Keeping Donors in the Fold

Turnover among fund raisers presents challenges for charities

When Thomas J. Moore agreed to run the development office at the Kinkaid School, in Houston, he knew that taking over for Phyllis H. Selber — a 22-year veteran — would prove no small challenge.

So at his first staff meeting, Mr. Moore asked to be introduced as “the new Phyllis,” then strode on stage in front of the packed auditorium of administrators and faculty members — most of whom are also donors to the school — wearing a pair of pink, high-heeled women’s sandals similar to those favored by his predecessor.

Mr. Moore says he wanted to send a message that he would stick to the fund-raising approach used by his predecessor. “When someone has been here a long time and everything is running smoothly, you want to respect that,” he says.

That kind of reassurance, and connection to the past, is what many staff members and donors need, as turnover among charity fund raisers remains high. When a fund raiser leaves, the onus for keeping donors happy often falls on the new fund raiser, and both the incoming and outgoing fund raiser can do much to ensure a smooth transition. But many charity officials don’t realize what their own role in the transition should be and how critically important it is to keep the rest of the staff informed so they can stay in touch with donors and reassure them, if necessary, fund-raising experts say.

Turnover among charity fund raisers is so high that a 65-year-old donor can reasonably expect to work with four or five different fund raisers at the same organization during his or her lifetime, observes Bruce Flessner, a fund-raising consultant in Minneapolis. Failure to keep the donors’ needs in mind throughout those transitions, say fund-raising experts, can cause donors to reduce their gifts or stop giving altogether.

But many charities aren’t doing as much as they should to ensure donors aren’t upset when they are passed from fund raiser to fund raiser — especially if a fund raiser has left unhappily. In some cases, such lapses have prompted donors to reduce the amount they give to a charity they have long generously supported.

Judith E. Nichols, a Portland, Ore., consultant who has written several books on fund raising, says charities “haven’t done as good a job as in the ‘70s and ‘80s of making the donor connect with the organization rather than the fund raiser.” She adds: “It’s an environment that suggests that more donors, especially older donors, will have a stronger tie to the fund raiser than to the organization.”

A ‘Personal Handoff’

To help ease the move from one fund raiser to another, charity experts say that the previous employee should pave the way by introducing his or her replacement to major donors. Some fund raisers suggest that the outgoing fund raiser write a letter to donors with whom he or she has worked to let them know of the change and identify the replacement, if one has been named.

When Laura Fredricks left Temple University, in Philadelphia, to take a job as vice president of philanthropy with Pace University, in New York City, she sent a three-paragraph letter to more than 5,000 donors “saying what a wonderful experience I’d had at Temple, what a difficult decision it was [to leave], and how it had been an honor to work with them,” she says. Because no replacement had been named, Ms. Fredricks simply said the university’s staff would continue to be available to donors.

The Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., tries to arrange a “personal handoff,” where both the old and the new fund raiser sit down with a donor, says James C. Schroeder, chairman of its 85-person development department. If that is not possible, he says, the departing fund raiser will call donors to tell them who will be in contact next. What’s important is making sure that donors know someone will stay in touch and that the group will continue to function just as well, Mr. Schroeder says. “Personalize the handoff as much as possible, and leave the donors confident that they’re still important to the institution and that it’s strong,” he suggests.

Some charities retain their former fund raiser as a consultant for some time after a new fund raiser starts to help the newcomer learn the ropes and to make donors comfortable with the change. Not only does this make for a seamless transition between fund raisers, it can make the new fund raiser more productive, charities that have tried this approach say.

At the Kinkaid School, for example, Ms. Selber has continued as a consultant, managing special fund-raising events and giving Mr. Moore advice. In one instance, she helped Mr. Moore convince members of the school’s campaign committee that they should increase the amount they planned to ask from donors in exchange for the donors’ getting their names on the seats of a new theater. Despite the higher amount, parents snapped up the seats, he reports.

Updates for Donors

Even when the previous fund raiser has not been able to perform introductions, new development officers have found that donors feel better if they are told what happened to the predecessor and are given updates about the previous fund raiser’s professional life.

Janet Aldrich Jacobs, who joined the Seattle Symphony two years ago as associate director of major and planned gifts, says the woman she replaced decided not to return after a six-month maternity leave. During the fund raiser’s maternity leave, nobody was available to keep in touch with people who were considered likely to make planned gifts, so the number of people deciding to include the symphony in their wills or make another type of deferred gift, such as a charitable trust, fell by almost half, from 18 commitments a year to 10.

Ms. Jacobs says she was able to restart the conversation with prospective donors by giving them an update on her predecessor. “People would ask about Betsy and her baby, and what she was doing now,” Ms. Jacobs says. “I’d tell them she was consulting from home, she seemed to be really enjoying it. Then I would talk about what Betsy was discussing with them before she left.”

Using that approach, Ms. Jacobs helped get planned gifts nearly back to previous levels, recruiting 16 new bequest pledges last year, for instance. Already this year, Ms. Jacobs, who now heads the symphony’s planned and endowed-gifts program, has secured 15 pledges.

Difficult Departures

Trustees and senior-level charity employees can also provide crucial support to a new fund raiser, especially if the predecessor has left under tense circumstances.

Steven Covington, a fund-raising consultant in Neillsville, Wis., says he recently advised a charity whose fund raiser had left under such a cloud that the group was hesitant to even approach its old supporters. He says he told the organization to “launch a fund-raising campaign immediately, and have the new person make as many of the solicitation calls as possible, along with board members,” Mr. Covington says.

“They couldn’t really afford to put off fund raising, and the new director would have the opportunity to put donors at ease about his competence and engage them with his amiable demeanor. He also might learn about the mistakes made by his predecessor that proved disastrous to relationships, in the hopes of not repeating the mistakes. Proving oneself to the donors in this way is not an enviable task, but it must be done if the integrity of the entire organization is at stake.”

Fund raisers say that it can be difficult, or even impossible, to win back donors who have been alienated by either a departing fund raiser or the institution.

The Mayo Clinic’s Mr. Schroeder says the process can begin with a simple apology. “If they’ve made a gift, and the institution hasn’t been a good steward of that gift, you have to apologize and say, ‘You’re right and I’m sorry,’” he says. “There’s not much of an excuse you can make, so you don’t make excuses.” After the apology, it is important to direct the conversation to the future of the organization, he says.

Michael E. Vanderburgh says that he learned the hard way that sometimes it is better for a fund raiser to move on from old donors. Mr. Vanderburgh, who is now senior development officer at the Children’s Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, worked several years ago for a human-services group in the Midwest that he didn’t want to name. “I learned not to focus on relationships damaged from years of neglect,” he says. “Those donors had already moved on to other causes. It’s much more efficient to seek new friends than to try to repair badly damaged relationships.”

To avoid getting into such sticky situations when fund raisers leave, experts say organizations should always make sure major donors know more than one person at a charity, such as another staff member, a board member, or other volunteer. That way, if a fund raiser packs up and leaves abruptly, donors still have a personal contact at the organization. And, when the new fund raiser comes in, that contact person can act as a bridge to donors. “In most scenarios, the transition is made much more smooth by the notion that a senior person will introduce the new fund raiser,” says Alexander Macnab, a fund-raising consultant in Chicago.

Detailed Information

Help from senior staff members goes a long way toward easing a transition, but not all of them have the detailed knowledge the new fund raiser needs. In cases where the former fund raiser isn’t available to help the new one make connections, new fund raisers may find themselves relying on written reports left by their predecessors. Those records of previous contacts with donors, often referred to as call reports, can provide details such as how much a donor has contributed.

Ellen Barkenbush, who was hired as director of annual giving at Union County College, in Cranford, N.J., after the post had been vacant for six months, says the charity’s records have guided her as she approaches the organization’s donors. But without the advantage of a personal introduction and recent contact, she says, she must proceed cautiously when making solicitations.

“I can’t just walk in the door and say, ‘Hello, it’s so nice to meet you. Now give me some money,’ without completely alienating these people who don’t know me at all,” she reports.

One risk of relying on donor records is that they can be incomplete, warns Rebecca E. Fournier, who left a fund-raising position at the American Thoracic Society, in New York City, a year and a half ago to become vice president of development at Saint Xavier University, in Chicago. “So much information leaves in the head of the other fund raiser,” she says.

The reports may not have been kept up-to-date or may not include sensitive details, Ms. Fournier says. She says she is relying on members of the support staff to be the institution’s memory.

“My secretary’s been here for 16 years. I depend on her for the delicacies that you wouldn’t put in a call report,” such as whether a donor has had a drug addiction or is not on speaking terms with a family member, she says.

Seeking Out Donors

Regardless of how much — or how little — information about donors a fund raiser has to go on when starting a new job, some fund-raising experts advise newcomers to seek out donors for their advice and expertise about a charity as a way to start building a relationship.

“One of the first things one must do is learn the culture of the organization, and there’s no better person to understand it than a donor, especially a major donor,” says John W. Warren, vice president of funds development at the Homewood Foundation, the fund-raising arm for a group of retirement centers in Maryland and Pennsylvania. When he joined the organization three years ago, he made a point of interviewing donors to solicit their ideas and thank them for their support, he said.

That strategy can become especially important if the new hire is much younger than the donors. Nancy J. Davis, the 32-year-old director of development at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science, in Houston, who three years ago replaced a much older woman, says the museum’s donors, many of whom are long-retired doctors, initially seemed uncomfortable with her and some even ignored her.

To overcome this problem, Ms. Davis says, she has learned to approach some older donors as mentors. “I try to talk adult to adult, but definitely from a position of respect,” she says. “There are some I speak to like they’re a grandparent. I just hug them and tell them I’m so glad to see them.”

Avoiding Formulas

While approaches differ among fund raisers, the main advice from donors is that new hires not rely too heavily on any particular formula.

Robert B. Pamplin Jr., a textile millionaire and philanthropist in Portland, Ore., who has given to some 150 charities, says he sometimes gets fed up with the approach taken by new charity officers. “It’s the triteness of it that gets me,” he says. “They introduce themselves and ask how you are, then they tell you what their organization’s doing and ask your thoughts. Step three is: ‘We’ve got these materials we’d like to share with you.’”

The fourth step is asking for money. “To me, you’d get the greatest results if you just had a conversation, not necessarily directed at anything in particular,” he says.

Mr. Pamplin says he likes being introduced to a charity’s new fund raiser by someone who can emphasize common interests he might have with that person, perhaps meeting over a meal. “The most impressive way of handling it is very low-key, conciliatory, out of a social association,” he says. The introduction should be, “This is someone I think you’d enjoy, or this is a fine person,” he says, instead of, “This guy has taken over as head of development.”

H. Peter Karoff, who runs the Philanthropic Initiative, a Boston nonprofit group that advises donors, agrees. “The best thing the person can do is get to know the donor, get to know his values and passions, what he’s looking for out of his philanthropy,” Mr. Karoff says. “There’s something about the field of development that gets to be too mechanistic. Donors don’t want that. They want a real, honest flow of information, they want to be educated, they want substance.”