Kelly Braunegg: Three key steps to level up your development operations
“Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently.”
– Marie Forleo
Have you heard the saying ‘a chain is only as strong as its weakest link’? We all know exactly what it means, don’t we? At some point, most of us have either experienced a breakdown in our work chain—or had to deal with the consequences.
These breakdowns can be frustrating and cause finger-pointing. Was someone at fault—or was the system (or lack thereof) to blame?
During my career, I’ve seen these breakdowns happen most often in development operations and functions adjacent to those operations. Perhaps there was a lack of communication, or there wasn’t a process set up to promote a successful outcome. (On-time financial reconciliation, is that you I see?)
Nonprofit work operates at such a fast pace that it’s not always possible to take a pause and evaluate what went wrong, pinpoint areas of concern, and implement solutions—but there are some simple ways to ensure our development operations run smoothly. Prioritizing the operations, engaging all key stakeholders, and enforcing accountability are key components to successful development operations.
Are you ready to level-up your development operations?
“The first step to success is knowing your priorities.”
– Arpesh
Nonprofit organizations’ ambitious missions often call for all employees to focus on multiple projects simultaneously. Development or fundraising operations can often be pushed to the back burner—that is, until there’s a major breakdown. Did a large grant not get coded correctly? Did reconciliation get pushed out by another week? Perhaps a donor hasn’t received their tax acknowledgment from months ago. This is when we see priorities shift.
When dealing with urgent needs, especially those related to our finances or donors, we need a stable process to lean on to get back on track.
Why do we need to prioritize development operations?
Having systems in place, like a strong base of development operations, allows us all to function smoothly.
All too often, we find ourselves working in a ‘silo’—at both the employee and department level. Have you ever felt the heavy pressure that you’re you’re the only one who knows what work you need to do to meet the organization’s goals? I know I have. Putting processes in place—and documenting them for others to access—lifted that weight for me. Because my processes were documented, I knew if I needed support, another person could jump in and help.
What causes communication breakdowns?
“Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.”
– Nat Turner
A previous colleague of mine gave a presentation all about how 'being clear is kind’. She was sharing this point of view as it related to our work with donors, but I took it as an opportunity to apply it to my work managing a team of operations experts.
We set up regular meetings to review how our internal messaging to the organization could be clearer. After asking for feedback from finance, fundraising and marketing, we realized that the confusion originated from a lack of resources: Finance needed a set reconciliation schedule and contact from the operations team. Fundraising needed a way to communicate asks on gift receipt status, give updates on expected gifts, and changes to gift coding. Marketing found it vital to have a resource library to set us all up for success.
Prioritizing communication and creating the space and time needed to build out your operations will bring down the burden of confusion and frustration.
Who needs to buy in to push this movement forward?
You may be thinking, ‘This all sounds nice and dandy, but to act on it, we need approval’. You’re right. Managers and executives, I’m talking to you now: Listen to the needs of your teams. Observe the areas of tension across the organization. Are they experiencing communication issues or confusion around workflows? If so, it’s time to approve and promote focus on your development operations.
What does success look like? Engage all departments to find out
For any worthwhile project to move forward, we all need a team of stakeholders bought in. We need this all for a few reasons.
First, leadership must be on board to make it an organization priority
Then, that organizational priority will confirm that there are enough resources allocated to the operations to achieve success
Last, with the leadership approval and agreement on resources, engage the key stakeholders
Ensure that there is a voice from each department who can participate regularly in conversations around status, pain points, and solutions. The team dedicated to operations will be able to manage these voices and drive projects to conclusion. That said, there should be an assigned project lead who is able to organize and is allocated the time needed to manage all the workflows/delegate the SOP writing as needed/get approval each step of the way.
Start with the low-hanging fruit
Do you have gift processing down, but the steps just aren’t documented yet? Ask the expert in that process to write down what they do, secure approval from the necessary people, then coordinate that process with adjacent ones. Examples of those would be the flow of communication from donor to fundraiser (‘I’m interested in giving!’), then fundraiser to gift processor (‘incoming gift!’), then gift processor to finance (‘gift is in the CRM, ready for reconciling!’) Apply this approach to each area that has or needs a workflow and you’ll see your development operations begin to manifest.
Hold each other accountable
“Accountability is the glue that bonds commitment to results.”
– Will Craig
To review, these are the tangible steps you can take to accomplish everything we walked through:
Prioritize your organization’s development and fundraising operations
Secure agreement across all levels of leadership
Allocate resources from each department, as necessary
Once those resources are allocated, begin developing the plan. Speak to all key stakeholders. Make a list of work processes that need to be documented. Delegate documentation. Attain approval on those documents.
The purpose of starting with prioritization and leadership buy-in is so that accountability can take place at all levels. When management agrees that operations need some focus, it allows employees across the board to hold each other accountable. Has that monthly financial reconciliation meeting taken place, or do you need to send a reminder? Was the database update done this quarter, or should the manager prompt the administrator that it’s time to do so?
These steps will drive the results we’re all looking for with our work. While it’s easy to fall into the focus of your own work and end up back in a silo, the pause to regroup and realign will benefit the organization at large.
Remember that you can bring issues to the forefront and make sure that the weakest link in the operations chain can be strengthened.
Kelly Braunegg
Kelly’s career has focused on helping organizations across the United States and internationally build their development and fundraising operations. She has a focus on development operations, database management, and strategic planning.