With the current economic outlook fundraising is going to be increasingly more important over the coming year. Fundraising professionals will start to see more of a spotlight put on them as their talents come to be more of a necessity.
A Professional Fundraisers Career is More Than Meets the Eye
In a recent article on hot careers U.S.News picked fundraiser as one on the hottest careers of 2010. The career is more involved than going door to door asking for money, it is more about developing relationships with donors.
From the article “Best Career 2009:fundraiser.” that was posted December 11, 2008 U.S.News fleshes out the job description to be more relationship building by saying a fundraisers “time is spent recruiting, training, and motivating volunteers, developing a database of donors, conducting research on wealthy prospects to maximize the size of their donations, friendraising …, writing grant proposals, overseeing E-mail and phone campaigns, and/or running fundraising events, like a splashy gala.”
The great thing about a fundraising position is that it is not a high stress sales job. The main criticism people have about this position is the complaint that they don’t want to sell anything, well a low key approach to this will help you keep your clients instead of pushing them away.
Research and Getting To Know Your Client
The position of professional fundraiser is more about getting to know your client and how to best reach him. You will probably spend time finding out what issues are they most interested in. With this information you can find out the best way to appeal to your client. Are they interested in music then maybe getting them to fund your cities orchestra is appropriate, or if they are into sports getting donors involved in amateur sports sponsorship is helpful.
Specialization in Fundraising
There will always be causes that need a professional fundraiser. Keep your eye open to the paper to see what the latest hot topics are to guide you to specializing in a certain area.
With the environment one of the hot topics around, careers for environmentalism fundraising are a shoe in. With the importance of raising money for these causes it would be a good time to volunteer or get involved with an environmental organization.
The need for money during this downturn is going to be ever more important and will help to solidify a fundraisers position in the coming years. If your looking for a job which is full of security and challenges Fundraising is IT!
Jolian Grant is owner and operator of www.justfundraising.comHe has over 16 years experience helping schools, churches and youth groups achieve their fundraising goals. To date Jolian has helped raise over 45 million dollars for charitable causes. Check out the justfundraising/charity blog at fundraisingideas.com/blog/
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