If you are a leader in an organization committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, now is not the time to remain silent. Now is the time to show your colleagues of color that you value them and support them, and that you are committed to playing a leadership role in your organization’s anti-racist work.
After rapidly and successfully adjusting to remote operations, talent managers are now looking ahead to what the advancement team of the future looks like. The following offers insights from talent managers at a variety of organizations for how they are weathering the storm. It offers key considerations for planning, recommendations for best practices, and innovative examples from colleges and universities that respond to our teams’ physical, mental, and emotional needs as we transition to new models. The inspiration of this article was the result of a national advancement talent management leaders convening that was co-facilitated by Yvette Marsh, Executive Director of Talent Management, Louisiana State University Foundation and Angelique Grant, Senior Consultant and Vice President at Aspen Leadership Group.
Nnontraditional candidates often think their experience and skills are obvious, and as a result, fail to adequately explain how their professional experience makes them qualified to raise money. “A lot of people say, ‘I did sales, so I can do this,’ but you have to connect the dots” more explicitly for organizations hiring fundraisers, Michael Vann, Vice President for Search Management says. “They want their own language repeated back to them,” he says. They want to hear about specific responsibilities a would-be fundraiser held in previous jobs and how that will make the candidate successful in building relationships and securing gifts.
“Unwillingness on the part of the fundraising profession to pay attention to transferable skills has not only diminished the pipeline of talent, but also diminished success in objectives for the profession to become more diverse,” says Ron Schiller of Aspen Leadership Group. “We’re missing out on plenty of people with strong skills and relevant passion who could put those skills to work for something that matters deeply to them.”
CASE recognized several ALG staff members, advisors, and associates as outstanding faculty and speakers at conferences in 2019 and 2020. Recognition is awarded to faculty who earn average combined scores of 4.5 and above on a 5-point scale on their evaluations for a conference session. We are in great company alongside dozens of our clients and partners – congrats to all!
The loss of revenue, the increase of unexpected expenses, and for some the decreased value of endowments due to coronavirus have left many nonprofits scrambling to make payroll. Unfortunately, the options to correct the financial challenges may include cutting salaries, furloughing staff, and laying off staff members. Aspen Leadership Group is one of the few search firms in the country offering free career counseling to nonprofit and advancement professionals and we offer 11 tips based on conversations and personal experience to help those affected prepare for their next job search.
The uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic has seemingly brought back an outdated pattern in fundraising that assumes or downplays what women can do, causing fundraisers to hesitate to intentionally engage women stakeholders. We’ve heard from women that they want to be heard, respected, asked for their opinion. When this occurs, they give in many ways.
ALG’s Search Team interacts with hundreds of advancement professionals each week. Today, these interactions are increasingly focused on navigating careers during an uncertain time. While candidates are concerned about their own positions or about an interrupted career trajectory, they also are developing new skills, deepening relationships with donors, and working in ways that they never imagined. Here is what we are hearing from candidates and recommendations we are sharing with them.
If you were working remotely before Covid-19, your transition to remote work was probably much easier than your colleagues who had been working at your organization’s home base. Responsibility for communication pre-Covid-19 generally fell to the remote worker. Now that burden has shifted to managers. If you are managing staff then there are new guidelines for managing up, down, and laterally. Your ability to be successful will revolve around how well you communicate, set clear goals and expectations, advocate for and provide the necessary tools for successfully meeting those goals and expectations, and maintain your organization’s culture and your team’s alignment to its mission.
Your ability to quickly reset your organization’s overall financial situation after COVID-19 will likely depend on attracting significant philanthropy. While all arms of your organization will make difficult sacrifices, your advancement team may be key to protecting your organization’s long-term viability, and you must work closely with leadership to assess, rethink, and reset critical staffing decisions.
