What Makes a Manager Worth Following?

What does it take to be a manager people truly want to work for and follow?

What qualities inspire staff to excel, stay motivated, and find joy in their work?

The truth is, if we want to reimagine the non-profit workplace and reduce the high turnover rates we’re seeing in fundraising, we must start by elevating the role of managers.

A great manager doesn’t just oversee tasks. They create an environment where people thrive, where fundraisers feel supported, and where donors experience deeper, more meaningful relationships with the mission.

Google spent years and millions of dollars researching this very question through a project they called Project Oxygen. Their conclusion? Having a great manager is “essential, like breathing.” From that effort, they identified 11 core traits that define effective management:

• Caring — Great managers genuinely know their team members and care about their success and well-being, inside and outside of work.
• Coaching — They focus on developing people, holding regular 1:1s, and encouraging staff to solve problems rather than always fixing them.
• Communicating — They listen well, share vision clearly, and keep the team informed and motivated.
• Development — They take career growth seriously, acknowledging progress and helping staff map out future opportunities.
• Emotional resilience — They stay calm under pressure and understand how their own mood impacts the team.
• Fair treatment — They recognize good work, ensure equity in workload, and foster diversity and inclusion.
• Fostering innovation — They encourage creativity, empower decision-making, and see mistakes as opportunities to learn.
• Empowering and motivating — They help people feel valued, supported, and successful.
• Results-oriented — They keep performance standards high while helping the team remove obstacles.
• Technical capability — They understand the work, empathize with challenges, and can roll up their sleeves when needed.
• Vision and goal setting — They translate organizational strategy into clear goals, so everyone understands their role in the mission’s success.

That’s a powerful list. And one key lesson I’ve learned over the years is that great managers share a desire to achieve results through other people’s success. They want to develop and grow others, not just hit goals.

In our book, It’s Not JUST About the Donor, Richard Perry and I highlight three essential practices for managers of frontline fundraisers. These are the actions that make you a manager people actually want to work for:

• Communicate with your team. Don’t assume they know what you know. Share information, provide encouragement, and offer accountability so they can do their best work.
• Provide assistance across departments. Use your perspective to help connect the dots, especially in cross-collaborative projects. Your encouragement can make the difference in building strong donor offers and portfolios.
• Have your team’s back. Show them you value and support their work. Without that trust, you risk losing both fundraisers and donors.

When managers embrace these traits and practices, the results are remarkable: teams experience joy in their work, staff remain engaged, donors feel valued, and more needs in the world are met. That’s the true power of great management.