1. DEVELOPING A CULTURE THAT WILL CULTIVATE AN ORGANIZATION
Jonathan Fisher
SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

2. Developing a Culture 1
Developing a Culture That Will Cultivate an Organization
Kim Klein, a renowned fund raising expert wrote, “The purpose of fundraising is not to
raise money, but to raise donors. You don’t want gifts, you want givers.” (Klein, 1988) Fund
raising should be embraced and viewed as a core building block of every nonprofit. In order for
a development director to be successful the organization has to have a strong sense of cultural
philanthropy.
Culture of philanthropy refers to a set of organizational values and practices that
support and nurture development within a nonprofit organization. Everyone promotes
philanthropy and can articulate a case for giving. Fund development is viewed and
valued as a mission-aligned program of the organization. Organizational systems are
established to support donors. The executive director is committed and personally
involved in fundraising (Cornelius, 2013).
If the organization has a common view, path, and goal, the development director will have the
support he or she needs to be an active, successful partner to the community and organization.
The development director, the “staff person in the highest ranking development
position within the organization,” is a hard position for smaller profits to retain (Cornelius,
2013). Over half of development directors anticipate leaving the organization within 2 years of
employment (Cornelius, 2013). The compensation given to development directors varies
heavily on the budget of the nonprofit rather than the experience of the development director.
This creates an environment that leads to smaller nonprofits having a less experienced
development directors because the larger nonprofits can afford to compensate them more
generously. Nonprofits with a budget of $1 million or less have an average salary of less than
$50,000. Nonprofits with a budget between $1-5 million are almost $66,000 for salary. $5-10
million are over $80,000, and $10 million plus have an average salary for development directors
as over $100,000.
Forty-percent of development directors do not wish to further their careers in this
particular field (Cornelius, 2013). With an active revolving door, particularly in smaller profits,
the lack of long term development directors will result, unmistakably, in poor fund
development.
Fund development is the process of cultivating relationships with people who
will support a nonprofit organization. Cultivation is defined as an activity that builds
awareness and connection for donors/funders and prospective donors/funders with an
organization, and increases an understanding of why someone might give to an
organization. Fund development includes fundraising which is the specific method used

3. Developing a Culture 2
to secure charitable donation (e.g. annual funds, face-to-face asks, online, proposals,
etc.) (Cornelius, 2013)
On an average, nonprofits with a budget of $1-5 million will have a vacancy in this position for
10 months between directors (Cornelius, 2013). This will result in poor donor relations. An
executive director was quoted saying, “I think some kind of self-perpetuating cycle is going on
where, on one hand, the jobs are really hard and not that many people are successful at them,
and then there is the issue of salaries, they just keep going higher and higher and higher. So
development directors who are good can write their own tickets and command what they
want. And the larger institutions pick off the best. And so then there’s scarcity, so all of us have
to pay more for a shrinking pool of people.” (Cornelius, 2013)
When fundraising, development directors should be looking for long term donors.
Development directors should be constantly building relationships with current donors and
new. If a nonprofit goes too long without a development director, the organization can risk
losing their current donors, and it will have trouble building new relations with future donors.
Again, referencing Kim Klein, fundraising should be about raising donors, not money. It takes
many years to propagate a strong propinquity with a large donor base. Lacking a dedicated, not
having, or having a large turnaround of development directors makes fund development
challenging or hopeless.
Having an experienced development director is not enough. Over 50% of executive
directors express that their most recent hiring process did not draw in the anticipated,
sufficient applicants. This is likely to get worse with many nonprofits recovering from the
recession (Cornelius, 2013). Over 30% of the development directors that were terminated were
for poor performance in fund development, 31% were because of poor performance, and 22%
were terminated because of not fitting in with the culture (Cornelius, 2013). This may have to
do with unreasonable or unknown expectations. Nearly one quarter of executive directors say
their development directors have little knowledge at prospective donor research. For smaller
nonprofits, the number sky-rockets to 32% (Cornelius, 2013). Development directors have a
much higher chance of being a novice in smaller nonprofits than larger nonprofits.

4. Developing a Culture 3
Making fundraising and fund development work should not be solely placed on the
shoulders of the
development director,
but orchestrating the
brand of the
organization and how
fundraising plans are
implemented should be
a large portion, along
with many other tasks.
(Figure 1 shows a
generic example of time
spent and different
types of tasks.)
Development directors
require a large support
group consisting of the
board, the executive
director, management,
and the rest of the staff.
Without a culture of
philanthropy, the
development director
will have a very hard
time moving the
organization forward.
Development
directors need to
know, act like, and be shown that they are not alone. They require strong support from the
executive director and the board. Over three-quarters of Nonprofits with a budget of $1-5
million report that the board is not sufficient or lacks engagement in fundraising (Cornelius,
2013). It can be difficult at times for people to ask for money, but if a strong culture of
philanthropy is in place, the drive to better the organization and the work the organization does
will be able to justify any misgivings in asking friends, family, and acquaintances for their
support. A board member was asked about fundraising and said, “Fundraising is not something
I enjoy doing. I don’t like having to ask people. And the problem in this community is that this is
a very involved community of people, and you just get to the point where you feel, I can’t ask
my friends anymore” (Cornelius, 2013). One-quarter of nonprofits have no board fundraising
Plan fund-
fundraising
campaigns
and activities
25%
Manage fun-
raising
campaigns
and activites
25%
Recruit and
train
volunteer
fund-raising
leadership
15%
Identify and
cultivate
prospective
donors
10%
Stay on top of
advancements
and changes
that are
pertinent to
raising money
within the
community, to
the
organization's
mission and
programs, and
to the
development
profession
10%
Forecast and
evaluate the
potential of
fund-raising
campaigns
and activities
5%
Produce
solicitation
materials and
train
volunteer
solicitors for
fund-raising
campaigns
5%
Manage
personnel
within the
development
department
and interact
with other
organization
staff members
5%
Figure 1: Development Director Time Breakdown (Poderis, 2014)

5. Developing a Culture 4
committee (Cornelius, 2013). A change in culture can help with the lack of support the
fundraising receives.
It takes more than just the knowledge of how a development director operates to be
successful. Development directors need to know how to approach potential donors. Much like
politicians or sales persons, development directors need to know how to sell their organizations
product and their ideas and beliefs. Tony Poderis wrote in his article, “They [development
directors] have to be attentive, persistent, and flexible. They need to have thick skin, and be
willing to hide their light under a bushel.” And, “Development professionals need to exhibit a
demeanor that is a little self-effacing. While the trustees, donors, and volunteers with whom
we deal may regard us as accomplished professionals, they nevertheless appreciate a touch of
deference when we are seeking their help and money. It’s not that they want us to be
subservient, but there is an almost imperceptible level just slightly below that of peer where
they are most comfortable placing us.” (Poderis, 2014) Along the lines of self-effacing, all ego
must be set aside, and remember that the glory belongs to the organization. Leading from
behind the curtain is a must.
There is no formal training for development jobs. This is the biggest downfall for
nonprofits. Many people are, “…told that fund-raising is impossible and that the process is a
mystery.” (Poderis, Beginning a Career in Non-Profit Fund-Raising, 2014) He later writes, in the
same article, that fundraising is simple in design and concept and can be easily learned, but it is
very hard work. Many development managers learn on the job as lower level development
staff, learn from volunteering at local nonprofits, or there are some specific classes offered at
colleges.
It is hard to understand how well a development director will do in different
organizations, or whether someone new in the field will be successful. Most development
directors perform best in larger nonprofits where there was a clear goal, where resources and
donors are already in place, and the overall structure was put in place. Poderis writes on how
he would select a development director that does not have the experience of the field, “If I
were hiring a person to run a development operation and had to pick someone with no
previous professional fund-raising experience, I would look for someone such as the head of a
department within a retail operation like a department store. This person would have managed
a sales staff, worked at making products available to customers, handled customer concerns
and complaints, conducted special sales programs, and attended to the minutiae of day-to-day
operations. Exactly what a development director does!” (Poderis, 2014) “By framing the issue
as a talent pool problem alone, we neglect to focus more critically upon entrenched
organizational factors that contribute to the inability to establish development as a shared
function and nurture an organizational culture to sustain it. The right development director hire

6. Developing a Culture 5
alone will never break the [vicious] cycle, but the right person inside an organization that has a
culture of philanthropy can.”
“The Vicious Cycle”
 Premature development director departure
 Short tenures/volatility in development function
 Inability to develop and sustain success conditions
 Lack of success conditions
(Cornelius, 2013)
Asking for money has been frowned upon by our society for a long time; it is quite
reserved. This is a culture nonprofits have been trying to work around for a very long time. Kim
Klein said, “Money is one of the great taboos in our culture. We are taught not to think about it
or ask about it…as with the subjects of sex, death, mental illness, religion, politics, and other
taboos, people say little about their experiences with money. With people so carefully taught
that it is rude to talk about money, it’s certainly not an easy task to ask for it.” (Klein, 1988)
Development directors and organizations looking to hire new development directors or
start a department for one, need to keep in mind that the increased demands placed upon and
for development directors brings a lot of stress to the position and rewards, often times in the
form of larger nonprofits offering greater compensation. Technology is growing which creates a
greater demand for innovation among development directors. Development directors must set
clear realistic goals with the executive director and the board. The executive director and the
board must share accountability for fundraising results.
There must be a strong culture of philanthropy within the organization and the donors.
If the development director can cultivate donors into ambassadors for the cause, belief, and
ideals of the organization, donors will in return bring in other friends, family, and acquaintances
to, potentially, create more donor ambassadors for the organization. Fund development must
be the core of the organizational fund raising.