Episode 138: Are you Ready to Hire a Development Director? There's a Time and a Place
Development Directors are not just in house grant writers. They have hefty salaries because do a lot of heavy lifting. Learn what all a development director does, when you should consider hiring one, and what are your alternatives in the meantime.
----------------------------------------------------
🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿
TaVia Wooley-iles Pt. 2
👉🏿https://www.sjpla.org/leaders-and-nonprofits-we-work-with/the-empowerthem-collective
----------------------------------------------------
🚀 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU RUN A SUCCESSFUL NONPROFIT
How to Demonstrate Impact
https://fusion.amberwynn.net/product/how-to-demonstrate-measurable-impact/
How to Price Your Program for Profit
https://fusion.amberwynn.net/product/how-to-price-programs-for-profit/
----------------------------------------------------
Learn more about my success with helping nonprofits
Visit My Website👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
CONNECT WITH AMBER:
Follow me on Facebook 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.facebook.com/amberwynnphilanthrepreneur
Follow me on Instagram 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.instagram.com/amberwynnphilanthrepreneur
Listen to my Podcast! 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4G9QNaVAYz8eXTmz48gagl
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Got Questions? "Ask Amber" on any of my social media platforms or email me at amber@amberwynn.net
Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you an executive director in search of a development director because your board is pressuring you to hire someone to do the fundraising. If that's you, come check out this episode because there is a specific time in place when you need to hire a development director. Hint, it's not in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Hey, fam it's your girl. And today we are talking about the time and place to hire a development director. I have so many people say to me, oh, my board's not a fundraising board. Amber, can you refer me to a development director? Here is the truth. A development director is an expensive salary. They are a director. A development director is not an in-house grant writer that is an in-house grant writer. But most of the people, when they come to me and say, oh, we need a development director because we need to fundraise, first of all, it's your board's fiduciary responsibility to fundraise. That is what the IRS says their responsibility is. So if you can't get your board to fundraise, if they are encouraging you, IE pressuring you to hire development director, it's time for you to start rotating that board off. Thank them lovingly for their support, but it's time for you to rotate them off and rotate on people who understand what their role is.
(01:47):
As a board member of a nonprofit organization, it is their responsibility to fundraise. The development Director's responsibility is usually to manage a team, right? So the development director is going to manage the in-house grant writer or the consulting grant writer. They're going to manage the comms team. So now you are at a place where you have a communications director. That development director is going to supervise that person. You're also going to have an events person. The person who's doing your galas and your events, the development director is going to supervise them. It's not just an in-house person who's going to write your grants because your board is not willing to. It is a person who is now going to take your organization to the next level. People who hire directors of development, they usually have budgets of between one to $5 million and usually they get stuck.
(02:47):
So they've been successful at grant writing or they've got individuals. This development director is going to be over the person who's doing your individual donors, who's who's doing outreach to your major donors. This development director is creating the strategy for how all of these things are going to come together to take your organization beyond 5 million. So they're going to be supervising your individual donor person. So maybe individual donors bring in 5,000, 10,000. Your major donors, they bring in 25,000 and you're at this plateau. The purpose, the role, the responsibility of this development director is to manage all of these people to get your organization to the next level.
(03:39):
So when people come to me and they say, oh, Amber, we need a development director. And I ask them, what's your budget? Our budget is $250,000. You're not ready for a development director. You're just not. So when we come back from this break, I'm going to tell you when is the perfect time and how to go about actually hiring a development director? If your grants aren't getting funded, it could be because the funder can't see how your programs are making an impact in your community. Get the How to Demonstrate Impact Workbook to quantify the work you're doing in your community in a way that a funder can see a potential return in your investment. Funders need proof that your organization will use their grant dollars to improve your community. That proof is called impact, and impact is quantified through measurable outcomes. Leverage my 30 years of program development experience to help increase your chance of securing funding.
(04:32):
Order your copy today. Hey, we're back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about when you're ready to hire a development director. Before the break, I mentioned that most people want a development director because they think that that development director is the solution to their fundraising issues, and typically they're not really ready. If you scour Indeed and you see development directors, you're going to see six figures. Why? Because typically a development director comes with a couple of things. Number one, they come with contacts. Development directors usually have relationships with program directors. So that's what you're purchasing. And people are like, yeah, that's what we want. No, no, no, no. A development director is hired when an organization reaches a plateau. They've exhausted all of their grants to their knowledge. They've exhausted. Maybe they're individual donors sending out newsletters and things of that nature.
(05:32):
And so the development director creates the strategy in partnership with your board. I'm going to emphasize in partnership with your board. Most people when they get their development directors, it's because the board is like, well just hire somebody that they can do all of that. And the board believes it is their responsibility to then have that development director report to them every month on what they're doing to bring in the money. But it's supposed to be in partnership. So the board is supposed to be fundraising. They've already created their fund development plan, so the board's doing what they can to bring in resources to help fundraise for the organization, but they've reached a plateau, and so they're going to create this department, the development department that the director will then oversee. Yes, the development director will come to the board meetings and report out on what's going on with the individual donor, what's going on with the major donor, what's going on with the grant writing, what's going on with the comms, right?
(06:34):
The events. That is the department that they're going to supervise. That's why when you see development directors, it's six figures because they're not coming in to be your in-house grant writer. They're coming in to run a department and to take your organization to the next level. So some people are like, well, we just need a strategist. You know what I mean? It's not enough just to have a grant writer. I encourage people not to post positions for development directors. Number one, it's rude and disrespectful. If you're trying to hire a development director at $25 an hour, that's just rude and disrespectful. You're not acknowledging what all it is that a development director is supposed to do. But let's just say you want someone to help you create a strategy. You can get what's called a fractional development director that is a consultant who serves part-time or a specific amount of hours just working with you and your board to create a fund development strategy.
(07:36):
They'll come in for a period of time. It's usually a couple of months, or maybe it's a set number of hours to help you to create a fund development strategy. So now they're not in-house pairing them hourly or you're paying them by a project. So you can, if you believe that you're ready for it, secure a contract with a development director. But I'm telling you, they're pricey and they should be pricey because they're not just writing grants. They're creating a total strategy for your organization to diversify its funding streams, and they're leveraging their contracts to help generate revenue. So if you're ready to hire a development director, start off with a small amount of time, and if they work out, if they generate enough revenue to cover their salaries, then yeah, then you can consider hiring a full-time. But just remember, this is not in substitute of your board doing what they're supposed to do, which is to fundraise.
(08:34):
Alright? Okay, wonderful. So we're going to go for a break. When we come back, it is your time to ask Amber, whatever questions are on your mind when we come back. Not sure how to price your programs or how to cover salaries. Are you scared to increase your program fees? If you're struggling to fully cover the cost of running your program, then you need how to price your programs for profit. This workbook provides step-by-step instructions for how to develop programs funders love to fund, determine the cost to charge for your programs, and present salary costs in a way that funders will approve. Learn the secret formula I use as an executive director for how to fully cover program costs. Order your copy today. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and now it's time for you to ask me your pressing questions with Ask Amber.
(09:27):
Today's question comes from Guiller Mo Guillermo's from Boyle Heights, and his question is, Hey Amber, do I need a business plan? Will the SBA help me to create one? Alright, Guillermo, so the short answer is no. What you need is to build out your infrastructure, and a business plan is different than what you would build out for a nonprofit. You could leverage both of the products that I've advertised in today's episode. The first one was how to demonstrate impact, and then the second one, how to price your programs for profit. And it will get you farther than creating a business plan, right? What you want to do is to validate your nonprofit. I have a product for that too. It's called How to Validate Your Nonprofit Idea. And you're going to determine who your competitors are in the nonprofit sector in your geographical area. Then you're going to with the how to demonstrate impact, quantify what it is that your programs are delivering in terms of your community.
(10:34):
Because funders want to know what type of impact that you're making in the community. A business plan is really going to talk about the product and the service that you're providing. But in the context of philanthropy, you want to be able to demonstrate to a funder that your nonprofit is a viable nonprofit. So go to my website, check out how to validate your nonprofit idea, how to demonstrate impact, and how to price your programs for profit. And that's going to give you the template that you need in order to develop a product that's going to help move your organization forward. Lastly, excuse me, the SBA is an organization that's designed to help for-profits. Yes, a nonprofit is a business, but when you start talking about government money, they become specific about who it is they want to fund. A nonprofit can apply for a grant, but in terms of the services that they provide, they're specific as to what type of entity they'll provide services to, and those typically are for-profit businesses.
(11:41):
Hope that helps. Alright, if you have any questions that you want to ask me, feel free to hit me up on any of my socials. I'll be happy to answer your question on air. Now we get to move part two of our conversation with Tavia Woolley of Empower Them, and she's talking about what the benefit of systems change brings to the nonprofit sector. Generally speaking, when we talk about the relationship between a nonprofit and a funder or a nonprofit and the government, the nonprofit tends to be in that, I won't say inferior, but definitely not in a position of power. When we start to talk about systems change, it shifts who we are as an agency. When you have individuals from the community addressing systems change, now there's a power shift, and this is one of the reasons why she started her organization. So let's listen to Tavia explain what it is that she's trying to accomplish and how system change will help her to accomplish that. In the Antelope Valley, part two, with Tavia Woolley,
Speaker 3 (13:04):
The accountability, so policy puts in writing that is enforceable. So here's where I also say we have to get better at is that once policy has been implemented, passed, it is now solid. It's in writing. We then have to track and hold the folks accountable that the policy is implemented the way it was intended to. We then to evaluate after implementing the policy the way it was intended to that are we seeing results and doing the modify. So the policy advocacy work isn't just the getting it passed to begin with, it's the after effect tracking to ensure that things get done. And so I always like to write things down to, I believe being very practical. I mean, you talk to me at any point, we're going to break it down to 1, 2, 3. Policy work is about the overall accountability, putting things, documentation, putting in and write, and then saying, what will you do after this is done?
(13:58):
And then encouraging the community and all stakeholders to say to our leaders, Hey, we agree that this is what you're going to do in our region, in our area. How can we ensure that you're doing this? And when they don't do that, how do we lovingly pull on their coattail to say that we need to meet again? Because this is a top priority for our region. But if we don't put things in writing, remember I come from a government for the county. If you didn't write it down, we have it. Okay? So policy is the same way. If it didn't get written down in this case passed or implemented, then it didn't happen. It didn't exist. So we hope to train and support people to really start thinking like that. Put things in writing, make sure there's accountability built into the process, and that you then become, for lack of a better word, a watchdog. You have to monitor because people are people. Let's just be honest.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and that was part two of our conversation with Empower Them founder Tavia Woolley in the Antelope Valley. If you want to watch the full episode, just go on over to my YouTube channel. Feel free to subscribe and share not only this episode, but that conversation with er. I think it's important for us to think globally When we think about how we can strengthen ourselves as a sector systems change is at the forefront of that. So thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you found the information on when to hire a development director helpful. If you did, be sure to subscribe and be sure to share this episode with someone who could use it. And until next week, be sure to take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. See you next time. Thanks for listening. If you
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast to see the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
