One of the great insights Robert Kiyosaki shares in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad is this:
Poor people say “we could never afford that” and rich people say “how could we afford that?”
At least that’s my paraphrase based off of memory of reading it 6 years ago.
This applies so much to determining compensation for fundraisers.
I’ve seen it happen frequently where a gift officer is CRUSHING their goals and they ask for a $10,000 raise only to have their boss or board whine about how they can’t pay them so much.
There are few things in life so stupid.
If you have found a successful gift officer that is not losing money for your organization but is actually putting hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in the bank DON’T LOSE them over a few thousand dollars.
It is very difficult to find great major gift fundraisers.
If you have one, another organization wants them more than you want to keep them.
Your only shot of keeping them on board if you’re not going to pay well is taking advantage of a sense of loyalty to the mission.
Most people can’t do that for long, so they’re going to leave.
You’ll have saved yourself $10,000 and most likely lost $1 Million because of the turmoil.
Finding a new candidate is expensive.
Having to fire 2 candidates until you find another successful one is expensive.
18 months of waiting for the new gift officer to form relationships with your donors is expensive.
I hope you liked the $10,000 you “saved.”
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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