Before you rush to hire a new annual giving leader, make sure you are prepared

Campuses are coming to life again.  Students are shuffling between buildings, faculty are teaching and conducting research, and administrators are planning program improvements to enhance the student experience.  Hiring freezes are diminishing and institutions are becoming more aggressive about increasing revenue, especially from philanthropic gifts.

While this sounds like great news, colleges and universities across the country are having difficulty hiring development staff to lead these efforts. From EAB’s Advancement Talent Survey, 78% of advancement shops had at least one vacancy in fall 2022, with compensation as the top reason for departures.

Hiring managers expecting competitive applicant pools are finding fewer candidates with relevant experience.  In addition to the saturated marketplace looking for talented staff, personal factors, such as family responsibilities, an appetite for remote work, and work fatigue, are making development leaders more difficult to acquire.  What should advancement leaders do to appropriately grow their teams?

The temptation is to settle by hiring whoever seems remotely qualified even if they are not what you were looking for. Sure, you may get lucky, but do you really want your important leadership hire to be based on chance?  Don’t settle, and don’t give up hope!

Here are a few tips as you hire development leaders:

1. Hire a person, don’t fill a position

When positions have been vacated, the temptation is to revert to unspoken business rules: “Everyone is replaceable.”  “The longer the position is unoccupied, the backlog of work falls unfairly on others.” “The main priority is filling the position as quickly as possible.”  There are elements of truth to all of these, but this mindset focuses on finding a strong resume to slide into the preexisting role or match a job description found on the internet.  Rushing the hire does not set an encouraging tone for the current team, and any delays in hiring may cause increased anxiety or grumbling about leadership or departmental direction.

Focus your attention on hiring the right person.  Positions have firm outputs and rigid boundaries; people are influential and dynamic.  A plug-and-play hiring approach overlooks the idea that great employees are not replaceable, nor does simply filling empty seats make an organization successful.  Great people go above and beyond their position description.  As a leader, you’ve probably made a wish list of how to reconfigure your team to strengthen the development program.  Instead of thinking of the vacancy as a way to get production out of a position, see it as an opportunity to hire someone who can help advance your development vision.

2. Assess your current development culture

Now that you’re focused on adding a person to further your vision, make time to assess the health of the team, program, or environment where this position resides.  Regardless of talent, if someone is not put into an environment that fits well, it will be a difficult road.  On a simple scale, consider how well you currently do in these seven areas:

1. Engagement with Constituents
2. Strategic Collaboration with Colleagues
3. Regular Internal Communication
4. Opportunities for Innovative Ideation
5. Industry Education and Awareness
6. Professional Development Opportunities
7. Development Strategic Planning

Own and celebrate your strengths!  Make them attractive to candidates (and current employees).  Consider ways to address two weaker areas of importance.

3. Hire with a plan in mind

You’re focused on hiring a person who can add to the current culture and move you towards your vision and goals.  Do you know what type of leader you are willing to consider?  Prepare for the interview by planning questions that ascertain who this person might be in your development plans.

1. Rookie – experienced but needs time to grow as leader
2. Builder – develops programs from very little
3. Sustainer – can inherit a foundation and keep things moving forward
4. Innovator – visionaries ready to implement new ideas

These styles are not mutually exclusive, and there’s no wrong answer!  Keep in mind the best match for your needs to avoid development program regression. EAB’s hiring toolkit can help with uncovering competency-based skills that you need in a candidate.

Hiring development leaders is part of building and maintaining a successful program.  Regardless of whom you hire, EAB provides Advancement Marketing Services solutions through multichannel campaigns that support your fundraising goals and free your staff to focus on your highest priorities.