Why Fundraisers Leave and How Quality Onboarding Keeps Them w/ Sue Frost

Fundraiser turnover costs organizations money, momentum, and donor relationships. Sue Frost set out to study it through graduate research on onboarding, and she found two distinct reasons fundraisers walk away. Early-career fundraisers leave when they feel disconnected from the mission. More experienced fundraisers leave when they lack support from their manager or the resources to do the job.

You'll learn why onboarding should run on a 12-month cycle, and why helping new hires build relationships outside the development office keeps them around longer. Sue explains why a new fundraiser needs to understand how decisions actually get made, and how a simple three-way check-in at 30 and 60 days catches problems early. She also shares why a ride-along on a delivery route can teach more than a week of orientation.

Tom and Sue also talk through the biggest mistake organizations make when hiring a gift officer, the moment a routine offer of "coaching" made a new employee freeze, and how to tell whether onboarding actually worked.

This is Part 2 of a three-part conversation with Sue Frost.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]