The Key to Hiring Fantastic Fundraisers?… Treat Them like Major Donors! (Part 3)
Part 3: Leaning on cultivation skills throughout the interview process
Ever had a top candidate unexpectedly drop out before you could even make an offer?
Here is a sobering fact: The best talent often gets snapped up quickly, usually within ten days (Zippia).
So how do you beat the clock and inspire your ideal hire to want to work for you?
It’s a lot like cultivating a major gift. Think like a fundraiser and treat them like you would a donor. Honor the relationship you are building with them throughout the interview process by keeping in regular and prompt contact and sharing inspiring information.
This is where your great work crafting a strong recruitment strategy and developing a fantastic job prospect pool start to pay off to help you secure the ideal hire.
Show your top candidates that they should make their next career investment with you by:
Leaving a great impression
Be warm, friendly and welcoming in your communications with them. Remember, they are assessing you as a potential boss as much as you are assessing them.
In written communications, screen for typos so you don’t accidently undermine your credibility.
Interviews are nerve-wracking. Try to put your candidates at ease.
First impressions matter. Project professionalism and warmth: Dress well, offer a firm handshake, make eye contact, and smile. These non-verbal cues make a big difference. Non-verbal communication accounts for approximately 55% of communication during an interview (University of Texas).
Offer them coffee, tea or water. If there are multiple interviews planned in a day with a candidate, provide them with snacks and/or lunch.
Show them where the restrooms are located and build in bio breaks and moments to mentally rest and regroup into their interview schedule.
At the start of an interview tell them how much time you have with them, how many questions you have for them and that you’ll leave time for them to ask questions as well. Alternatively, if you don’t have a set list of questions to interview them with, make it more conversational and they can more easily interject or ask questions along the way.
Each interviewer should try to sell your organization. Along with the basic introduction of each person’s name, title, and how long they have worked there, share a sentence or two about why they love working here or what makes this place special.
Setting candidates up for success
Before the interview, provide candidates with key documents: the job description, campaign case statement, org chart, strategic plan, annual reports, etc. This allows them to come prepared with thoughtful questions and demonstrates your commitment to transparency.
Tell them exactly who they are interviewing with and provide them a schedule, if there are multiple interviews in the day. Send them the names and job titles with links to their organization profile online or their LinkedIn profile.
If it’s not straightforward, give them a map of where they should park, the path to walk to the building and where all interviews will take place. Arrange for a special reserved parking place for them near the entrance to the building, if possible. Meet them at the front of the building or in the front lobby. Give them the cell phone number of someone they can contact if something comes up on the day of.
Once you provide the tools and resources to them you can assess during the interview what they do with this information, which will be very telling. You can see very quickly if they:
Even bothered to read the documents you sent; OR
Dove into this info and formed opinions, insights or questions about your organization.
Keeping them warm through great communication and follow up with them
Fun fact: Constant communication from a hiring manager leads 89% of candidates to accept job offers more promptly (Zippia).
Always be clear about the timeline and next steps with a candidate.
If you have a slowdown or road bump along the way in the hiring process, let them know right away. It shows you are transparent and a person of your word — someone you’d want to work for who really cares about the candidate as a person.
Respecting their time and acting with urgency
Move quickly before the best candidates get hired by other organizations before you can make them an offer.
My #1 pro tip to move quickly and painlessly through the interviewing process: Have holds on all interviewers’ calendars for the weeks you want to conduct Zoom and in-person interviews so you can offer up and lock in times for candidates you like after initial conversations with them.
Know all the requirements of HR around interviewing and hiring candidates so you don’t get unexpectedly stuck at a step in the process:
What stakeholders need to interview the candidate? Check with the President/VP/AVP/Dean/Board Chairs or others to make sure you know if they want to interview this person or not before you start the process so you can line up those opportunities?
How do reference and background checks work?
Who needs to sign off on salary offerings?
What paperwork (i.e. candidate materials, notes from interviewers) needs to be in hand to turn in before a verbal offer can be made?
Asking impactful interview questions
Just like you do as a fundraiser, ask great interview questions to gain the insights you need about the candidate.
Here are some sample questions that have served me well when hiring fundraisers:
Tell me about yourself and why you applied for this position.
What do you enjoy about fundraising, and or development work?
What about [this organization] are you passionate about?
What do you think are the necessary characteristics of a successful [title of the position]?
How might your former coworkers or bosses describe you?
What are the best (or some of your favorite) questions to ask a donor or prospective donor during a meeting?
Can you describe a time when you moved a donor up the pyramid? What strategies did you use?
Can you describe your greatest success you are most proud of as a fundraiser and why? What impact did it have on lives?
Can you please share the story of the largest individual ask you have made and/or secured?
What similarities and differences do you think there are in major and leadership annual gift fundraising at [this organization] compared to other organizations you have fundraised for in the past?
Please discuss your expertise in Planned Giving vehicles and any planned gifts you have secured.
What do you see as the top challenges for fundraising facing this organization in the current climate and how would you overcome those?
Everyone has had experiences that we would like to have gone differently. Describe a significant opportunity you missed or a situation you could have handled more effectively. What did you learn from that experience? What would you have done differently?
Who do you see as campus partners in the fundraising and how would you work with them? How do you build a culture of philanthropy across campus?
Our organization has a diverse community. Please share your experience in working with, or in, a diverse community that might include people from a range of backgrounds including different countries or origins, different native languages and/or different socio-economic backgrounds?
We all have fundraising goals. Certainly meeting or exceeding an individual fundraising goal is one measure of success. Tell us what sort of goals are a motivating factor for you? What other ways do you measure success for yourself?
Can you describe a time when you missed your fundraising goal? What did the experience teach you?
Can you please describe the characteristics of your ideal manager and team?
For management positions:
Can you please tell me what experience you have supervising other professionals and/or volunteers? How would you describe your management or leadership style?
How do you go about developing the people you manage?
What are some strategies you use to keep your team motivated?
If a member of your team under-performs in a quarter, how might you handle the situation?
How do you make sure that your employees are accountable?
How do you approach goal setting with your team?
How do you balance managing the fundraising work and the staff with the need to be out, meeting and asking?
Do you have any questions you would like to ask me or is there anything that you wished I would have asked that you would like me to know?
Remember, just as you invest time and resources in building relationships with donors, you must also invest in cultivating relationships with potential hires. By applying the principles of donor cultivation to your interview and hiring process, you can align your top candidate for a successful job offer.
Congratulations! The interviews have wrapped, you’ve gotten great feedback from your interview team and you’re ready to make an offer to your ideal hire.
Next time: “Part 4: Making the ask, negotiating and closing the deal” (stay tuned — blog post to come soon)
P.S.: If this process seems too daunting or time consuming for you, contact me to see if it would be a good fit to hire me as a recruiter for your position. Saint Martin’s University recently hired me to serve as executive recruiter for their AVP of Development. In two short months, using the methods I outlined in this blog post series, we secured a phenomenal fundraising leader who adds so much value to their team and community.
Get in touch with me!
Jen Stirling
Principal Consultant, Brighter Philanthropy —
Fundraising consulting for higher ed and K-12
As your partner, I’ll bring my considerable expertise, high-energy efficiency, optimistic realism, relational approach, and fresh perspective to guide your team and help your institution reach its goals, enabling more students to thrive. I offer support for campaign services, development organization assessments, staff coaching and board development.
