Is Our Industry In An Employment Crisis?

As seen in this month’s issue of DMAW’s Marketing Advents magazine:
In the years following the most recent recession, many positions within nonprofit organizations were eliminated or left unfilled due to budget constraints. Direct marketing professionals were hit just as hard. With digital communications so much cheaper than traditional direct mail, organizations began to shift their communications online. As a result, many printers and mailshops simply disappeared, agencies shrunk their staffs, and training programs were eliminated.
In wake of the most recent recession, finding qualified candidates to fill the limited number of open positions was easy. But after a few years and as the economy recovered, things started to change. We saw the industry associations’ weekly job exchange listings growing longer and longer, and the position listings were posted for weeks on end. There just weren’t enough qualified candidates to fill the need—and it’s even worse today.
We were curious to learn what the state of employment was in our industry, so in 2013 Production Solutions/PS Digital partnered with Fundraising Success magazine to survey the industry to find what employment challenges the industry is facing. The results were enlightening. This year we repeated the survey, and not surprisingly, we saw very similar results. Our survey had over 600 respondents this year.

Here are the highlights:

The hardest positions to fill are Development Director, Development Coordinator, and Major Gifts Officer.
Recruiting is time consuming, taking 1-3 months to fill junior level positions, 2-5 months to fill mid-level positions and 3-6 months to fill senior level positions.
To attract and retain good talent, organizations are offering training/professional development, flex schedules, and more competitive salaries and benefits.
Roles that are currently outsourced are creative services, digital services, data management, and production management.

We were disappointed to see that even though organizations attract candidates with training opportunities, only one-third of the respondents said they had a formal¬ized training program in place.
Also disturbing was the fact that only one-third of the organizations that responded had a succession plan in place for senior leadership if they were to leave.
So how did the industry get into this employment crisis? Simply put, the industry slashed or eliminated budgets for training and professional development. With such a glut of experienced candidates looking for jobs, there was little need to train new entrants to the marketplace. Why pay for training if you don’t have to? Not having invested in the next generation of fund¬raisers and direct marketers over the past seven to eight years is now taking its toll.
So how is the industry reacting to the employment crisis? I reached out to industry leaders to hear how they are dealing with these challenges.
“The coveted ‘mid-level’ program or account manager position is the hardest to fill and retain,” says Nancy Racette, an executive search consultant. She added that the typical mistakes that organizations make are:

• Unwillingness to make the right financial investment in staff
• Unrealistic expectations for the position
• Lack of upward mobility and professional development
• Lack of position flexibility (flex time, telecommuting, and cross training)

Nancy has seen great success in placing hard working, passionate “up-and-coming” candidates in roles that provided the opportunity to grow into mid-level and senior positions. “Investing in the right people can make all the difference.”
A partner of a leading DC-based fundraising agency is addressing the employment challenges head-on.
“Our agency is growing, which has allowed us to create a solid career path for our junior and mid-level staff within our agency,” said this partner. “We have established new leadership positions and new departments that give our staff these growth opportunities. We have also increased salaries and benefits to be more aggressive than competing agencies. Professional development is a priority for all levels of staff at our firm, and we realize that our staff appreciates the flexibility of working from home one day a week. This approach has allowed us to grow by 20 percent in the past two years and we will continue this level of growth in 2015.”

So what’s my advice?

• If you don’t already have a training program in place, start one.
• Invest in professional development to stay relevant in an ever-changing marketplace. There are so many educational opportunities available to the marketplace right here in D.C.— DMAW’s Crash Course on Integration, Digital Day, DM 201, and the Bridge Conference, to name a few.
• Take a risk on up-and-coming applicants and provide the tools and sup¬port needed to allow them to grow into those mid- and senior-level fundraising roles our industry so desper¬ately needs to fill.
• And finally, have realistic expectations of your staff and pay them commensurately.

We are excited to share with you the results from this second annual joint FundRaising Success magazine/Production Solutions State of Employment for Nonprofit Organizations survey.

Greg Albright is a partner and co-founder of Production Solutions/PS Digital. A longterm member of and volunteer with DMAW, Greg was awarded DMAW’s 2012 Award for Distinguished Service. In 2006, he received the Exceptional Volunteer Fundraiser Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals–DC Chapter for his work with the Sitar Arts Center, an after-school arts program for children of low-income families in Washington, DC. You can reach him at GAlbright@psmail.com.