Fewer Fund-Raising Jobs Created, Survey Finds

Nonprofit organizations in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions continued to hire fund raisers at a strong pace in the past two years despite the slow economy, according to a new survey of 164 senior nonprofit executives.

However, far fewer of those fund raisers were hired for newly created positions than in years past, and fund raisers are staying on the job longer now, judging by comparisons between the new survey results and those gathered in previous years.

DRG, a national executive-search company in New York that serves only nonprofit clients, conducted its survey of organizations in the Boston-to-Washington corridor in the spring. It found that 109 respondents had hired a fund raiser within the previous 24 months. On the other hand, 37 respondents also said their organization had instituted hiring freezes, 26 reported wage freezes, and 23 said their group had merged positions during that period. A survey conducted by DRG in 1997, during an economic boom, found that 127 of 147 respondents reported hiring fund raisers.

In the new survey, 45 respondents said that fund raisers had been hired for newly created positions — a significant drop from the 1997 survey, when 82 respondents reported the same. Most of the new hires in the current survey were junior or entry-level professionals, with 45 respondents saying they had hired a fund raiser with between three and five years’ experience, and 33 saying they had hired one with less than three years in the field.

The most popular specialty among the new fund raisers was major gifts, with slightly more than one in three hired to work in that area.

Longer Tenures

Fund raisers are staying in their jobs longer than in years past, according to the survey, a trend that could be attributed to their jitters about the economy, says David E. Edell, DRG’s president. Slightly more than half the respondents said fund raisers typically stay with their organizations for three to four years, while about one in five said their fund raisers stay on the job five to six years. This, researchers said, was up considerably from the typical 18- to 20-month tenures reported in previous DRG surveys.

Scarce jobs and sluggish giving patterns have made many fund raisers reluctant to jump ship, Mr. Edell says.

“In this particular environment,” he adds, “it isn’t going to be easier or more interesting to raise money for another organization.”

He also notes that charities may have grown more patient with the fund-raising process and are putting less pressure on slow-producing employees.

Nearly half of the respondents said that when fund raisers did leave their jobs, they cited quality-of-life reasons, such as a desire to work part time, devote more time to family, relocate, or continue an education. Only 50 respondents said fund raisers left for increased pay.

A summary of the “2003 Trends in Hiring Development Professionals Survey” is available free on the DRG Web site. Go to: http://www.drgnyc.com.

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