Werth-It Fundraising Blog

A few people have commented recently that I’m very “direct.”  By this, I believe they mean that I don’t sugarcoat my opinions.  I used to work with elderly people –raising money to help them — and I noticed that this directness is a quality that many of them shared.  So maybe I’m just getting older.  Anyway, here are a few things that I’ve been direct about lately — you can guess the questions from my answers.

1) No one can take advantage of you without your permission.  If you are working 60-hour weeks, it is your choice.  I think you need to have a long and frank discussion with other people in your organization, and get some things off your plate so you can go home at night and see your family.  President Lincoln freed the slaves — don’t be a slave.

2) If you have a grantwriter who brings in $2 million a year in grants, and that person is taking a six-month maternity leave, replace her with a temp or a consultant.  Because even if your current staff, overworked as they are, can cover 95% of the grantwriter’s work, that still means you’re endangering at least $100,000 in grants.  Do you really want to risk missing something?  It might cost you $30,000 or so, but it’s worth it rather than risk missing something.  Also, not everyone comes back from maternity leave, so not having someone in place might go on longer than you think.  And your staff doesn’t have extra time in the workweek to cover for someone else: there aren’t enough of you to do it and you don’t have the time and the expertise.

3) The only reason to take on new territory is if you’ve already completely worked your current territory and you have the time.  Otherwise, why add new geography to your duties?  Get someone else to cover it.  I’ll bet you can get your current area to produce more without having to find new territory.  Wanting to make more money through salary for an expanded area isn’t an excuse — you have to do what’s best for the organization, not what’s best for you.

And finally, some personal advice:

4) When a man says, “I am not going to get married” what he means to say is, “I am not going to get married TO YOU.”  Women don’t want to hear what men say.  Don’t have the fantasy that this guy is going to change his mind.  Spend your time looking for someone who meets your needs; you can’t find a new man with a body blocking your doorway.

Is there something you’ve been direct about?  You can post comments on this blog — I would be delighted to read what you have to say.

If you would like some training in fundraising and board development for your nonprofit organization, please contact me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Fund raising, Staffing, Your Best You, Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.