The Dilemma of the Development Officer
By: Dania Toscano Miwa
Tags: Philanthropy, Fundraising, Nonprofit, Development Director, Resources

A colleague and I were discussing what it means to be a Development Associate or Development Director. Though many organizations have these titles, often the jobs have vastly different expectations, job duties and roles within the organization. This depends not only on the size of the organization, how many staff are part of the development or outreach team, but what the goals and priorities of the organization is. I often encounter organizations who haven’t clarified that last point. There has long been a misconception in the sector, that all you need to do is a hire a “development” person and we all have secret gold keys that open the door of the room full of money.

There is often no organizational understanding of the time it takes to build a development program. Development staff are often asked to “prove their worth” almost from day one.

For someone who interviewed for a job for which they would be the first full time development staff member for this organization. They were hired to build the program then be responsible for growing it. In the interview the candidate mentioned that it would take three to five years to “be successful” and create a program, and that if hired, they were counting on this organization to make that investment. They left that job after two years citing lack of support.

Since the average tenure of a development person with an organization is less than two years, typically, it’s very hard to find consistency and continue to build a program when in that five-year timetable there may be several different people in and out. It’s especially hard when your development staff feels underappreciated and a huge amount of pressure to “succeed”. This Chronicle of Philanthropy article from last year, speaks directly to this. And that was before the COVID pandemic.

Added to the long list and vast differences in job descriptions, comes a pretty consistent challenge around roles. A few of these challenges that I see consistently in my clients are around organization charts, hierarchy and the careful dance of any development staff to be the right amount of supportive to the Executive Director or President/CEO, while soliciting money from the board, without stepping on toes. To be able to run the database, support the program staff, manage the grant writer, communications position or intern, but also represent the organization publicly. To be in a room with donor peers, while knowing you are not in fact a peer.

So how do we solve for this? That’s really the million-dollar question. I often tell clients that fundraising isn’t one person’s job. It is the responsibility of everyone who believes in the mission of the organization to be considering how and where resources can be found. If your whole organization believes this, and allows the development person to support the organization in that way, the organization will be much more successful than those who do not.

The organizations that I’ve worked with who are doing it best are empowering their development staff to act autonomously, trusting them to put the organization first above their egos, career path and status. Executive directors who are treating their development/advancement colleagues as partners in resource development, not the sole provider of it.