prospects, access to wealth, competition, local regulations, geography, style, public image, access to volunteers (including leadership), fundraising history, prior fiscal performance, volume and variety of fundraising methods offered, use of professional staff or consultants, existing donors for renewal and upgrading, established fund development office procedures, and more.54
§ 2.3 ROLE OF A FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONAL
Fundraising executives refer to the development process as their guide. This process includes (1) acquiring donors, (2) renewing and upgrading donors, and (3) maximizing donors. Each phase represents an increased capacity to support charitable organizations. The process starts at the bottom of the pyramid of giving (Exhibit 2.1). Identification of prospects from those publics available to each charity is accomplished through the several annual giving methods. Each individual donor's progression up the pyramid requires time for communication of information and development of interests and of a level of personal involvement with the organization (the “friend-raising” phase). Major gift opportunities, while less frequent, are usually centered in capital campaigns and represent a continuing investment in response to a rising commitment and enthusiasm for the programs and services of the organization. The ultimate investment decision is usually made last, is frequently the largest gift, and may even come as part of the distributions from a donor's estate.
Fundraising professionals are like symphony orchestra conductors. Before fine music can be produced, they need competent musicians, all the right instruments, the correct sheet music for each player, a concert hall, rehearsals, and an audience. Any one of the 15 fundraising methods can more easily be accomplished alone; activating many methods simultaneously takes skill in managing the process of moving everyone forward together, in the same direction, toward the same objective, and at the same time.
The desired net effect is to stimulate multiple forms of asking for multiple gift decisions from donors and prospects each year, while at the same time selectively soliciting larger gifts from a few who have demonstrated greater potential from previous gift performance. All of this should be timed to meet institutional needs with funds delivered on schedule.
EXHIBIT 2.1 Pyramid of Giving
(a) Types of Professional Fundraisers
Three types of professional fundraising executives work for and with charitable organizations to direct and manage fundraising programs. Legislation and regulation provide guidelines for the relationship between organizations and those who perform fundraising on their behalf, and distinguish among the three types.
1 Fund Development Officer. A fund development officer is a full-time salaried employee of the organization and receives the same standard employment benefits of all other employees. Most regulations are silent about employees who perform fundraising, choosing rather to regulate the organization itself. The fund development officer designs the fundraising program in keeping with the organization's priority needs, selects the fundraising methods required to produce the income needed, and supervises operations on a daily basis. To make the development process work, the development officer must also set and meet goals and objectives; identify committees; assign functions and manage them successfully; recruit and train leaders and volunteers; hire and train staff; write policies and procedures, have them approved, and see that they are followed; prepare budgets and supervise expenses; perform and report results and analyses; keep confidential records accurately and discreetly; design and implement a donor recognition system; and more.
2 Fundraising Consultant. A fundraising consultant is an individual or firm hired for a fee to provide services of advice and counsel to charitable organizations on the design, conduct, and evaluation of their fundraising enterprises. Most regulations require consultants to register with state authorities, file a copy of contracts for service, and be bonded when the handling of gift dollars will occur. Consultants are available to guide staff and volunteers on specific fundraising methods (direct mail, telephone, planned giving, capital campaigns, and the like), to perform objective studies and analysis of the design and conduct of comprehensive fundraising programs, and to provide executive search, marketing, public relations, and other services. Consultants do not usually conduct solicitations directly, nor do they handle gift money, but they can and do assist these efforts. Consulting staff can be retained to perform all of the duties of the fund development officer, usually for a specified period until full-time employees can be hired and trained.
3 Professional Solicitor. A professional solicitor is an individual (or firm) who is hired, for a fee or on a commission or percentage basis, to perform a fundraising program or special event directly in the name of the organization, to solicit and receive all gifts, to deposit funds and pay expenses, and to deliver net proceeds to the charity. Legislation and regulation of professional solicitors are the most intense because of past conduct by those whose fees and expenses have been high and who have delivered net proceeds in the area of only 20 percent or less of gross revenues. Solicitor firms are more likely to attract smaller and newer organizations (or “noncharities” for whom the gift deduction is no longer allowed) who believe they lack the ability to mount their own fundraising programs and thus are easy prey to the sales pitch that promises gift revenue with no effort on the organization's part.
In making a choice among fundraising professionals, charitable organizations should compare their cost-effectiveness. Fund development officers and professional consultants perform similarly and produce net returns of from 75 to 80 percent of net income. Professional solicitors return 20 percent or less of net income.
Several other features that relate to the separate role of fundraising professionals are discussed as follows.
(b) Professional Associations
National and local organizations have expanded to meet the needs of fundraisers, one of the fastest-growing new service areas of employment available in the United States. As of the close of 2007, membership in the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), formerly the National Society of Fund Raising Executives, which was founded in 1962, numbered more than 30,000 individuals in 175 chapters in the United States, 15 chapters in Canada, 5 chapters in Mexico, and 3 chapters in Asia. The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) provide similar trade association services to their members. The American Association of Fund Raising Counsel (AAFRC) represents many of the larger national firms whose members practice as consultants. Hundreds of others who practice fundraising as staff or consultants are not members of any society. Other professional associations, such as the National Council on Planned Giving, have emerged to meet the needs of specialists, and the Direct Mail Marketing Association includes members who service both for-profit and not-for-profit clients.
The primary purpose of these trade associations is to serve the members, usually by providing training in the profession through conferences, seminars, monthly meetings, workshops, journals, and newsletters. Efforts have begun to define a common curriculum of information organized along knowledge and experience levels to support career development. College curricula and degrees have been slow to develop, perhaps because of a lack of literature and a research base. Professional training, when linked to certification, can yield verification to members of their comprehension of basic principles plus a validation to employers of a level of competency.
(c) Accreditation and
