Time was, fund raising consultants came in and raised money for organizations seeking funds, primarily for bricks and mortar. While this is often still the case, there has been a significant change in the fundraising consulting field in recent years.

Nonprofits are becoming aware that fund raising can provide valuable financial resources, initially to increase financial flexibility of the organization. More and more of them are asking fundraisers to provide essentials rather than the ‘optional extras’ that can make a significant difference to the quality of the institution. Reductions in the levels of government funding of nonprofits have intensified trends already underway. And the fundraising profession is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Foundations created primarily to raise funds are proliferating, and the number of people involved in fundraising is growing at an explosive rate. Canadians are giving more; better-trained fundraisers are asking for more and treating their work as a life-long career; and the field is becoming highly specialized. Very few organizations have all of the skills and experience that they need. Meanwhile the grant-makers are largely in a reactive mode, overwhelmed both by the huge increase in the number of demands for funds they are receiving, and the amount involved.

The many hats of a fundraising consultant

This has generated rapid change in the consultant’s role, which is evolving from the management of campaigns to helping organizations develop and enhance their fundraising culture. Nonprofits now are involved in fundraising less by choice, as in the past, than by economic necessity. In fact, given a choice, many (perhaps most) nonprofits would prefer not to become engaged in the process.

Thanks to the rising numbers of in-house fundraising staff and their growing professional expertise, the use of consultants to conduct campaigns is declining. They’re now being asked to:

• Help increase the skill levels of the organization’s staff and volunteer fundraisers.
• Become involved in short-term efforts to increase the income generated by fundraising programs.
• Develop long-term income-generating strategies.
• Provide advice on how to strengthen the development function within organizations, often through the use of audits.
• Undertake internal and/or external audits to determine if an organization and its constituency are ready for a campaign, or where to invest resources in fundraising most effectively.
• Produce plans to help nonprofits establish comprehensive, long-range fundraising programs.

 

The specific assignment you give a consultant will to a large extent determine the role they play vis-¸-vis your staff and your organization. Be clear about where you want help and what kind of help you want, and be sure the consultant has both the experience and the qualifications you need. Remember: the best way to verify consultant claims is to check with a number of past clients ª not just the references provided.

Your consultant’s possible roles

A study carried out by Kathleen Fletcher identified a number of roles that consultants find themselves regularly called upon to play. They include advocate, teacher/trainer, fact finder/detective, resource finder, identifier of alternatives, information specialist, and of course expert. In addition, consultants often find themselves acting as facilitator/process counselors, monitors, barbarians, talismen, sacrificial lambs, joint problem solvers, and objective observers.

But what works best for everyone involved? According to Fletcher, consultant intervention is often deemed successful if at least one of the following criteria was met:

• The fundraising skill level of the organization’s staff and volunteers was raised.
• The organization adopted a successful income generating strategy.
• The fundraising function was strengthened.
• The consultant produced a plan, followed by the organization, that resulted in an effective long-term fundraising strategy.

 

Inaccurately assessing the client’s situation

In her study of 20 organizations that had used consultants, Fletcher also looked at unsuccessful consultations, defined as such if they produced plans the organization did not implement, or if they failed to produce a long-term strategy. The unsuccessful consultants tended to be more likely to have fulfilled their fact finder role badly by inaccurately assessing the client’s situation, often in order to fit their own prescribed methodology. In fact, only one-half of the unsuccessful consultants produced a realistic assessment of the client’s fundraising capacity, and they were likely to have used their assessment to impose their own methodology on the organization.

The unsuccessful consultants often played an advocate role that brought the client organization in line with the consultant’s own fundraising models, rather than creating models appropriate for the organization. They failed to help the client develop ‘ownership’ of the plan or responsibility for its implementation, and often inaccurately assessed the board’s readiness to become involved in the type of solicitation being proposed. Without adequate organizational Âdevelopment’ their proposals foundered on a resistance to change.

Other failures occurred, said Fletcher, when the consultant misread the organization’s stage of management and governance development. Thanks to a lack of readiness to use the assistance, entrenched executive directors, and a history of board non-involvement in fundraising, their recommendations were ultimately rejected by both staff and board members.

Mismatched with the client

Consultants who failed to make the transition from content specialist to process consultant ran into trouble, as did those who created their plans in isolation without frequent interchange with the client. Still others were mismatched with their client, in that they did not have experience working with organizations at a similar development level.

These various problems, Fletcher concluded, boiled down to three important general concepts that both consultants and client organizations should bear in mind at all times. In the failed consultations, the fundamental working concept was wrong: organizational issues needed addressing first; the board was unwilling to follow through with the plan; and there was a mismatch between the needs of the organization and the product/service/solution the consultant was able to deliver.

Fletcher’s review of the practices of the successful consultants established that the fundraising consultant’s primary tasks are to:

• compile information
• produce a realistic assessment of the organization’s fundraising capacity
• help the organization make appropriate choices among various fundraising methodologies
• resist the temptation to impose a plan on the organization
• help the organization develop both ‘ownership’ of any plans adopted and a sense of responsibility for their implementation.

 

Process counsellor role important

The most successful consultants tended to function as a combination of information specialist, trainer-educator and joint problem solver. Interestingly, one-half of the successful consultants played the process counsellor role, an approach avoided by all of the unsuccessful ones. It also appears that some degree of consultant involvement in decision making may be important for successful interventions.

Successful consultants tended to engage in a frequent exchange with the client of objective information and facts relevant to the project. Their interventions also often included effective feedback mechanisms: the exchange of evaluative and subjective comment from the consultant to the organization, with the client willing to accept information designed to change and improve the situation. Noting that none of the consultants in her study played the objective observer role, Fletcher points out that “Most people who have worked with fundraising consultants agree that they are seldom reticent about expressing their ideas or opinions in their areas of expertise.”

Successful consultations will include the right client/consultant match, a client open to receiving help and acting on it, a strong effort followed to implement the recommendations, the involvement of committed volunteers, and the understanding that fundraising is an integral part of organizational development.

Managing accountability and expectations

Ensure that you have included bench marks and milestones in the contract. You’ll also need a detailed timetable of activity, including the identification of consultant and client responsibilities, and scheduled meetings involving staff and or volunteers. If the consulting Âteam’ comprises more than one person, include a clear statement of the amount of time that will be spent on the project by each person involved.

It is crucial to ensure that you use consultants in the most appropriate way, in the tasks for which they have the unique expertise. Use them to:

• Compile and produce a realistic assessment and analysis of your organization’s fundraising capacity.
• Help you make appropriate choices among fundraising methodologies, without imposing their own plan on you.
• Help your organization internalize the required course of action so that staff and board take ownership of the challenge and responsibility for the choice and its implications.
• Work with your organization to prepare it internally and externally to conduct fundraising initiatives, to provide the short-term on-site staffing required to undertake the fundraising, and to ensure you are in a position to build on the initiative if you wish to.

 

Factors To Consider In Hiring Consultants

1. Consultants should have demonstrated capacity to assess organizational readiness for any fundraising strategy or program. This should include an assessment of the organization’s stage of development and an exploration of the willingness of the staff and board to devote time, energy and financial resources to the process of change. The consultant should look at the fundraising history, amount of staff time invested by the organization in fundraising, current board member skills and involvement in fundraising, size and nature of the current donor base, a diversity of fundraising sources and number of volunteers available to help with fundraising. The consultant should act as a fact finder, providing objective feedback to the organization’s staff and board about their fundraising readiness.

2. Consultants should demonstrate that they will be involving the organization in analysis, planning and decision making. Working closely with, not just generating information from staff and board is a key factor for success. The consultant should guide the client through a process whereby the organization takes ownership of the problem and the consultant helps the organization help itself.

3. Consultants should bring their specific fundraising experience to the situation and direct the client until the organization is comfortable with the approach. In directing, the consultant should act as a coach, teaching the organization how to carry out specific fundraising strategies rather than doing it for them. A consultant directing a major gift program should not only implement one campaign but also, most importantly, leave behind a model for the organization to produce its own major gift program in the future.

4. Consultants must adapt established methodologies for all fundraising strategies to the specific organization with which they’re working. The consultant should be in a student’s role throughout, learning about the client’s constraints and how they can be expected to affect the way a particular fundraising strategy can be implemented in each particular situation.

5. Consultants should be involved in the early implementation stages of plans they help create. This allows them to put models in place that directly involve the organization and prepare it to carry on when the consultation is complete.

6. Consultants should be able to change from a content to a process orientation as organization development issues arise. They should communicate frequently with the client, exchanging both objective and subjective information, and help the organization accept information directed at change.

7. Consultants must respect the organizations that hire them. This will be shown through the careful consideration they give as to whether there is a good fit with the organization. If they don’t fit together well, the consultant should choose not to accept the work.

Allan Arlett is a principal in the consulting firm of The Arlett van Rotterdam Partnership, 10 Buller Ave, Ste 2, Toronto, Ontario, M4L 1C1, tel: 416/694-1226, fax: 416/694-9475, or e-mail avr@inforamp.net.