Despite its longstanding popularity in the private sector, the concept of talent management is a relatively new trend in the field of development. At its core, talent management is an organization's commitment to recruit, hire, retain, and develop the most talented and superior employees available in the market. And it has become critically important in development as it directly affects our ability to serve our donors. If you’ve opened a CASE Currents lately or been to a conference, then you already know that talent management may very well be one of the fastest growing needs and trends in the industry.
And it’s no surprise why. Our field is notorious for high staff turnover, high rates of burnout, and a rapidly retiring workforce with no pipeline in sight. Not only does this place an enormous administrative burden on the leadership and hiring managers who are constantly working to fill vacancies and hire and train new staff members, but it also disrupts the true purpose of our work – to delight and engage our donors.
Through her research, Penelope Burk found that many donors delay their gift (7%), reduce the amount of their gift (12%), or stopped giving all together (4%) when there is gift officer turnover. While we don’t have similar data for other development professionals, if you’ve done this work for any amount of time you know that the departure of critical support staff not only leaves the office in a lurch, but often leaves our donors feeling the effects.
Through her research, Penelope Burk found that many donors delay their gift (7%), reduce the amount of their gift (12%), or stopped giving all together (4%) when there is gift officer turnover. While we don’t have similar data for other development professionals, if you’ve done this work for any amount of time you know that the departure of critical support staff not only leaves the office in a lurch, but often leaves our donors feeling the effects.
And this gap in or loss of donor engagement isn’t the only cost associated with poor talent management. While many frustrated employees do leave their institutions, others simply work less productively and/or bring others down with them when they experience poor management, unfair expectations and evaluations, low team morale, and weak organizational culture. That means spending time hiring smart, keeping your top talent around, and growing them into the future of your organization truly isn’t just the nice thing to do for your employees – it’s also the smart, dollar-driven and donor-focused thing to do for your organization.
So it is with great pleasure that we announce that Donor Relations Guru Group now has our very own Talent Management specialist, Kathleen Casanova. You can learn more about Kathleen’s background and philosophy here.
As a contributor to our Group, Kathleen will be working with and sharing ideas for talent management programs for organizations and will also be sharing content and providing services around professional development and growth for individuals who want to grow in our field. So keep your eyes peeled for some exciting new offerings this summer and into the fall!
To celebrate Kathleen joining us, we will be hosting our very first job description swap!
As you know, my website is chock full of free resources for you, and I often host swaps to collect samples of acknowledgments, solicitations, and stewardship reports. One of the most common requests I get is for job descriptions. We would love to be able to facilitate the sharing of these. Please submit your own job descriptions and the job descriptions of others on your team to share with the thousands of people that read this blog weekly. Simply fill out this form or email them to ashley@donorrelationsguru.com.
This swap is not limited to donor relations - any and all fundraising positions are welcome! We want to create the largest collection of fundraising job descriptions on the web, but we need your help! In the past, we’ve collected over 1,000 documents to share with others - you can't send too many. The deadline is June 30, 2018, but if you have yours already, please send them my way today! Also, please redact any and all identifying information.
Ten lucky random submissions will receive a free webinar for you and your fundraising team to watch at any time!
I look forward to reading your best work and sharing it with thousands of others- now go ahead and copy and paste off of your shared drive! Thank YOU in advance!
Are you excited about learning more about talent management? Please be sure to share your thoughts and let us know in the comments below what you want to learn more about and see as we build this out. And be sure to connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn where you can see what she’s thinking, reading, and what she’s waxing poetic about in talent management.
Cheers,
Lynne
Do you want my formal job description? Or the list of things I actually do? haha They are not the same!
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