her Master’s research by exploring the effect of three further questions on turnover intention:

1. Does the pro-social motivation of fundraisers affect their job satisfaction and therefore their intention to leave?
2. Does contact with beneficiaries/service users have an effect on job satisfaction and turnover intention?
3. In what way do the characteristics of a fundraiser’s day-to-day job affect their satisfaction and turnover intention?

The first two of these had no effect on a fundraisers’ intention to change jobs.

Explaining the findings, she says:

“The lack of a link between being pro-socially-minded and deciding to stay in a job is on the face of it surprising: Why would people leave jobs and causes they care about? Pro-sociality is a major reason why people become fundraisers in the first place. However, once in the job, it’s other factors that contribute to their feelings of job satisfaction.”

Key factors impacting decision to stay

By considering fundraisers’ roles using a tool called the Job Characteristics Model, Kowszun concludes there are two key factors that contribute to fundraisers’ intention to stay in their jobs (and the absence of which cause them to want to leave):

• Autonomy – the degree of freedom and independence given to them to perform their roles, which for fundraisers ought to include having a say in setting their targets.
• Skill variety – how much the role requires the use of a number of different skills and talents.

Kowszun concludes:

“While the role of fundraiser is unique in the nonprofit and commercial sectors, fundraisers are nonetheless just like members of every other profession in that they want autonomy over, and ownership of, the work they do, and to exercise a full range of skills in carrying out this work.

“When it comes to tackling the retention crisis in fundraising, this is what we need to consider. Yes, fundraisers will always deserve remuneration commensurate with their level of knowledge, expertise and competence. But give fundraisers more control and invest in their skills, and they are more likely to carry on delivering for their chosen charity, rather than go searching for better.”

Tips for retaining fundraisers

Three processes are recommended that could help retain fundraisers:

1. Dual promotion tracks – under which promotion is decoupled from the requirement to be a manager.
2. Continuing professional development – that is designed to give fundraisers mastery over their craft rather than be merely competent at it.
3. Retention interviews – why wait until someone leaves to ask them about their reasons for going? Conduct informal interviews to find out if staff are happy in their jobs and if not, what can be done about it.

The new report can be downloaded from www.rogare.net/turnover.

Picture by Megan Rexazin Conde on Pixabay

Based on a survey of 480 nonprofit representatives across Europe, the 2021 Nonprofit Pulse Report reveals that 2 in 3 respondents expect their total income in 2021 to exceed or match income from last year.

Although half of respondents had to cancel or postpone fundraising activities during the year, nonprofits innovated and diversified, ramping up their use of digital. More than 2 in 5 reported a rise in individual giving over the past year, with 1 in 4 saying donation levels were stable. As demand for services continues to rise and social distancing restricts face-to-face outreach, over half (55%) have developed new ways to deliver their mission and reach beneficiaries.

Concerns about increased workloads and pressure on staff

However, the report exposes concerns about rising workloads and increased pressure on nonprofit staff. A second year of lockdowns, remote working, cancelled fundraising events, barriers to service delivery and a general climate of uncertainty is taking its toll on the sector’s workforce.

When asked to identify the biggest challenges facing their nonprofit now, the ability to manage workload topped the list, cited by more than half of respondents (52%). 4 in 10 report that staff and volunteers are more stressed than they were pre-pandemic.

As nonprofits continue to adapt to new ways of working and often longer task lists, sector capacity is being stretched. 1 in 3 representatives report a drop in volunteers and 1 in 5 a reduction in staff.

Eduard Marček, former President of EFA and Head of the Slovak Fundraising Centre, says:

Eduard Marček, Slovak Fundraising Centre

“Nonprofits have proved themselves to be hugely resilient and agile, but this cannot come at the expense of the sector’s workforce; the people who work so hard to protect good causes and the most vulnerable communities around us.

“Remote working, reduced staff and volunteer capacity, restricted budgets and higher demand for services are all adding to the challenge of managing workload in an ever-changing environment.

“The biggest challenge ahead of us now surely is not only how to survive and thrive through the next phase of the pandemic, but how best to support and nurture our people and ease workloads. It’s no easy feat but protecting our people has never been more important.”

Developing stronger supporter relationships

Digital has become critical for fundraising and service delivery in a socially-distanced world, but the shift in channels comes alongside a renewed focus on relationship building and supporter care, which are taking a front seat in fundraising strategies. Half of respondents say they are increasing their focus on supporter retention, and 1 in 3 say that supporter relationships have strengthened during the pandemic.

Bijan Bedroud, Senior Vice President and General Manager International at Salesforce.org, adds:

“We know that supporters and volunteers are the lifeblood of the nonprofit community and it’s amazing to see how the shift to digital has enabled organisations to strengthen this bond. The sector has shown its commitment and endurance during the pandemic, and even if we all look forward to more in-person events, the nonprofit community continues to embrace new channels and the opportunities they bring.”

Reactions from the sector

Responding to the findings, Ceri Edwards, Director of People & Engagement at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and Vice President of EFA, says:

“These findings are a fascinating snapshot of the impact on fundraising across Europe during 2021. It’s clear that the pandemic continues to place challenges on fundraisers all over the continent and is transforming fundraising strategies for the longer-term, especially with the increased focus on digital and opportunities of online events and new channels. While it is encouraging that income for charities is increasing and that fundraising is recovering compared to 2020, significant challenges remain.

“From the UK perspective, it’s concerning that respondents are most likely to say that they have bigger workloads and that staff are more stressed. We need a fundraising workforce that is energised and healthy to be able to raise the funds that our causes need, and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising will be working with its members to develop the right tools, support and training to achieve that.”

Martin Georgi, Chair of the German Fundraising Association (DFRV) highlights nonprofits’ resilience, saying:

“Organisations in Germany were remarkably resilient in the crisis and many even managed to increase their income significantly through active fundraising. Digital channels have become ever more important, but mail and telephone also worked well in the pandemic since donors could be more easily reached at home: the overall outlook for fundraising is optimistic.

“Challenges were faced by organisations that depend on income from live events and for all organisations providing services, not all of which could be easily transferred easily to digital formats. A particular note of concern for the coming months is the continuing high workload – after almost two years of extra efforts and reconciling sometimes conflicting private and professional pressures, and with the pandemic not yet over, many staff and volunteers are struggling or even suffering and need some relief.”

Commenting on the Irish market, Scott Kelley, Chief Operating Officer of Charities Institute Ireland, adds:

“The pandemic has caused a lot of change in our society and this survey demonstrates that the Irish public has responded to the pressures on charities. The lockdowns and the curtailment of our normal social lives have given donors a fresh perspective on charities and the work we do. Many charities have responded to a collapse in traditional fundraising (events, face-to-face) by seeking donations online through digital platforms. This is encouraging because it is impossible to envisage a future without a significant level of fundraising being carried out online or remotely.”

View the report here.

Main photo by Frauke Riether on Pixabay

In a survey of 450 charity leaders* by insurer Ecclesiastical, more than four in ten (44%) said they were considering their futures as a result of the increased demands due to COVID-19 – a major cause for concern for a sector under pressure from staff and volunteer burnout.

These stark findings follow on from Ecclesiastical’s Charity Risk Barometer, released earlier this year, which found that two thirds of charities had seen an increase in staff stress levels since the beginning of the pandemic, sparking fears that burnout among charity employees and volunteers may cause them to walk away from the sector.

The latest poll also found that two thirds (66%) of charity leaders were concerned about the effect that staff burnout could have on their charity, and of not being able to provide services to users (36%) who have become dependent on the support they offer.

Four out of five respondents (81%) admitted it had already become more difficult to meet the needs of service users due to the pandemic, a situation that would be worsened by a loss of staff and volunteers to stress or burnout.

Respondents reported an increase in anxiety and depression among colleagues since January 2021. Two in five charities (44%) had experienced an increase in colleague mental health concerns since the start of 2021. Cases of anxiety, stress and depression rose in that time for more than two thirds of participants, while a quarter said they had seen an increase in self-harm (25%) and suicidal feelings (27%).

Mental ill health has been one of the unseen issues of the pandemic, with the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showing that from January to March 2021 nearly one in five (21%) adults were likely to be experiencing some form of depression – an increase from one in ten (10%) prior to the pandemic.

Challenges at home such as child care or home schooling (33%), concerns about the health of family or friends (30%) and fatigue of home working (30%) were all cited as the main concerns for colleagues as the effects of the pandemic impacted on their mental wellbeing.

Facing these challenges alone is not an option for charities, with over half (52%) calling on the government to do more to provide mental health support.

* Survey of 450 charity leaders carried out with OnePoll between Thursday 22 April and Friday 7 May 2021

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

Little over one year ago, few of us could have predicted how life would change. In a matter of weeks, many of the busiest high streets, roads and schools would lie empty as entire populations adapted to a socially-distanced world. Nonprofits had to make swift transitions to a remote workforce, more widespread use of digital technology, new fundraising channels and – in many cases – rising demand for services.

12 months on and life may be changing for many once more, but the environment is no less challenging for nonprofit leaders, many of whom are also dealing with sizeable budget cuts and reduced staff capacity. When you consider that everyone – staff, trustees and volunteers through to beneficiaries and supporters – is having to cope with significant changes to their daily lives, health, and finances, this can require considerable leadership skills. Some employees may have spent months living in isolation while others juggle their workload with childcare and home school.

While there’s no singular strategy for successful or inspirational leadership, this feature looks at some of the principles and approaches leaders are taking to guide their teams through times of change.

Compassion and empathy take centre stage

Far from the traditional hierarchical approach to leadership, today’s nonprofit leaders underline the need for a culture of compassion and empathy. The pandemic has been with us for many months and there is an overwhelming sense of the importance of treating one another with kindness, and of nurturing employee relationships.

Eduard Marček, chair of the Slovak Fundraising Centre and EFA president, says:

“Strong leadership means a deep understanding of people and their needs. Now more so than ever – with the pandemic impacting people in so many different ways – we need to have great empathy and sensitivity.

Davinia Batley, Become

“Without being able to see each other in person, we have to work even harder to interpret what may be happening behind the scenes, what support is needed now and how that might change along the way.”

Speaking at a recent Bright Spot Breakfast Club for Fundraising Leaders, Davinia Batley, director of fundraising and engagement at Become – a UK-based charity for children in care and young care leavers, highlighted the importance of self-reflection. Of taking the time to recognise the challenges of the situation and of making a conscious decision as to the kind of leader she needed and wanted to be.

When the pandemic struck, Batley identified several principles that would guide her approach. They included a commitment to being transparent and open with all those around her, sharing how she was feeling with her team – even when that meant conveying vulnerability – and ensuring that kindness was baked into everything they did.

Wellbeing and self-care are vital

With mental health concerns at an all-time high, leaders emphasise the importance of wellbeing, of listening to employees, encouraging them to discuss their circumstances and to help find new ways of working.

Peter Lewis, Chartered Institute of Fundraising

“Wellbeing is a huge issue,” says Peter Lewis, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising in the UK. “Across the sector, we’re having to ask people to do more, to take risks and to do things in different ways when everyone’s lives have been turned upside down. It’s so important to take the time to listen, so that we know what support is needed and how we can enable people to do their best.

“A lot of interaction happens naturally in an office environment. Without seeing each other regularly we’re having to find a new path and that means finding a balance between scheduled meetings and softer catch-ups (with no agenda), while also making sure everyone can take time out and get away from their screens.”

Marček agrees, adding: “It’s unrealistic to be able to expect everyone to perform as they used to. But we can’t forget that the same applies to leaders of course. Self-care is critical. You can’t lead others and encourage them to take care of themselves without modelling the same principles. Leaders must start by leading themselves.”

Openness, transparency and clarity

To lead teams through unchartered territory, trust is vital. The pandemic has seeded a new level of openness and informality in the way many leaders are communicating with their teams. Offering a glimpse into their personal lives on video calls and opening up about their own challenges, this new level of transparency can help to deepen trust and strengthen relationship-building.

Sara Turetta, Save The Dogs

Sara Turetta, founder of Save The Dogs and other animals (headquartered in Italy), stresses the importance of trust within her team and in creating a new culture of resilience and flexibility. She says:

“Our team has always been deeply committed to the animals we support and most of our staff have been with us for many years, but working together and supporting each other through such a tough time, has actually strengthened our bond. We can’t always meet in person, but we value the time we spend together even more.

“This experience has taught us not to fear change. If you have a strong, trusted team and leadership, it’s so much easier to be flexible and adapt; everyone moves together. We’ve built up that trust over the years, so we have never felt that we needed to check up on what each other was doing. I’m sure that has made it a great deal easier.”

The same openness is following through into organisations’ fundraising and wider communication strategies as nonprofits share honest updates with donors and funders about the impact of the pandemic on their work, what it means for beneficiaries, their funding challenges and how the situation is changing.

Batley added: “As the crisis unfolded, we chose to talk to our donors as much as possible, recognising that it was okay (indeed essential) to be clear that we didn’t yet have answers to all the challenges they were facing.”

This candid approach has been extremely well received by the charity’s supporters and funders alike, leading to two particularly large trust donations.

Being open to risk and failure

In such a fast-changing world, nonprofits have to be agile, pivoting to embrace new opportunities and to find new ways to meet the needs of beneficiaries. Leaders emphasise the importance of developing a culture that allows people to take risks; a culture where employees are empowered to make their own decisions and to learn as much from what goes wrong as what goes right.

Lewis says: “Leaders are having to give their teams certainty, while dealing with huge amounts of ambiguity, and that’s incredibly difficult. We have to be willing to take on a new level of risk, so that we can respond quickly and in agile ways.”

From the outset of the pandemic, Batley trusted her team to be decision-makers, giving them the freedom to test, learn and grow, saying: “It was important that everyone in the team understood that they had permission to not do, what didn’t need to be done. It helped them get to the crux of what was needed really quickly.”

Emphasising that failure has a key role to play in freeing up people’s decision-making and enabling the organisation to be more agile, she describes failure as a ‘gift’, adding: “It’s from failure that you can learn. And learning is what’s needed to move forward, especially during an unprecedented challenge like a global pandemic.”

Recognising the challenge of leading at a distance

Leadership can involve managing a broad array of personalities, responsibilities and practical tasks simultaneously. Particularly when working through a crisis situation and distanced from colleagues, this can take its toll.

Jan Kroupa, Czech Fundraising Center

“Being separate from colleagues and peers can make it all the more challenging for leaders to remain focused and energised,” highlights Jan Kroupa, co-founder at the  Czech Fundraising Center.

He cites the importance of recognising how difficult it can be to navigate times of change, particularly when so much interaction is limited to the virtual world, saying: “What seems to be among the most difficult leadership tasks to be accomplished online is to continually rejuvenate and re-energise oneself. Many practical things can be agreed and organised across the team quite easily, some perhaps even more efficiently, but many find it hard to keep refuelling without being around other human beings.

“To state it very simply: it is hard to dream alone. And after all, that is the business that leaders in the philanthropic sector are in: translating dreams and visions into practical reality.”

In this context, peer-to-peer networks, events, mentoring, training and other team building strategies can be a crucial lifeline. (See EFA’s events calendar for forthcoming events across Europe, including the new European Leadership Development Webinar series developed to support those in Central and Eastern Europe, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.)

Looking up to check the horizon

Leaders are having to stop and review their approach as the situation evolves. While nonprofits have navigated through an evolving crisis situation for many months, at some stage it will be time to shift to a new phase – potentially one of recovery – and this will likely require new leadership skills and strategies. Taking the time to re-assess the overarching direction of travel, considering how priorities might change and what this means for employees will be vital.

Lewis adds: “We’ve come through the most extraordinary 12 months and the next 12 may be just as challenging in different ways. But – as human beings – we can’t function in a perpetual period of emergency. As lockdown eases, the world will change again and people will respond in different ways. While we’ve all had some time to become more adept leading through change, there is a danger that people will think that what has worked during the crisis will work in a more stable period, when the skill set can be very different.

“When a building is on fire, your mission is to get people out as quickly as possible. But if you need to serve a communal meal in that building, this will take a totally different style of leadership. We will all need to find a new way forward and that means leaning into wellbeing, leaning into listening to all those around us, and not being afraid to take risks and shift gear once more.”

Strong leadership stems from influence, rather than authority or power. What’s clear from the leaders we have spoken with is that the pandemic and whatever comes next is a learning journey and that is as much the case for leaders as it is their teams.

Kroupa concludes: “In many ways, the pandemic has given us a huge opportunity to advance leadership in the philanthropy sector. All we need is to get our heads around how different this might be, what this means for our people, our services and our ability to achieve our mission. In other words, the current leadership challenge is not only to find the power to dream, but to find the power to dream a new dream.”

Useful links

Leadership development training – Find out more about the European Leadership Development Webinar series here or see EFA’s events calendar for a full list of forthcoming events and training opportunities across Europe.

Wellbeing resources – The Chartered Institute of Fundraising has developed a suite of free wellbeing resources for fundraising organisations, which can be downloaded here.

Interview with Davinia Batley – Hear more from Davinia Batley of Become, in this write-up from Rob Woods at Bright Spot Fundraising.

Sara Turetta’s Autobiography – Read more about Sara Turetta’s personal journey, having dedicated her life to rescuing stray dogs and founding Save The Dogs and other animals almost 20 years ago in her autobiography (Italian) I cani, la mia vita (Dogs, My Life).

Main image (top): Photo by Mariah Hewines on Unsplash