Driving change: Fundraising team leadership
This past year, we’ve re-learned: Fundraising is about relationships. And the growth and sustainability of those relationships depends on fundraisers. Fundraisers themselves are craving purpose, community impact, and healthy working environments.
For nonprofit leaders, fundraising talent development is strategically critical and increasingly challenging as crisis needs, funding pressures, and personal stresses continue. They’re also thinking about fundraising talent in new ways as we reimagine donor engagement and community-centric fundraising.
Aperio, in partnership with NYU’s George H. Heyman Jr. Program in Philanthropy and Fundraising, were delighted to partner to bring together a panel of expert industry leaders for a thought-provoking discussion on fundraising team leadership. (Watch the full event video here.)
Panelists included:
Linda Ortiz, The Paulist Fathers (moderator)
Cat Cvengros, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
Shaby Rosales, VP of Human Resources, Orr group
Tycely Williams, Chief Development Officer, Bipartisan Policy Center
Our expert panel shared their key learnings and perspectives on the following questions:
What role does ‘purpose’ play in the work fundraisers do?
What are fundraisers looking for leaders to provide?
How is the fundraising industry reckoning with its roots in inequity and perpetuating racism, and how is the industry becoming more community-centric?
What key lessons can fundraising leaders take away from the last year?
In crisis, we have connected more deeply to purpose
Aperio often asks nonprofits, “What’s your why?” Beyond the impact their organizations have on communities, we ask fundraising professionals to think about why they do the work they do. For the majority of those who become fundraisers, a personal connection to the mission of their work is vital. As we’ve adapted and confronted crises in the past year, fundraisers’ sense of purpose has evolved and affected the industry in new ways.
Each of our panelists has led their fundraising teams to success in the past year, quickly learning that to make an effective pivot meant bringing purpose to the forefront. Without galas, donor lunches, and other in-person touchpoints, “fundraisers were confronted with having to forge a different path to connect with donors. That path is purpose,” Shaby Rosales said.
Our panel also highlighted the importance of applying their purposeful donor relationship-building strategy with their employees. They discovered their teams operated more effectively when they felt a collective sense of purpose and authentic connection.
Applying the tenets of her organization, the Bipartisan Policy Center, internally, Tycely Williams said, “I’ve learned that, in the midst of all that is unfolding, people are experiencing real issues outside of the office, and where we used to think of our charitable mission about serving ‘beneficiaries,’ I am really cognizant that we all, in some shape, fashion, or form are in need of support.”
For Cat Cvengros’s team, which, in the last year had to double their resources to meet their community’ food insecurity needs, that meant making tangible commitments to one another in the form of written team values and weekly meetings to check in on how they are delivering on their commitments to one another. “It’s a different approach that really looks at the ‘we’ more intentionally than I ever have,” Cat said.
What fundraisers need from leaders has changed
In the past year, the demands of personal life—parenting, caring for at-risk family members, and caring for self—have become visible to leaders of fundraising teams beyond the confines of a virtual square. Flexibility has become a necessity. The schedule of a workday and how we think about physical workspace have been redefined.
Out of necessity, we’ve seen fundraisers approach their donor work with flexibility, deftly generating revenue without the familiar infrastructure of events and in-person meetings. The success fundraisers have had in approaching their work through a new lens has invited leaders of fundraising teams to shift their strategic perspective. “People are asking leaders to not be so risk-averse, to not look at this from this mindset of scarcity, but to see that there is ample opportunity and rightful reason at this moment to test, to be courageous and to be unconventional,” Williams said.
Probing the conventional has also pushed the fundraising industry to engage in important and long-overdue conversations about inequity and racism, and what we must do to promote community-centric fundraising and reckon with a problematic history.
Now is the time for leaders to address our industry’s problematic roots
The past year has seen a shift in how fundraisers grapple with racism and inequity, particularly in their conversations with donors.
“Fundraisers are having more honest and direct conversations with donors.,” Rosales said. Fundraisers feel charged to address the systemic factors that perpetuate the very need for their organizations. The last year has exacerbated community needs, underscoring the importance of the services nonprofits provide. With the veil of gala season removed, fundraisers have been able to have more direct and honest conversations with their donors, which has deepened donor interest and investment.
Fundraising leaders are making a pivotal shift. They are centering the truths of their communities, addressing boldly and honestly the inequities within our industry. They are redefining power, and what it means to share power with their employees. And they are grappling with the donor/fundraiser dynamic and the potential to reimagine the work we do.
Drawing upon her learnings from University classes with Dr. Angelou, Williams highlighted the profound difference between fact and truth. While a fact may present accurate information, a truth reveals the reason behind fact.
Without centering truth, she said, “you might actually be solving for a fact without recognizing that there are overarching truths that need to be centered, that need to be spoken, that need to be addressed.”
What truths has the last year revealed that fundraising leaders can carry forward?
Shaby Rosales, VP of Human Resources, Orr group : “Purpose is everything. This model is a movement and it’s here to say, and the quicker your team can reckon with it and find pathways for it the better.”
Tycely Williams, Chief Development Officer, Bipartisan Policy Center : “We have the power to share power, and I hope we’re all mindful of that.”
Cat Cvengros, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley : “Your product is only as strong as the team implementing it, so invest in each other.”
Caitlin Williams
Caitlin entered into fundraising first as a grant writer and later as a major gift officer. Working the University of Chicago, NYU Law, and CUNY, she witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of donors’ philanthropy on students’ lives. She has also worked with organizations advancing gender equity and serving under-resourced K-12 students.
