"Interim Leadership: Helping Address Today's Fundraising Challenges"
John W. Corwin
We all know, from both our own lives and our direct experience of working with not-for-profit organizations, that the challenges of today are greater than they have been in decades. Much has been written about the programmatic and budgetary cutbacks that organizations have made in order to survive. While those actions may be necessary, their effectiveness will depend—now more than ever—on smart decisions by strong leadership. And, as with our country, the need to cut back does not override the need for strategic, targeted investment.
One of our greatest leadership challenges is turnover. The departure rate among chief executives is well documented, and our sector has embraced as a best practice the deployment of interim executive leaders to ensure stability and support continuity of confidence among all stakeholders. But the success of an organization depends on having a solid leadership team, which includes among others the chief financial officer and the chief development officer.
More recently, organizations have begun to see the risks of a leadership gap when any of these positions is left unfilled. Relationships with donors and other key supporters must be preserved. Staff morale can plummet, leading to unwanted, and costly, turnover. And of course, sound fiscal management is vital to maintaining stability, accountability, and credibility. There is more focus now than ever before on how well not-for-profits are run. More specifically, the capacity for revenue generation obviously depends on solid well-functioning development activities.
That’s why, despite rising unemployment and economic layoffs, organizations continue to need and seek development leadership and staff who are critical to raising the vital funds needed for survival and indeed growth.
We all know that it can take many months to complete a search for a chief development officer. As with interim executive leadership, organizations are increasingly seeing the cost-effectiveness of engaging interim development leadership. Retrenchment alone will not lead to renewed strength for our sector any more than it will lift our country out of its current recession. Investment in leadership and revenue generation can be both prudent and necessary.
Experienced development professionals can do more than ensure continuity of fundraising efforts already in place. Bringing a fresh eye, a wealth of diverse experience and variety of viewpoints, and the objectivity of a short-term change agent who is not a candidate, an interim chief development officer can strategically assess what is working and what is not. Such an individual can help determine and carry out the structural or other changes needed to strengthen the development department, enabling the organization to attract the best possible candidate to lead its fundraising efforts into a successful future.
It can be very exciting to see an organization rise to the challenge of what can be a truly traumatic period and come away from the transition process with greater strength, resources and energy, and greater clarity and focus. It can be exciting to see an organization become more intentional and skillful in its decision-making. Experienced temporary leadership can help guide the way.
John W. Corwin, interim chief executive for nonprofits, is founder of Corwin Consulting, LLC.
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