When mighty brigantines ruled the oceans and swarthy sailors scrubbed their wooden decks, jumping ship was considered a mutinous action punishable by flogging, keelhauling or being forced to walk the plank into shark-infested waters. Abandoning the vessel was only acceptable when the ship's bow was nosing downward toward Davy Jones's locker.

If not-for-profit organizations were historic ships, and fundraisers were hail and hardy sailors, most of us would be bruised, scarred and broken for constantly abandoning one charitable organization for another. On average, a development professional stays with an organization two years or less, then scurries off the ship like a rat down the tether lines.

Why do fundraisers move so frequently from one position to another?

"I believe we do the profession a disservice by continually expounding the myth that development officers have an average tenure of 18 to 24 months. It's just not a fact," stated Christopher P. Bryant, a partner with AST/BRYANT an executive search firm in Santa Monica, CA. "We have found that when you get into the more senior level position, the vice president level, that average tenure tends to hover around seven years." Bryant went on to explain there is some truth to the numbers. "Now where those numbers are more accurate is for the shorter tenured individuals in the profession. They tend to jump ship every couple of years. Often they aren't suited for the business, or they aren't producing or performing as they should be and decide to jump ship before they get keelhauled. A positive reason professionals leave is to enhance their skills and experience and to be able to catch up with the lag in earnings that has occurred by staying in a place for several years. Rarely do non-profit salary increases match the rate of inflation. So the longer you stay at a place the further behind the curve you're going to get."

Nelson Cover, Jr. President of The Sheridan Group, a full-service fundraising consulting firm in Arlington, VA, sited another reason why professional tend to move on a regular basis. "Development jobs very often tend to be single, isolated positions within an organization. Even when the position is with a larger organization such as a university, often people are slotted in certain development positions and will have a lot of trouble moving up and developing their career within that institution. There is just no opportunity for upward mobility. So the only way they can have career growth is to move on to another institution."

Why does an organization hire a development professional in the first place? Is it to develop relationships, increase community visibility and support, or simply to raise as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time? Unfortunately, the latter is often the case. "Unrealistic expectations take a major toll on development professionals," commented John Vack, Development Director for the Phoenix Zoo. "Development is a process that takes a number of years to establish. If an organization hires a development person because they are $200,000 short on the budget, and if that amount isn't raised in six months or a year, then the person is fired, and another one is hired. The cycle continues. There have to be reasonable expectations in developing relationships and raising money. Many organizations just don't have the patience nor the budget to be patient."

Nelson Cover agrees, "We're seeing both candidates and institutions that are being unrealistic. Often the lack of realism on either side creates this turnover. People are overly ambitious, they're reaching too fast, or the institution wants far more than the development person can deliver, or both. If institutions would just do better strategic planning they would be in a much better realm of realism and would have less turnover. The better your strategic planning the easier it is to raise funds. The director of development is only as good as the plan."

Whether you adhere to the 18 to 24 month ship-jumping cycle or not, the fact is development professionals do frequently move from job to job. Why? Denise L. Rutter, Director of Development for the Lincoln Health Foundation in Arizona has been a development professional for over ten years. "Some of the organizations I've worked for in the past placed very little value on the fundraising effort. There was virtually no support. It didn't matter how much money you were bringing in, the board and administration always wanted more, more, more! Unfortunately, they were always pulling out our resources but expecting us to do more with less. It was very frustrating."

Frustration plays a significant role in forcing development professionals to seek a better berth with another organization. John Vack sums up the feelings of many development professionals, "Sometimes it's simply not possible to do an effective job raising money for some organizations. You don't have control over board recruitment, you don't have control over the case the organization makes, you simply don't have control over a number of important variables in raising money, so you become frustrated. In some cases the executive director and the development director don't have the same philosophy of raising money. The development director is brought on board as the "hired gun" to raise money on behalf of the organization. But then the individual is told by the executive director, don't bother the board and don't ask me to do it, and don't be too aggressive, and be subtle in your asking methods. Then when money isn't coming in people get frustrated. Finally the development professional says I'll quit and try the next organization. Maybe things will be better over there."

Why do development professionals jump ship so often? One reason is there are increasingly more ships in the harbor. Each year hundreds of new organizations are granted charitable status, and often seek out a fund raiser. Many of these groups are desperate to raise immediate dollars so they eagerly hire people who maybe aren't qualified or who are only looking for another listing on their resume. Is this a problem? According to Harry A. Papp, it is. He is currently the Vice Chairman of the National Combined Health Appeal, Board Member of the Heart Association and President of the Board of the Phoenix Zoo. For years he has helped hire new development professionals. "I've seen many resumes of fundraising professionals where the individual has jumped to another job every two or three years. And that's a problem. When I see that it causes a big, red warning flag to appear. You have to figure that if someone has moved every two or three years the probability is fairly high they are going to leave you in two or three years."

There's an old adage about how your departure can impact a company or organization. If you stick your hand in a bucket of water, then remove it, there will be a turbulence on the surface for a moment, but very quickly the water will become placid. Does the departure of a development professional adversely affect a charitable organization or does it cause no more than a ripple on the surface, with calm soon to follow? "Yes, there is a detrimental affect to an organization when the development professional leaves," according to Christopher Bryant. "Fundraising is a relationship business. There's an investment in bringing someone on board. The payoff from that investment only begins to materialize after a couple of years. Once that individual has developed relationships, those contacts are lost when the individual leaves. You have to go back to ground zero and start over. There are also substantial costs associated with filling a vacancy, recruiting, and training. There are also the lost opportunity costs where prospects are not being cultivated or solicited."

Nelson Cover agrees, "Continuity is lost. Memory is lost. Relationships are lost. Even if relationships have been built during a person's tenure, when that person leaves, donors may not remember the relationships or may not look at those relationships in the same way. Frankly, I think alumni of institutions, and other affiliated friends of institutions, get tired of seeing new faces. It can wear the volunteers and supporters out because they're never talking to the same person, and therefore not building a long-term relationship with the institution."

Across the country there are many organizations who continue, year after year, to raise incredible amounts of money. What makes these organizations successful in their fundraising efforts? In many cases it's dedicated, long-term staff. Non-profits who have the most continuity with their development staff, are the ones raising the most money. How can your organization keep your development staff in-tact? "Organizations have a better chance of keeping quality development people if they're supportive," according to Nelson Cover. "Beyond career aspirations, people leave development positions because they feel they are overworked and forced to meet increasingly larger and more unrealistic demands with increasingly less staff. That kind of pressure can perhaps be sustained if the development person understands the board and administration is aware of their situation and supportive of their efforts as a human being not just a money machine."

Carolyn "Sam" Macklem, CFRE, Vice President, Development, at the Blood Center of Southeastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee, has been a development professional for over ten years. She explains she has finally found a home with her current position, "I have to be honest, even for more money I don't think I would leave this organization. I really like the challenge I have here, the support of the people around me, and the flexibility, it's really quite phenomenal. I love getting up and going to work in the morning! I feel comfortable where I am and with my salary. I believe I'm being paid for my value." Sam went on to explain that all was not so rosy in her former development job. "I had been in my previous position for nine years and quite frankly they weren't paying me enough. When I informed them of my decision to leave, no counter-offer was made to entice me to stay. The concept of counter- offering was just not in the vocabulary of my former executive director. It's been absolutely chaotic at my former organization since I left. They've had a terrible time pulling the development program together. They've actually been on the phone with me almost every day, until up to a few weeks ago when I informed them I didn't want to hear any more about their problems!"

Christopher Bryant offers this advice to organizations who have recently lost a development professional, "When the position is vacant it's a great time to rethink the position. Take a close look at the function and job description. Does it match reality? You can do a little investigation to make sure the position is compensated fairly and reasonably according to the marketplace. You can't expect someone who has been in the business for seven to ten years, functioning at the vice president level, to reasonably take a salary cut. It's the time for self-evaluation. People point the finger at development folks, but I think there's an awful lot of institutional self-assessment that needs to be done. Development people can't do it by themselves. If there's a lack of commitment from the captain's table, or the volunteer leadership isn't committed, then the job isn't going to get done."

Nelson Cover agrees that taking a closer look at the organization and the development function before recruiting another development professional will be helpful. He also commented organizations are increasingly investing in outside assistance. "Many are turning to executive search firms to make sure they get the exact right fit. They're looking for a long-term employee and are willing to invest funds to find that person. They don't want the turnover they've had in the past."

The Department of Labor takes a very dim few of flogging or keelhauling development professionals when they decide to jump ship. The best an organization can do is try to support the individual with a good job environment, a helpful board, good pay, flexibility, staff support, and outstanding volunteer leadership. However, if all these fail, Bryant suggested another benefit to keep good development people, "If I were the captain, I'd try to create an environment where the development professional wouldn't want to desert. One that stimulates, challenges and rewards efforts. I suppose I would also offer an additional ration of grog every once in a while to motivate the crew!"

END