Your Fundraiser Is Doing Their Job. Are You Doing Yours?
A development director I worked with once told me she’d hit her numbers three years running. Then she quit.
Not because the work was hard. Because she was the only one doing it.
Her board wouldn’t make a single call. Her ED introduced her at events as “the person who handles the money stuff.” Every fall, leadership added a new program, a new initiative, a new “must-have” — and every fall, the fundraising goal went up to pay for it.
Nobody asked her if it was possible. They just assumed she’d figure it out.
She did. Until she didn’t.
Here’s the thing nobody wants to say out loud: most fundraising problems aren’t fundraising problems. They’re leadership problems.
When fundraising stalls, we look at the development office. We ask if the appeals are working, if the database is clean, if the asks are big enough. Those are fair questions. But they’re rarely the real ones.
The real ones are harder, and they live in the corner office and the boardroom:
Does leadership treat fundraising as everyone’s job — or one person’s burden?
When the ED, the board, and the program staff all see themselves as part of the development effort, money follows. When it’s outsourced to a single title, it doesn’t.
Are you setting goals based on the mission — or the budget gap?
A number pulled from a spreadsheet to plug a hole isn’t a fundraising goal. It’s a wish. And your fundraiser knows the difference, even when no one says it.
When did a board member last make a thank-you call?
Not an ask. Just gratitude. If the answer is “I can’t remember,” that’s your finding.
I’m not saying this to make leaders feel guilty. I’m saying it because I’ve sat on both sides of this table — and I’ve made these mistakes myself. The good news is that leadership decisions are exactly that: decisions. They can be changed. Often faster than you’d think.
So before you ask your fundraiser to work harder, ask yourself what you’ve decided — on purpose or by accident — about whose job this really is.
Then change one of those decisions this week.
You’ve got this. Here’s where to start: my free Fundraising Focus Planner walks you and your leadership team through the priorities that actually move the needle. Grab it — and bring your board into the conversation.
