#145 | Does the traditional headhunter approach fuel the rapid turnover among fundraising professionals?

A couple of weeks ago Ryan reached out to me to share that he had read The War for Fundraising Talent and that he was completing his graduate studies with particular interest in addressing employee retention issues in fundraising. I welcomed his invitation to discuss some of the ideas and opinions that I have further developed since publishing the book two years ago.

My conversation with Ryan begs the question of whether our turnover challenges are less about talent and more a problem of how a nonprofit identifies, supervises, and retains its employees. I have long been of the opinion that the traditional executive search approach exaggerates both the value of a new hire and what the fundraiser can accomplish in the first two years which inevitably fuels the problem that headhunters are supposedly out to solve. 

Instead of hiring search firms, I believe solutions like those Ryan and I discussed, those that follow a professional development and organizational design path, are more likely to reduce turnover and have a greater likelihood of creating successful employment relationships. 

As always, we are very grateful to OneCause for being our sponsor. If you'd like to be a guest on The Fundraising Talent Podcast, please feel free to email jason@responsivefundraising.com with your big idea or bold opinion about the fundraising profession.