Targets for fundraisers are counterproductive
Yet the very walls of our offices whisper ‘budgets’.
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
Don’t all boards of Trustees require quarterly financial updates? Mine certainly did.
Department by department
Actual income and expenditure in the quarter
And year to date
C.f. budget
C.f. last year
I was then expected to report:
Why the obvious and significant variances?
What are you doing about them?
Because I had been in post for thirty years and had a track record of success, I was given a relatively easy ride. But you, dear fundraising director?
As sure as day follows night this leads to targets. How could it not?
But targets constrain, not empower, fundraisers. Cultivating a major donor, for example, starts with the point of engagement, then the process of cultivating, leading to a suggestion that the prospect might consider moving from being inspired, to giving. By the right person at the right time for the right amount.
Financial year ends are totally arbitrary. If we are to do the best we can for our beneficiaries, how can the cultivation process be constrained by year ends?
And this is just within a department. We also need to break down silos between departments. The silos are not real; they are constructs we have created. (⟶ I’ve written a short piece here.)
Take an example. A particular family is involved with the community fundraising team, the corporate fundraising team, the individual giving team and the major donor team. So, four fundraisers, each with financial targets. They work together. What drives them? Raising the maximum amount of money towards their target, and so believing they are maximising the income to help beneficiaries? Or working together to achieve the best outcome from the family as a whole, and so raise even more money, and help even more beneficiaries?
When a (good) manager sits down with a fundraiser for their annual appraisal, which matters more? A serious discussion and assessment of their progress? Or their performance against target?
“Fundraising is not about money. It’s about important work that needs doing. If you start by asking for money, you won’t get it and you won’t deserve it.” – Harold Sumption
Financial ‘targets’ have no place whatsoever in the inspiration, motivation and measurement of a fundraiser. Fundraising is about people, not numbers.
The responsibility for reconciling the numbers needed by the Trustees as part of their governance role, and the fundraising activity on the ground, lies squarely with us Fundraising Directors.
That’s why we’re paid more.
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