Oh, And Bring Your Rolodex

Phil's Careers Blog Oh, And Bring Your Rolodex… By Phil Gérard First of all, I would like to clarify to my youthful fundraiser friends what a Rolodex is. According to Wikipedia it is a ‘rotating file system used to retailer enterprise contact info’. It’s what us oldies used earlier than LinkedIn! Now that we've the definition out-of-the-means â€" this post is about one thing that seems logical however sadly still seems to occur lots. At least I hear about it from fundraisers in my community every now and then: Organizations anticipating from potential employees that they might deliver their donors with them to the new job. It appears that everyone needs to be within the sport of major items today. The AFP breakfast seminars on main reward methods always promote out. At first look this seems very optimistic and encouraging, an indication that the charitable sector is doing nicely and that charities are building a pipeline and are shifting their donors up on the giving pyramid. I suppose that some organizations though are hop ing for the magic pill in these workshops. ‘If the big retailers are so good at main gifts maybe we just want to rent a hotshot fundraiser (irrespective of the price) and they're going to create the same magic right here. Maybe they'll deliver their contacts with them.’ I am not knocking small outlets here at all nor am I generalizing. There are small retailers with very strong major gift applications which were constructed up and nurtured through the years. Some retailers, however, with formidable however unrealistic board members or leadership can set up fundraisers for failure. So subsequent time you contemplate leaving your place with a nicely-run, well-resourced and nicely-oiled fundraising machine remember to ask the hiring supervisor some robust questions round expectations, annual fundraising targets, their existing donor pipeline, the largest presents obtained and so on. And be very cautious when you're being requested to bring your contacts with you and solicit them fo r a significant gift. This should never be expected of you. Sure, after we rent fundraisers we wish them to be good networkers, properly-related and educated of the native market. However, expecting that a brand new fundraiser would bring a contact list to the new job and ask donors to now contemplate giving to the group you simply joined just isn't a part of fundraising greatest practices â€" to say the least. Fundraisers ought to keep away from that and shouldn't be put in that place by a brand new employer. We construct relationships with donors for the organization we work for not for ourselves. Post navigation One thought on “Oh, And Bring Your Rolodex…” Well put, Phil. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting using your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of recent feedback through e-mail. Notify me of new posts by way of e mail. Email Subscription Enter your email handle to observe my NEW blog and keep on prime of the latest career opportunities and fundraising information. Sign me up! Follow On Twitter