We at Veritus are working with several clients right now, which has given me the opportunity to talk to many non-profit leaders over the last month.  It seems they are all in the same boat as far as trying to find quality major gift officers.
But it’s been a struggle.
I think I have some ideas why, but I also want share some thoughts with you on how I believe you can land a good one.  Because ultimately, if you are really going to grow your major gift program, you will need solid, high quality major gift officers to deepen relationships with donors.
There is no other way around it.
So, why is it so hard to find good major gift talent?

1. It’s a hard job — Being a major gift officer is it not easy.  That lowers the pool of potential good, qualified candidates.  Notice I didn’t say “pool of candidates,” I said “good, qualified” candidates.  You do not have the time or the energy to bring on board unqualified MGOs. The harder the position, the harder it is to fill.
2. The skills needed are multi-leveled — Good MGOs have tremendous people skills, along with the ability to be disciplined and detail-oriented.  That is a difficult combination to find.
3. The position is a combination of sales and mission — A good MGO has to be able to know how to “sell” the programs and projects of the organization to the donor AND be able to embody the mission of the non-profit. I’ve known many MGOs who were good at one thing and not the other.  That didn’t work so well.
4. Overall lack of MGO training in our industry — Our industry has just not provided the opportunities for major gift officers to get solid training.  If you look at the for-profit world, there are all kinds of sales training programs to choose from.  But in the non-profit industry, training for major gift officers is sparse.
5. Hiring Managers are not working hard enough to find talent — The time to find talent is NOT when you need it.  At that point you are somewhat desperate.  Managers are usually so busy they don’t put in the time that is necessary to do a good job scouting for talent.  This leads to hiring inadequate MGOs.

All right, those are some thoughts on why it’s hard to find a good MGO, but that doesn’t mean they are not out there.  However, it will take work and you will need to be pro-active in finding them.  Here are some suggestions:

1. Look at universities and health care institutions — These institutions have traditionally done a good job of training and bringing up major gift officers.  I’m not saying they are great at it, just better than the rest of the industry.  At these institutions I find a few solid, veteran senior major gift officers and many young, hungry, new major gift officers.  After a couple of years these young major gift officers realize that they run into a ton of bureaucracy at these institutions and the only way to grow is to step outside of this particular non-profit sector.  This is a great place to look for your next MGO.
2. Build your networks — The time to develop a good pool of potential candidates is when you are not in need.  Don’t wait until you need a major gift officer to start looking.  If you are a good manager, you should be out there right now building your networks with colleagues in our industry.  The best MGOs are the ones that have been referred by a trusted friend or colleague who is NOT looking for a job.
   If they are looking for a job, there may be a performance issue there.  There are so many ways to connect today:  professional groups, social media like LinkedIn (do you realize how many LinkedIn Groups there are that relate to major gifts?  Tons!), and local networking opportunities.  Start these connections now.  Building a solid major gift program requires long-term thinking and planning.  This is part of that planning.
3. Look outside our industry — Some of the best MGOs that our team works with at Veritus are folks who were great salespeople and wanted to do something more meaningful than sell widgets for a living.  This is where expanding your thinking about which networks to belong to can help.  Get to know good marketing and sales people in for-profit communities who may lead you to someone that is looking to make a change.

These are some solid ideas for you as you continue to build your major gift program and begin to look for great talent.  Richard and I would love to hear from you if you have more ideas to share with the Passionate Giving community.
Jeff
Note:  If YOU are looking to make a change and are in search of good opportunities, please write us here.  Tell us what you are looking to do and perhaps we can recommend an organization that is looking for quality talent.