December Giving Carnival

December's Giving Carnival has been a great one.  We had eight submissions and I'm very impressed at the quality and depth of insight from everyone who submitted.  Below are my executive summaries and a link to each submission for you to read and learn more about the person who wrote it.  Enjoy. . .

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Jeff Brooks at the Donor  Power Blog came up with four very interesting types of fundraising styles for Executive Directors. 

• The Technocrat - Who tends see fundraising as the "neglected stepchild"
• The Poet - Who seems to be very intellectual in her views of fundraising
• The Consensus-Builder - Who seems be like water and always take the path of least resistance
• The Entrepreneur - Who is usually a founder of the organization and can either play a large role in fundraising, or neglect it

To read more from Jeff, click here.

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Maya Norton at The New Jew: Blogging Philanthropy gives her simple answer, "a lot."  She describes how fundraising is affected by the leadership of an Executive Director by making sure it is set as a priority, that the organization continues to offer personal development training, and to have great landing pages built for international visitors.  To add my two cents, all three of these are important decisions that can only by an Executive Director.

To read more from Maya, click here.

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Roger Carr at the Everyday Giving Blog makes some great insight by first explaining what the responsibilities of a nonprofit executive are.  After defining the responsibilities he sums it up by saying, "I believe the level of leadership demonstrated can make or break the ability of the organization to raise the funds it needs."  Roger talks about how an Executive Director needs to inspire confidence in his donors and continue to maintain great relationships with his board to motivate them to donate and ask for donations.

To read more from Roger, click here.

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Jeremy Gregg at The Raiser's Razor took a little different approach and asked, "Why do donors give money to your nonprofit?"  Jeremy says they give because they trust and love you.  Digging deeper he says donors are not donating to a cause, they are donating and investing in the leaders who will be making a difference in the community.

To read more from Jeremy, click here.

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Phil Cubeta at the Gift Hub asks, "Who leads and who follows?"  He suggests a collaboration between staff, Board of Directors, and the donor to establish a "mission match."  Where all three groups of people are on the same page and it takes a leader to get these three groups of people to collaborate with one another.

To read more from Phil, click here.

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Arlene Spencer at Seeking Grant Money Today had a great response, "it depends". 'No duh?', right?  She goes on to list sixteen different situations and attributes that affect a leader's ability to fundraise.  Arlene lets us know that we shouldn't put all the responsibilities onto one executive because that person always has his or her limits.  Instead, fundraising toward the mission of the organization should be everyone's responsibility.

To read more from Arlene, click here.

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Kelly Kleiman at The Nonprofiteer makes some interesting insights about how leadership affects fundraising based on how large the organization is.  This was the last submission that I read, but offers some of the greatest ideas.  Her entire submission is in the comments section.

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Christopher Scott at Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change defines two ways that fundraising is affected by an Executive Director's leadership capacity.  The first is the qualities that a leader needs to possess.  The second is that a leader has the ability to attract, train, and develop other people who can fundraise on his behalf.

To read more from Christopher, click here.

Comments

[Kelly Kleiman]

Hi Christopher--Here's my submission to the December Giving Carnival. It didn't fit into my blogging plans for the week but I'd still like to contribute it on behalf of The Nonprofiteer, www.nonprofiteer.typepad.com. Thanks for inviting me to participate, and please let me know if you have any questions. best, Kelly Kleiman, The Nonprofiteer

"How much does the leadership of an Executive Director or C.E.O. affect fundraising?"

If the organization is small, the Executive Director’s leadership is the determining factor in fundraising success, because “leadership” in those cases means “how the Executive Director spends his/her time.” If s/he spends it in the wrong ways (writing grants for projects the organization shouldn’t be doing, or writing grants when developing the Board would yield more money more consistently over the long-term), the agency will raise less than it needs to do its job.

In a bigger organization, the Executive Director’s impact is less direct but no less critical, as it’s concentrated in the area of individual donations. We all have experience of the gun-shy CEO who fails to engage the Board in fundraising (or even ask Board members for money), and just keep telling the Development Director to write more grants; or who refuses to make fundraising calls herself or let anyone else in the agency make them. On the other hand, a vigorous ED who enjoys conspiring with the Board President to inspire the Board can turn a sleepy backwater governing body into a dynamic resource-generating machine. An agency can raise government, foundation and corporate money, and conduct successful small-gift appeals, with an able Development Director and an ED who does nothing; but without an ED who actively manages the Board of Directors, major gifts will always elude the group.

Finally, the ED’s leadership affects fundraising the way it affects everything else. The Nonprofiteer has a very down-to-earth definition of leadership: “s/he identifies the task, breaks it down into sub-tasks, finds people to assume responsibility for each sub-task and then stays around to provide back-up in case something's been overlooked or proves overwhelming for the person whose responsibility it is. . . . That is, "leadership"--that mysterious quality--turns out to be nothing more than a clear sense of the goal, a knack for figuring out the steps toward that goal,
a willingness to ask other people to take on Step A or E or Q, and a commitment to be around during Step A or E or Q to say, "Need help with that?" and after Step A/E/Q to say "Good job!"” (See http://nonprofiteer.typepad.com/the_nonprofiteer/2007/11/dear-nonprofi-1.html). An Executive Director who panics when confronted with the need to raise next year’s budget, or is vague about where it’s supposed to come from, will so shake the confidence of the people around him–staff and Board alike–that they will begin to find fundraising impossible; whereas one who breaks the challenge down into steps and tasks and serves as cheerleader for the step-doers and
task-finishers will find he’s leading a group of miracle workers.

[Maya Norton]

Nice style to this post, Christopher. Thanks for all your hard work. I'm glad it paid off.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones,

Maya

The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy

[Jeremy Gregg]

Thanks for posting my comments. I hope that thye were helpful to your readers.

Jeremy Gregg, Editor
The Raiser's Razor