Your Development VP left. Here’s what to do next.

Nonprofit leaders, have you recently lost your VP/Director of Development? 😥

With so many deadlines, events, and appeals on the horizon to meet your multimillion-dollar goal for the year, your Development team can't have a leadership vacancy for long or donor satisfaction and staff morale will suffer. That's because:

🆘 Donor projects and proposal deadlines don't care if your chief fundraiser is gone.

🆘 The internal experts you staff (your faculty members, researchers, program directors, administrators, and more) need reliable day-to-day Development support.

🆘 The longer your VP/Director role is empty, the more burned out and nervous your Development team will become about what else might change.

🆘 If you're knee-deep in planning mode, either for the next fiscal year or a major campaign, you urgently need someone who can work with you to set appropriate fundraising goals and interface with the board.

So, until you can onboard a new VP or Director of Development, you've got a few options:

1. You can place one of your more experienced Dev staff into an interim director role or assign them the most pressing projects.

2. You can personally take on the most pressing work and key donor relationships.

3. You can bring in a consultant who values donor relationships, excels at planning, and boosts staff morale to steady the ship and advance key projects--all without rocking the boat.

We can help with #3! When you bring in a trusting, experienced partner for short-term leadership support and a steady hand, you increase staff retention, maintain fundraising momentum, and keep the Development environment "warm" for the next VP/Director.

But please, whichever option you choose, don’t do nothing! Keep the work going as best you can.