Advice for Fund Raisers Considering CEO Positions

Fund raisers who have sought to become chief executives say that it can be very difficult to tell in interviews with

search committees or executive recruiters whether the top job is a good fit for a person with their skills, abilities, and personality.

“In a situation like this, you are selling yourself but you are also buying,” says Louis Caldera, the outgoing president of the University of New Mexico and former vice chancellor for advancement at the California State University system. “It is hard to sell yourself and at the same time really kick the tires to see who they are.”

Mr. Caldera, secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration and a three-term California state legislator, knows what he is talking about. After less than three years as the university’s president, he resigned a year before his contract was due to expire, the result of friction with the institution’s board.

Mr. Caldera declines to be more specific about the reasons behind his departure, which becomes official on August 1, but he and others offer the following advice to fund raisers who are interviewing for chief executive jobs.

Evaluate relations between the trustees and staff. Candidates for chief executive should make every effort to determine whether key staff and board members identify the same or similar priorities when they talk to each other — and when they describe the duties of the new leader, says Mr. Caldera.

“You cannot have a disconnect where the board wants to go one way, the faculty wants to go another, and other staff members want to go in different directions,” he says. “Make sure people have a real sense of the opportunities and challenges and the fact that everyone has to pull in the same direction.”

Investigate widely. In addition to talking with former leaders of an institution — not just the departing chief executive, who may be less candid than his or her predecessors — Karen Brooks Hopkins advises executive candidates to ask prominent people in the same field as their would-be employer what kind of reputation the organization has.

Ms. Hopkins, a fund raiser who now heads the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in New York, says that she would also “read everything I could about the organization, not just the official stuff.”

Jake B. Schrum, a former fund raiser who is now president of Southwestern University, in Georgetown, Tex., says it is important to ask probing questions during an interview. “Find out from the search committee what they are really looking for. Don’t just answer their questions.”

Some of the questions he recommends: What are the three “most audacious” goals the organization has over the next three to five years? What do the leaders of the institution want to see happen over the next decade? Are key board and staff members comfortable with the mission of the charity and the direction in which it is going? What are the biggest problems that need to be overcome?

Mr. Caldera says he thinks that “one of the most important questions you can ask is ‘Who are the three most important people who influence this institution?’

“If you ask 10 people that, you will get a sense of where the power in the organization really is. It could be the athletic director or someone who is not on the org chart in an obvious way.”

Avoid offering too many ideas about the future. Candidates for the top job in a nonprofit organization are frequently asked during interviews what their vision is for the organization.

But that question is a “trap,” says Mr. Schrum. “Don’t count on me to come up with a vision for something I don’t yet know,” he says.

When asked such questions, executive candidates should stress that building a plan for the organization is a collective exercise that takes time and recommendations from many people, such as employees and clients, Mr. Schrum says. “I would tell them I will spend a lot of time listening,” he adds. “You first have to find out what is going on.”

Beware of requests to be a “change agent.” Ms. Hopkins of the Brooklyn Academy is one of many seasoned fund raisers who caution others to be wary about taking the top job when the board is seeking a new leader to shake things up.

She points to institutions such as Harvard University, where Lawrence Summers was forced from the presidency in February, and the American Red Cross, where Marsha J. Evans resigned under pressure in December, as places where leaders who have been hired by boards to change an institution’s direction have landed in trouble.

“Boards think they want one kind of person to make change but they often really don’t,” says Ms. Hopkins. “If I was recruited to be a change agent, I would ask if they had the ability financially and from a vision point of view to actually allow the change. The culture of the institution is often deeply entrenched, and what looks right might not really jibe with the culture.”

Meet individually with key players. Mr. Caldera says that, the next time he considers taking a president’s job, he will try to meet with every board member possible, as well as the people who would report directly to him, before accepting the position. In taking the University of New Mexico job, he notes, he met extensively with only two board members who were leading the search.

“These search processes do not lend themselves to good conversations if you just meet for 30 minutes with this person and that person; the conversations are not that deep,” says Mr. Caldera.

But search committees are often in a hurry, and it may be difficult to wrangle all the meetings the job candidate would like. In that case, says Mr. Caldera, “when you are the top finalist and they want to offer you the job, that’s when you can say, ‘I want to come back for one more trip.’ You cannot afford to be so excited by the prospects that you don’t see the warts.”

Seek fulfilling work, not just advancement. Some fund raisers want a president or CEO position for the higher pay or the prestige associated with the title, or because they are tired of fund raising. But taking the job for those reasons alone would be a big mistake, says Edna V. Ellett, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Delaware regional office. “You have to feel something for the organization, the passion and desire to make the mission work,” Ms. Ellett says. Given the heavy demands on chief executives, she adds, “if you don’t have that passion, you will not be able to do the job well.”