Interviews

Voices from the other side: fundraisers who become chief executives 1

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 12 May 2011

Fundraisers have a tendency to set their aims high. So it can be frustrating that in terms of career path, few fundraisers have managed to rise above their director positions into chief executive roles. Celina Ribeiro talks to two fundraisers-turned-chief executives about their experience.

For many senior fundraisers, there has long been a ceiling to how far they can move within charities. In the commercial world marketers regularly climb to chief executive roles, but in charities fundraisers often feel kept from reaching such heights.

According to the 2011 Directors of Fundraising Survey a quarter of the most senior fundraisers at the top 100 charities would like a chief executive position. However Fundraising’s sister publication, Charity Finance, found in its survey of chief executives at those same charities that very few fundraisers actually managed to make the move from senior fundraising position to running the entire charity.

There are signs, however, that this may be changing as charities react to a funding environment which requires more emphasis on generating voluntary income than ever before.

But what special traits can a fundraiser offer as a chief executive? What particular obstacles do senior fundraisers face when they’re going for the top job and what other difficulties may they face when they get there?

Last year, Chris Askew was promoted from director of fundraising at Breakthrough Breast Cancer to chief executive. Civil Society spoke to Askew shortly after his appointment about how he managed to break through. Askew joined Breakthrough in 2006.

CR: Did you find any resistance or obstacles to convincing people that you would be a good CEO coming from a fundraising background?

CA: I can’t speak for why it doesn’t happen very often, but if I was to make a couple of guesses; there might be a perception that the director of fundraising is too close to the fundraising side. Fundraising in many organisations is quite a large part of everything they do, so I can imagine that there might be a concern that someone coming from this part of the organisation’s operational side might have too much of a focus on the fundraising side of things.

Did I get any sense of challenge about this? Honestly, I don’t think so. I didn’t face any doubt or scepticism, certainly at the interview stage. I think probably within the organisation right now, if I was to do a poll, there might be people who might say ‘This is going to work out OK if Chris can detach himself from fundraising and come and learn more about our policy work or come and learn more about our scientific work’. That’s the journey I’m currently on.

CR: Is there anything that, as a fundraiser, brings you a special set of skills to take into a CEO role?

CA: In terms of the strategic leadership side of the job, I think coming from a fundraising background gives you a really important context and knowledge. It depends on what sort of organisation you work for, but Breakthrough only gets fundraised money. So for me, as we enter discussions about Breakthrough’s strategy and growth in the future I think it’s really important that I have that knowledge. It’s a strong contextual knowledge. That’s been critically important to have.

Good fundraisers are good narrators of their cause. They know how to define and describe their organisation. I think the same goes for good leaders. Good leaders are able to be very clear about their organisation’s story and that’s important for the outside world and it’s important for all the people who work here. That ability to be able to talk about the impact and purpose of the organisation is something that I think fundraisers are good at and I think it’s something chief execs need to be good at.

I built up good relationships with some of our senior fundraisers and senior volunteer fundraisers in my old role and that’s critically important. I need to continue to meet with major donors, our appeal leads and volunteer fundraisers. That bit of the job I’m really looking forward to continuing doing.

In terms of the challenges that face Breakthrough, having somebody who has some marketing experience is not a bad set of skills to have. It means that I need to go and do some learning about our science, policy work, campaigning work. But they’re learnable, whereas if somebody hasn’t got that experience of how to carry an organisation into the world and make it sustainable – I’m not sure that’s necessarily easily learned.

CR: Anything you want to add?

CA: I know that there are some fantastic directors of fundraising out in our sector. I think it is important that fundraisers continue to make the case for themselves as leaders and change agents in organisations and that more organisations understand that the ability to project the cause is really important. That’s just about directors of fundraising – as they already do – making sure they work hard at the senior management table and continue to develop their own skills.

I’d love to see more fundraisers leading organisations.

Sara Lom, chief executive of the Royal Parks Foundation, has had a seemingly charmed career. Working first managing a 93-acre estate in France and moving on to arts organisations, Lom talks to Civil Society about what makes a fundraising chief excecutive.

CR: Are arts organisations more open to having people from the development side managing the organisation?

SL: Not particularly. I have read that not many chief executives are from a fundraising background. With me, fundraising has always just been very fundamental to being in a charity. Everybody in the charities I’ve worked with is involved in the fundraising in one form or another. I think the successful charities are those where everybody knows that fundraising is key to the whole process.

CR: So coming from a fundraising background hasn’t held you back?

SL: No it hasn’t. I think if you want to fundraise you can only do it effectively if you really care about what you’re fundraising for. The charities that I’ve worked for, whatever area it’s been in, have always had a general rule that everybody has to give either money or time to that charity when they start out in their job. Because if you don’t feel you want to give, you’re in the wrong place. If you don’t care passionately about the cause, it’s very difficult to fundraise for it.

I care about helping do the charity work as much as I do about the fundraising, and you just slip seamlessly from one to the other. Most of the teams I’ve worked in can do that, except where it’s a really specialist area.

CR: Does having a fundraising background give you something extra or special in a CEO role?

SL: One of the key things of any successful organisation is that it has to be amazing on customer service. If you’re used to looking after donors and to developing support, then you are pretty good on customer service.

Fundraisers are used to taking knocks and springing back up again. If you’re a good fundraiser you get a great sense of achievement when you do get a big gift, and you feel downhearted when you get refused, but to be successful you have to pick yourself up and get on with it. No matter what happens you have to be an optimist and you have to be fairly action-packed, which is a great asset for a chief executive.

You also have to be good with people and work as a team. Team-building and being sensitive to people are important for a chief executive.

CR: You have been key in winning a large partnership with Tiffany & Co.

SL: We secured a grant of $1.25m (which is their first gift to the UK) to restore all the drinking fountains across the eight Royal Parks.

It all began with a cup of tea in Hyde Park with Fernanda Kellog, the then-president of the Tiffany and Co. Foundation. We showed her various different things and talked, she then invited us to put in a more formal proposal.

We had no idea at the beginning that it was anything other than an exchange visit. They have been absolutely fantastic.

CR: So you’ll be building relationships with those people?

SL: There are some donors I deal with and there are some that others in the team will.

I haven’t worked in one of the really, really big charities, but I know from talking to people that have that they can be quite institutionalised in that everybody works in their little silo. You’re only allowed to talk to someone up to a certain amount. I think if you build a relationship with someone, then you go on and develop it.

Certainly here, everybody works across all the functions. That’s always worked really well for me. 

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