Career Focus: Interest rising in raising funds for nonprofit organizations

From Los Angeles Times – Monday, August 5, 2002

Ten years ago, Edith Glassey began working as a volunteer fund-raiser for her daughter's school in San Diego.

The stay-at-home mom was so good at generating donations that the school's development director urged her to consider fund-raising as a full-time profession.

So, Glassey earned a certificate in fund-raising from UC Irvine Extension in 1993 and has been working in fund-raising since. For the past few years, she has served as development director for Mama's Kitchen, an organization that provides home-delivered meals for people with HIV and AIDS throughout San Diego County.

"If you truly care and believe in following through and giving good customer service, then you're right for this job," she said. "There are many folds out there who may be thinking of transitioning into another career, and I highly recommend this career."

More and more people seem to agree with Glassey. Not only are increasing numbers of job seekers attracted to the field of nonprofit fund-raising, but nonprofits are actively seeking new employees for a variety of reasons.

More nonprofits
One factor fueling the demand is the substantial increase in nonprofit organizations, said Michael Nilsen, public affairs director with the Alexandria, Va.-based Assn. of Fund-Raising Professionals (AFP). In 1986, the Internal Revenue Service reported about 325,000 charities operating in the United States. Today, the number has more than doubled. Thus, many more positions are available.

At the same time, greater competition exists for charitable dollars, Nilsen said. While charitable giving has surged dramatically (reaching $212 billion last year), it hasn't kept pace with the growth in the number of nonprofit organizations. Hence, there is an increased need for well-trained fund-raising employees, also known as development professionals, who can capture available dollars.

Another reason for growth is that the field is now a recognizable profession. About 20 years ago, it started to be recognized that one needed training and a body of knowledge to be a successful fund-raiser, Nilsen said.

Alongside the growth in demand for fund-raising has come a surge in interest in the field among midlifers who have worked many years in other industries, according to Kirwan Rockefeller, director of the arts, humanities and fund-raising for UC Irvine Extension.

"I get phone calls from people post-9/11 who say, 'I'm reevaluating my life and my career. I really want to give back and make a difference,'" said Rockefeller, whose institution has offered a certificate in Fund-Raising for 14 years. "And for them, fund-raising for nonprofits is a way to do that. I don't think this is just post-9/11, but I think that accelerated things."

Most students in the UC Irvine Extension program finish in about 18 months, he said. They start with four core courses: "Fundamentals of Fund-raising," "Funding your Annual Operating Budget," Nonprofit Board and Volunteer Development" and "Securing Major Gifts." Students move on to electives in such areas as grant writing, strategic planning and marketing.

While many students in the program already work for nonprofits and seek skill enhancement, others are making midlife career changes, Rockefeller said. They come from fields as diverse as education, medicine, banking and technology.

Cal State has new program
Recently joining the UC Irvine Extension in offering a certificate in the discipline is Cal State Northridge Extension. The school unveiled its Certificate of Advanced Professional Development in Fund-raising and Institutional Advancement last year, responding to appeals from nonprofits plagued with shortages of trained professionals.

Students in the Cal State Northridge Extension program range from those with some college to others with graduate degrees. Most students complete the certificate in about 1½ years, attending night and Saturday classes, according to Carla Bryant, program development director for the College of Extended Learning, which offers the certificate.

Students start with a core course called "The Art of Fund-raising," and progress to 10 other courses, including "Fund-raising Ethics" and "Donor Prospect Research."

About a quarter of the students in the Cal State Northridge Extension program are professional fund-raisers looking to deepen their professional knowledge, Bryant said. Another quarter are students seeking to move into the development arena. The remaining 50% already are employed by nonprofits, but not in fund-raising.

"They're in management [or] marketing and some work in education and training," Bryant said. "They want to broaden their career choices."

As the numerous course options in certificate programs suggest, students can go on to work in a broad array of capacities within the field, Nilsen said.

For example, they may work in corporate relations, forging ties with corporations interested in making charitable gifts, or enter grant writing, which involves writing in specific formats that grantors demand. Another option is prospect research, which involves acquiring mailing lists and searching databases for potential donors. Or, the job may focus on annual giving, where the responsibilities include soliciting donations, handling correspondence and coordinating projects to ensure meeting annual funding goals.

Chief among the attributes needed to succeed in nonprofit fund-raising is a belief in and passion for the cause, said James Dean, vice-president for university advancement at Burbank's Woodbury University, and an instructor in both the Cal State Northridge and UCLA extension programs in nonprofit fund-raising.

Must believe in the cause
"You have to believe in what they're doing in order to communicate with donors," Dean said. "[It's also] essential…to have patient persistence [and] the ability to view the world optimistically, and energetically–to see that glass as not half full but full."

Dean also believes that successful fund-raisers demonstrate the ability to "think strategically and perform tactically." They keep their eye on long-term goals, but take steps today to help achieve those goals, he said.

Because many responsibilities of development professionals involve research and database management, those familiar with Internet research and databases, such as former librarians and displaced dot.commers, tend to transition easily into the profession, Bryant said.

In fact, business talents honed elsewhere, including consulting, communications, marketing and promotion skills, all tend to transfer well, according to Vickie Curtin, director of the Women's Opportunities Center at UC Irvine Extension. Many would-be fund-raising "have this false idea that it's really different from private industry, and what they don't realize is that most nonprofits are not [different]," she said. "The expertise many of the skills they've utilized in the private sector or in education are directly transferable."

Once in the field, membership in professional organizations can enhance one's career, said Yulanda Davis-Quarrie, president of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of AFP.

Continuing education
"One of our main thrusts in the chapters of AFP is to provide continuing education through a variety of ways," said Davis-Quarrie, chief executive of West Covina's Citrus Valley Health Foundation, the fund-raising arm of a nonprofit health care system. Continuing education takes the form of developing seminars, educational conferences and forums and monthly luncheons focused on topics of interest to those in the field, she said.

The bottom line? Those who like volunteering will probably like development. Said Bryant: If someone has worked with a Boy Scouts group or the PTA or a community organization and found that to be rewarding, that's going to be a very good indication as to whether they'd like to continue with the same sort of work as a career."