Fundraising becomes chosen path

PATH TO SUCCESS: Michele Berard, executive director of the Butler Hospital Foundation and president of the Rhode Island chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, said “hope is not a strategy.” / COURTESY BUTLER
PATH TO SUCCESS: Michele Berard, executive director of the Butler Hospital Foundation and president of the Rhode Island chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, said “hope is not a strategy.” / COURTESY BUTLER

Nonprofit fundraising, known as development in the trade, has emerged as a distinct profession only in the past few decades. But even in that relatively short period, career fundraisers have brought standards, ethical codes, best practices, certifications and wide-ranging professional-development programs to the profession. Now, aided by groups like the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a growing number of people are seeking a career in fundraising instead of happening into it.
Michele Berard, executive director of the Butler Hospital Foundation, is president of the association’s Rhode Island chapter, which recently held its annual “Fundraising Day” conference in Warwick.
Berard says development has become a lot more sophisticated and methodical than it once was.

PBN: What makes a good fundraiser in 2014?
BERARD: Well, perseverance is No. 1, but also someone who can elicit trust from the volunteers – volunteers being board members or committee members – and possesses a body of knowledge. There is a valuable amount of wisdom and expertise out there that supports professional fundraising these days.

PBN: When you say knowledge, do you mean expertise in fundraising itself or the particular industry and subject area their organization works in?
BERARD: There’s a little bit of industry expertise, such as knowing health care or social services, that helps you. But the body of knowledge is more about the basic tenants of philanthropy. Philanthropy is a bona-fide revenue stream for nonprofit organizations and it can be leveraged and planned for. That is one of the biggest misnomers that people don’t fully appreciate.

PBN: That it’s not something you just wish for and hope it somehow happens?
BERARD: Exactly. I often put my hands together like I am praying and say, “this is not a strategy.” Hope is not a strategy. There are strategies one can implement in their philanthropy program, and that is all based on best practice and all based on knowledge acquired through the classroom or through experiential learning. Here in Rhode Island the largest employer is the nonprofit sector, with some large universities and hospitals. So if all those nonprofits are truly exploiting and taking advantage of the revenue stream, we may be in a different situation. They can be an economic driver. But public speaking and asking for money are the top two fears people have.

PBN: So how do you teach people to be better at asking for money?
BERARD: We have a monthly educational program and the topics are all very different. In May we feature our “meet the funders” program. We bring together funders in Rhode Island and try to have a different group of individuals every year. And they basically give grant writers and fundraisers the boilerplate to align their requests with their funding institutions. We have a lot of other things like the development committee workbook and how to work with your volunteers or with your board for success. It could be working with executive management. It could be how to make “the ask.” That is a scary one. There are almost infinite offerings.

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PBN: How much of fundraising is based around scheduled and advertised opportunities, such as grants, and how much is unsolicited?
BERARD: The scheduled stuff is probably 20 percent. The rest of the time is really aligning a prospect’s interest with the funding needs of your organization. Another tenet of philanthropy is that not all people with money are prospects. They also need to have a connection and interest. Unless you have all three – capacity, connection to organization and interest in mission – that person doesn’t qualify as a prospect. That is what a lot of people don’t fully grasp. They think Warren Buffett and Bill Gates should be supporting their organization. The bulk of our time is thinking about what our organizations really need money for – because the last thing we want to do is create a need – and then aligning those needs with the interests of perspective donors. That is usually done via other volunteers – board members, committee members, auxiliary members.

PBN: Are there any legal or regulatory issues that come into fundraising that people need to learn?
BERARD: There is a Donor Bill of Rights, which includes 10 things donors expect from their nonprofit organizations. It says as an organization you will keep the confidentiality of the donor discrete. You won’t sell their lists. You won’t disclose the audited financial statement should the auditor request it. You will provide the donor with your board list, and so on. They are seemingly common-sense rules, but the magic is it is approved by virtually every professional organization. But a lot of donors don’t know it exists. So what I do when I bring on new board members to the Butler Foundation, I show them this document. It basically says to the donor “we have your back and we will reciprocate and respect that relationship.”

PBN: The Association of Professional Fundraisers doesn’t represent political fundraisers right?
BERARD: Correct. Some of the tenets are the same but maybe a little more aggressive than we are in nonprofit. I know a bunch of professional political fundraisers who have turned nonprofit and vice versa.

PBN: When did fundraising emerge as a distinct profession?
BERARD: Probably over the last 10 to 20 years. There has been a huge ramp up. When I got into nonprofit fundraising, I didn’t go to school for it. My degree was in marketing and I have an MBA. But now there are actually majors and master’s degrees specializing in philanthropy, development and nonprofit management. Nowadays people are choosing this as a career, but historically most came from another background. They might have come from sales or worked for a social service organization or nonprofit and moved over into that realm. I happened to be an administrative professional and responded to an ad for Audubon’s capital campaign. I got in from an administrative assistant and worked my way up.

PBN: Has philanthropy come back from the recession?
BERARD: It has. Guidestar and Giving USA are reporting that giving is on the rise. We have surpassed where we were when the recession took hold. One thing is Rhode Island’s economy in general has not rebounded like our neighbors in Massachusetts and Connecticut. So while giving has improved, and it has improved in Rhode Island, there is still a long way for us to go. •

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