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What if what ails contemporary fundraising has less to with those who are in the fundraising seat and more do with the leadership style of those we’ve given the privilege of being the boss? Many of our recent conversations have shed light on how we are raising the expectations we have of our leaders. Today’s conversation with Kim Jennings suggests that some believe we could reduce the turnover and improve performance by expecting that the boss embrace a new approach to leadership. Kim wants to see fundraising leaders become much less authoritarian and metric-driven and, instead, see our work more holistically and reliant on coaching skills. 

Kim has observed that many of our bosses are great at giving directions - they know how to assign metrics and tell us whom to ask and for how much. But once the directions are given, these bosses don’t have much more to offer. Kim points out that the same can be true for their approach to professional development - they are more than happy to tell us which conferences to attend and what books to read; but they aren’t equipped to coach on the sidelines, giving meaningful encouragement and support in real-time. 

Kim also pointed out that many of today’s supervisors are very talented fundraisers who, themselves, never had the benefit of bosses who really mastered the supervisory role. This reality is well-hidden behind our obsessive search for the “one best way” of fundraising and our constant accumulation of donors which inevitably leaves us exhausted and without the necessary margin for developing good leadership skills. 

As always, we are especially grateful to our friends at CueBack for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast. If you’d like to learn more about hosting the Responsive Fundraising roadshow in your local community, email me for more information. And, if you’d like to download Responsive’s latest edition of Carefully & Critically, just click here.