UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising

For years now, there has been widespread concern in the nonprofit sector about premature turnover of development directors, lengthy vacancies in the role, and the seemingly thin pool of qualified candidates from which organizations can choose. The development director is commonly labeled a "revolving door" position, and "the hardest to fill and retain" by executives, board members, funders, and capacity builders alike. Moreover, the challenge of assessing development director performance when so many factors influence an organization's fundraising success can leave executives and board members suspecting -- but uncertain -- that they could raise more money with someone else in the role. At the same time, development directors frequently lament the lack of consistent attention to fund development from executives, staff, and board members, rendering their job a frustrating set-up.To better understand these dynamics and to uncover potential solutions to the fundraising challenges nonprofits face, CompassPoint surveyed more than 2,700 executive directors and development directors across the country. Our sample includes a great diversity of organizations -- a wide range of budget and staff sizes, a multitude of mission types, and diverse geographic representation -- but the organizations have a critical commonality: a senior-level development staff person on their organizational chart, whether in place or currently vacant. We included both development directors and executive directors in this research because of their potentially distinct perceptions of the "revolving door" and its causes.Our bottom-line finding: Yes, there are considerable problems in the development director role across the sector, but there are also deeper challenges that undermine the ability of nonprofits to raise the money they need to succeed.In the following pages, this report illuminates what we learned about the specific dimensions of the staffing and organizational challenges, concluding with a set of recommendations to jumpstart a national conversation about what we all can do to help nonprofit organizations take their fund development to the next level

Fundraising Bright Spots: Strategies and Inspiration from Social Change Organizations Raising Money from Individual Donors

"Let's find an outside expert who can help." It's a natural impulse in the search for answers to the chronic fundraising challenges facing so many nonprofit organizations. But what if the real answers were already all around us? And what can we learn from those nonprofits that are uniquely successful in their fundraising? These are the questions behind a new report by Klein & Roth Consulting and CompassPoint. Commissioned by the Haas, Jr. Fund, the report explores common strategies, practices and mindsets across a group of social change organizations that are beating the odds to achieve breakthrough success in individual giving. Among the key insights from the report: Fundraising is core to the identity of these organizations. It's an integral and connected part of their overall work, and it's something everyone has a role in -- including all staff, board and volunteers. When we first started this research, we suspected we would begin to identify some common skills and innovative techniques that lead to success in fundraising. But what the research shows instead is that there are deeper issues involved. It's less about tools and techniques and the skills of an organization's leaders, and more about developing the culture and the systems that are the foundation of long-term fundraising success

Daring to Lead 2006

Presents findings from a survey that examines why nonprofit executives leave their jobs. Offers recommendations for strengthening and supporting current leadership, creating more diversity, and developing the next generation of nonprofit leaders

Convergence & Competition: United Ways and Community Foundations - A National Inquiry

This U.S. report summarizes key findings of the research that was commissioned to support the active dialogue among leaders of United Ways and other community foundations about their respective roles in community philanthropy and what the options for strategic co-existence -- if not full-fledged cooperation -- will look like in the coming years

Financial education: Does it work and how do we know?

Financial literacy

Government Contracting and the Unionization of San Francisco\u27s Social Service Nonprofits

This study established baseline data about union activity among San Francisco\u27s nonprofit social service agencies. It examined associations between agency staff size, annual budget size, reliance upon government funding, and the experience of union activity. It further sought to assess executive directors\u27 opinions about factors motivating employees to organize, as well as their opinions about the viability of unionization in the nonprofit sector. The data demonstrate a strong, positive association between agency staff size, annual budget size, reliance upon government funding, and the experience of union activity. Executive directors of nonprofit social service agencies in this study believe that wages are the most important factor for employees seeking union representation. These managers do not believe that unionization is an appropriate response to employees\u27 grievances and would generally not support organizing drives in their own agencies. While these executive directors view labor organizing as a significant challenge to the nonprofit sector, they tend to believe that nonprofit organizations can ultimately function and thrive with unionized workforces

U.S. households' access to and use of electronic banking. 1989-2007

Nationwide surveys show that consumers are increasingly embracing technology to make payments and manage their personal finances. However, only about one in two consumers could be considered a heavy user of electronic banking. This article examines changes over time in consumers’ access to, adoption of, and attitudes toward various e-banking products and services and looks at several emerging technologies.Consumers' preferences ; Electronic funds transfers

Gender, Sex, And Sexualities: Psychological Perspectives

For decades, the field of gender, sex, and sexualities has been a focal point of increasing interest. This inquiry has been ignited by successive waves of dramatic social change, chief among them: the re-emergence of feminist movements in the U.S. and Europe in the late 1960s; the sustained (and increasingly successful) bids for legal, social, and religious acceptance of non-heterosexual sexualities in many parts of the world; and the burgeoning number of people (whether cisgendered, gender-variant, trans, or questioning) whose individual and collective experiences of gender and sexuality warrant deeper understanding and further progress toward a fuller realization of human potential and civil rights. In psychology, the intellectual project of understanding gender, sex, and sexualities encompasses a variety of subfields spanning neuroscience and developmental, cognitive, social, and cultural psychology, as well as critical theory. As such, these approaches have inspired new and different psychological questions, as well as increased interest in previously unfamiliar topics of investigation. Edited by Nancy K. Dess, Jeanne Marecek, and Leslie C. Bell, Gender, Sex, and Sexualties offers both students and scholars the tools they need to consider and approach such questions as: how do children come to embrace (or repudiate) gendered activities and identities; how do people experience intimacy, desire, and sexual arousal; and what strategies can psychologists use to de-center their own points of view and effectively contribute to a decolonial psychology

Daring to Lead 2011: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership

Offers survey findings about trends and factors in nonprofit executives' plans to leave, including effects of the recession. Calls for advance planning, better grasp of financial sustainability, more professional development options, and stronger boards