by Betsy Steward

As a fundraising consultant, I see a wide variety of development offices. Some are one-person departments, some have a handful of dedicated fundraising staff, and still others have a dozen or more full-time active fundraising team members. Development offices come in all sizes!

No matter the size of your development office, the essentials remain the same. Ignore them at your peril! Below is a list of fundraising fundamentals that will help you determine how effective your development office is, and how you could make some improvements to grow support for your mission. 

How would your organization do? Would you pass a development audit?

I hope you will conclude that your development office would pass. But if not, don’t despair. Every nonprofit needs to recognize where they are, and work to grow from there. If you are feeling panicked that some elements listed below are missing at your shop, now’s a good time to change that! There are so many resources available just by googling, and of course you can always email me if you have questions or want to discuss how I might help you move your development office forward. Good luck!

Betsy Steward is an independent fundraising consultant. She advises clients on major donor cultivation, solicitation and stewardship, as well as fundraising best practices, back-office organization, board presentations and writing to donors (appeal letters, emails, proposal letters, thank-you notes, etc.). She can be reached at BetsyVSteward@gmail.com.

This article was originally posted on Heller Fundraising Group’g blog here: https://hellerfundraisinggroup.com/blog/what-a-nonprofit-development-staffer-does-and-why-its-smart-to-hire-one