No one cares how much money you’ve raised.
Displaying how much money you’ve raised on your website, on your LinkedIn, on your resume, or anywhere else without context is a COMPLETELY UNHELPFUL METRIC.
Let me explain…
If an average car salesman sells 10 cars a month, valued at $30,000/car they did $3.6 Million in sales.
WOW!
Problem is they might only make $60-$100k off of those sales.
Meanwhile, a consultant who owns his own business can do $500,000 in sales and basically keep all of that $500k in profit.
So, what’s more impressive?
The person who boldly displays how they did almost $4 Million in sales, or the consultant?
Someone can “raise $50 Million” but what if that was a $20 million decrease from the previous year?
Someone else can “only” raise $800,000 but what if that was 10 times more than the previous year?
If you’re hiring for a position, don’t get overly excited by a number that someone has raised without context.
If you’re trying to get hired, focus on your skills, your grit, your ability to overcome challenges, and the success that you’ve had with context.
Seriously, no one cares how much money you’ve raised – including donors.
Kevin Fitzpatrick is the owner of One Visit Away, a consulting business helping leaders of nonprofits schedule more and better visits with their benefactors. Kevin’s goal is to help fundraising professionals constantly seek to deepen their relationships with their benefactors. After all, you’re just One Visit Away from growing your mission and your impact.
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