If you love charity work and want to become highly involved in the non-profit industry, becoming a Director of fundraising might be a fulfilling pursuit for you. A Director of fundraising need to be extremely personable, conscientious and driven.
What Is a Director of Fundraising?
The position of Director of fundraising is usually relegated to non-profit organizations and charitable organizations that need to procure gifts and donations from sponsors and high net worth individuals.
Directors of fundraising need to secure major gifts and funds and usually have a target amount they are required to meet. A Director of fundraising may need to identify donors that understand and are willing to donate to their program and may need to push to meet budgets.
Most charitable organizations will have a director or manager of fundraising, but larger corporations will require their directors to be extremely motivated to secure the funding they need. A director of fundraising may also need to work directly with a marketing or media department to create projects that will help in securing funding.
What Does a Director of Fundraising Do?
Directors of fundraising will need to both interact with existing donors and solicit donations from companies and individuals they believe would be interested in funding their projects. A director of fundraising usually focuses on larger donations or campaigns that are intended to bring in a high volume of donations. Ordinary donations will usually be handled by other sectors of the Fundraising department.
A director of fundraising may need to work closely with a board of directors to determine new avenues to pursue in terms of funding. Funding usually needs to be procured throughout the year to meet certain milestones, and the research and management a director of fundraising needs to do may be quite extensive.
Directors are also required to network as much as possible so they can reach out to the community as necessary. Directors usually report to a CEO or other executive officer.
How Do You Become a Director of Fundraising?
A director of fundraising will usually have extensive experience within charity and non-profit organizations and will usually have worked for at least a few years in the sector of fundraising. The position is a very unique position that requires on-the-job training.
Directors of fundraising will often have a background in either communications or marketing, and will usually need to work very closely with these teams.
Advancement as a director of fundraising is usually based on the ability to raise funding.
Directors of fundraising usually have at least ten years of experience within the industry or professional experience within non-profit organizations. They should have experience leading other employees and should be extremely well-acquainted with the company they are working for. They should also have financial knowledge and enough of a background to develop appropriate revenue goals.
How Do You Advance as a Director of Fundraising?
Advancement as a director of fundraising is usually based on the ability to raise funding. Directors that can raise more funding will be able to work on and develop larger projects. Many directors of fundraising are extremely involved within their charities and wish to see them grow.
Those that can raise substantial amounts of funding can build upon this funding to expand their existing programs and add new programs into their charity’s offerings. Those that are highly successful in this field can also consider the related fields of marketing, sales and communications. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the related fields of public relations management is expected to grow at a faster than average rate.