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April 09, 2008

The Real Cost of Fund-Raiser Turnover

All those empty offices in the fund-raising department are costing organizations millions of dollars.

With demand for fund raisers at an all-time high, turnover has become a major concern for many organizations

One example of how costly it can be to lose too many fund raisers at one time comes from the University of California at Irvine.

After several years of steadily increasing contributions, the university reached a record, raising $88-million in 2000.

But the following year, the university’s vice chancellor for advancement resigned, followed six months later by the associate vice chancellor. And in 2002, three other senior fund raisers left. The positions remained vacant for more than a year.

The effect on fund-raising operations was immediate and stark: In 2001 and 2002, donations plunged, declining to $52-million in 2001 and reaching a new low of $35-million in 2002.

While the economic downturn of 2001 could have caused donations to dip even if the fund raisers had stayed, such huge losses are probably a major reason behind the steep drop, says Tom Mitchell, who took the top fund-raising job at Irvine in July 2002.

Mr. Mitchell says it took the university until 2006 to finally surpass its 2000 fund-raising record by raising $101-million.

How much is turnover costing your institution? What have you done about it? Share your thoughts and ideas by clicking on the comment link below this post.

— Holly Hall

Wednesday April 9, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

1. Some turnover can’t be avoided, but organizations can do a lot to prevent more by taking better care of the fundraising employees they have left. I feel like the initial reaction at some orgs is to try to divide work among its remaining employees, which is doubly stressful in this time of recession when fundraising pressures are already increasing.

   — Anonymous    Apr 10, 03:07 PM    #

2. This seems like an over-generalization based on only one case (“example”) at UC Irvine, where funds unsurprisingly declined during a major economic downturn – no clear connection has been established to the number of fundraising employees. In other individual cases, fundraising staff increases and funding still declines, or staff decreases but funding increases. A shared sense of mission throughout an organization (fundraisers and others) is far more important than the number of staff dedicated solely to raising funds.

   — Anonymous    Apr 10, 09:58 PM    #

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