Wearing the Development and Marketing Hats at the Same Time: A Bad Fit and a Headache
By Tony Poderis |
 Often in nonprofit organizations, the marketing/communications/public relations (M/C/PR) department and the fundraising/development department are at odds with each other. Members of each department have different priorities and at times, even have adversarial relationships. Development staffers tend to adopt a "siege" mentality. Too often, they self-isolate and choose not to be involved in any activities unrelated to fundraising. On the other hand, M/C/PR staffers look upon the needs of development as unreasonable demands on their stretched time and resources.
The fundraising development process, which is designed to convince prospective donors to contribute to a nonprofit organization, is vastly different than the M/C/PR department’s process for the "delivery" of food, therapy, medicine, education, cultural events, etc. to their constituencies. Development sees fundraising as a way to make opportunities available to donors so they can support the community and their personal concerns through charitable gifts. M/C/PR advertises, promotes, and publicizes its programs and services to its users and the general community but always with an eye for carrying out the mission. Thus, it is easy to consider the development department's donor-centered focus as a conflict with M/C/PR's organization-centered mentality.
The best relationships between M/C/PR and development departments are characterized by a bit of tension — a bit of push and pull — for the good of the organization. However the above mentioned roadblocks to mutual understanding, when carried to extremes, can cause considerable damage to a nonprofit organization.
Roadblocks can be removed when the marketing director and the development director regularly coordinate with each other and recognize, encourage, and support their mutual needs, efforts, achievements, and successes. Staff meetings, press releases, annual reports, and annual meetings offer such opportunities. It's not always easy to have M/C/PR and development members working together as a team for the good of the organization, but it's critically important that they do so, for the very life of the organization is at stake. The M/C/PR and development directors can begin simply by talking to each other — and by doing it often.
All by Myself, Alone
When one person represents both departments, what would that person say about wearing both hats and trying to make them both fit? Nonprofit leaders and staffers need to understand how difficult it is for a single person to be as effective as a fundraising development professional when attempting to blend those skills with other very different skills, such as those used for marketing, public relations, and communications.
The common practice of wearing two hats must be thought about with great care and avoided as much as possible. Yes, it's done — and it’s done many times, because many organizations' budgets cannot, or will not, accommodate those two distinct professional posts with two separate professionals. But more often than not, the mix of these two professions in one person just does not work, and when it does, it generally does not work well. Why?
Different Expectations
Formidable expectations are thrust upon both development and M/C/PR professionals. However, the extraordinary difference in expectations between the two is illustrated by the fact that the director of development is the only staff member who is graded and evaluated in terms of the amount of money raised by the end of the fiscal year. At that time, everything and everyone point to that very public number — the fundraising goal. Was it met — or not? Success or failure is measured incrementally by how far above or below goal a fundraising campaign finishes. This "bottom-line" mentality exists nowhere else in a nonprofit organization.
In addition, M/C/PR professionals look for immediate results (getting people to attend an event or take advantage of a service), whereas a development professional would consider immediate results as a bonus but knows that fundraising takes time and patience.
Different Temperaments
While both development and M/C/PR professionals must be excellent managers and rely on building good and lasting relationships, M/C/PR professionals are the talented idea generators who are great at creating a favorable "climate" for an organization's name recognition and at raising awareness of its benefit to the community. Where those competent professionals might stumble is in the day-to-day care and managing of a fundraising campaign: the slogging process of building a network of volunteer solicitors, training them, and so on. The temperaments of M/C/PR professionals and development professionals are different enough that it is almost impossible that someone could star in both disciplines.
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You Can't Get 200% Effort from One Person
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 Even at best, the person doing both jobs will find that it is next to impossible to know where the threshold is. For example, they may ask themselves, "Just how far do I go with press releases, open houses, brochures, and other media before I commence a fundraising program that directly asks for contributions?" Or the other way around: "How can we ask for money from the community if we are not that well known, have not won a favorable reputation, and if our volunteers, donors, and prospects do not know our case for support for a specific fundraising campaign?” You can see the dilemma. It's the classic "apples to oranges" situation. Personal, professional, and organizational risks are taken when one staff professional has these dual responsibilities. More often than not, the staff professionals hired to do both jobs have experience and a comfort level with M/C/PR, and they will surely expend their best efforts in that direction, oftentimes to the detriment of fundraising. On the other hand, if they do have familiarity with fundraising, this might cause those necessary M/C/PR initiatives to fall much too far behind or be ignored.
Everyone would agree that fundraising is a 100% effort. They would agree that managing a full marketing/communications/PR program requires a 100% effort. Do the math. Since you cannot get 200% from one individual, you will need to settle for, at best, 50% and 50%, respectively. Chances are, though, the ratio will be uneven. In any event, it works out that both endeavors will be compromised and usually results in bringing considerable personal trials and anguish to the individual wearing those two hats.
The Board Must Provide the Best Staff to Do Both Jobs
Organizations would be far better off if leaders would recognize the unfair and unreasonable demands they are placing on the one individual who is responsible for both M/C/PR and development. To employ a one-for-two fix for marketing and development needs is penny wise and pound foolish. Cash-strapped they may be to pay for both professionals' salaries, but they must accelerate their fundraising activity and make provision in the operating budget for two professionals performing their respective duties 100% of the time. You cannot get 200% from anyone.
Tony Poderis is a development professional, consultant, author, and speaker. He served as the Development Director for The Cleveland Orchestra from 1972-1992. You can view his Web site here. |
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