This book is about how organizations raise money. It is meant to be read by anyone in the organization who is curious about how fundraising could be done more effectively. But it will be most closely read by those people for whom fundraising is their job, and I know that every so often as you read this book, you will be thinking: “Where will I get the time to do that?” or “Seriously??!! Try getting the executive director to agree to that!” In this section, I anticipate the four biggest issues development directors deal with, some on an almost daily basis (working with the executive director), some less often (anxiety), and one that I hope might almost never arise (ethical dilemmas).

For most of the years I have been in fundraising, study after study has shown that the average tenure in a fundraising job is less than two years. Although some development directors are promoted to executive director and others (like me) leave to be consultants, far too many leave one development job for another. Sadly, some very talented people leave the profession altogether. The cost of replacing a development staff person—including searching for, interviewing, selecting, and then training a new employee—is estimated by Cygnus Research to be anywhere from 10 to 70 percent of the salary of that person.. It would seem that most organizations would do whatever they can to make the job attractive and sustainable.

Many theories are put forward about why there is such high turnover, including salaries not being high enough, the development staff not having enough involvement in program work, too much pressure on the job, and so on. In addition, in this century, the devolution of government funding has created impossible demands on fundraisers to find individual, foundation, and corporate donors to replace government dollars. The rising costs of running a nonprofit and the increasingly complicated nature of the work have created another problem, a shortage of qualified development professionals, particularly for social change organizations, which tend to stretch their staff under the best of circumstances.

All of these factors are related to the two main reasons people leave development:

• Development is a job of great responsibility and little authority.
• There is a lack of understanding on the part of everyone involved as to exactly what the job of a development director is.

This section seeks to address and proactively prevent the second of these reasons. Many grassroots organizations have hired enthusiastic but inexperienced first-time development directors, and neither the organization nor the new staff person really has a clear idea of what the job involves. High expectations followed by huge disappointment either generate some badly needed clarification, possibly saving the person and the position, or, in less functional organizations (unfortunately, the majority), result in the person leaving. The section also looks at two other crucial aspects of the development director’s role that may affect his or her success in the job: working with the executive director and working with volunteers. Finally, the section looks at what a development director must do when faced with dilemmas that can only be described as raising ethical questions.