Episode 71: Employment Challenges in Non Profits - Career Development Done Right

Welcome to another edition of “Around with Randall,” your weekly podcast making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett. 

It’s great to welcome you here to the latest podcast of “Around with Randall.” Today is our second part of our three-part series based - as I hold in my hands - the article that was published in the AHP Journal of Healthcare Philanthropy on, I believe, page 14 that talks about the job situation in nonprofit work and some of the challenges they're in. And interestingly enough, today we're going to talk about the issues involving growth. How do people grow? And one of the things that came out of the survey was is that people don't feel as if particularly of the 1,500 respondents don't feel as if they have enough growth opportunities, and it's one of the reasons that they would consider leaving for another job. Remember last podcast, the first of the three, we talked about the idea of asking for a raise. What's the right way to do so, because that was a big issue in compensation in the article and in the survey. 

Today on growth, the third piece, on the idea of bonuses. So, what is this we're talking about in terms of career growth? What we know is, it's one of the reasons people choose to leave a job, not just in the nonprofit world but in totality, because it gives them an opportunity to seek promotion, to sink the chance to build a better career, have more opportunities. But most of the time, my experience is that this adventure, professional growth, is done impromptu. I wouldn't say haphazardly, but I do think that it's not planned very well. And so today what I want to try to accomplish is to talk about five specific things that are important in looking at your career growth, and then end with some of the questions that come as you develop the thought process behind professional growth. 

The first is, you need to set a clear goal about your expectations, and there's some what I would call antithetical things to consider. And then there are some specifics. So, let me start with kind of the theoretical, so to speak. Number one is that you have to be honest with yourself about what you're trying to accomplish. And although if you're 25, and I’m not asking you to know what you should be doing at 50, I am saying you need to be honest with yourself about where there are holes, and what you really want, and your value set. For some, there's a huge challenge of balancing a family and professional life. For others, they have someone at home who's dedicated to the family direction and leading the family effort so they can put more into their professional growth and career. I’m not saying either is better or worse, but where do you fit into that? And as you grow professionally and personally, what is it that you want? The only way to know that is to have some sense of honesty with yourself, and again, I’m not indicating I like one better than the other. What I want is what's best for the person and only that is known by the person. Once they kind of go through some type of thought process, distillation of the ideas to get to the values that are most important to them, the other thing that you can do is you can ask a trusted colleague, “Where are my holes? What am I missing?” So that it gives you context and it's not meant to be criticism, but constructive, to help you get to where you want to be. 

Here are the five things that you can think about, in terms of physical growth, as it relates to clear goals and expectations. Maybe it's earning a degree, education. I’ve learned long ago, and i'm so appreciative that I have been given the chance to do all the things I have gone through in my career, but a lot of that started because I was a law school graduate. As an attorney, I can't tell you how far that advanced me so quickly in ways that probably weren't wise for my ability to actually perform. I was out ahead so much of my knowledge base, over my skis, not sure of what to do. But sometimes an advanced degree can do that, can jump start - whether that's a law degree or a master's or even just a bachelor's - you can earn along that same line number two as certification. There are lots of universities now that offer different kinds of certifications, particularly in philanthropy, that give you a chance to say, “look I’ve done this,” and maybe the ultimate one is the CFRE, very, very highly sought after. You have to be in the industry for five years, you've had to do certain things, you have to re-certify every three years. That certification means something to this industry. Maybe it's being a fellow for AHP or a fellow for a FP, lots of different certifications out there that can elevate you in terms of your goals. 

The third is joining a professional organization and learning from that, whether that's AFP locally or AFP internationally, AHP lots of different places where you can get a great deal of information. You can learn new technology, particularly if you're in infrastructure and database. The work that goes on in terms of things like artificial intelligence can be highly advantageous in terms of career growth. 

The last is, and we'll talk about this here more specifically in a moment, around duties and responsibilities. You increase them. You make yourself more valuable. So, setting those goals is really important, and this is one where I want to talk for a second, maybe, about the most important thing, particularly as it applies to nonprofit work. And maybe that you're coming up through the ranks in some way, shape, or form. I really call it my decision points. Many of the people that I’m fortunate enough to deal with are Chief Development Officers, Vice Presidents, Philanthropy Associate VPs, or Associate VPs in academic medicine universities, things that even executive directors in their own organization. Most of those people have had some major involvement with major or principal gifts, and I just had a conversation here recently with a colleague who's kind of figuring out what he wants to do and he's talking about, I think maybe the role, of of being a Chief Development Officer, Chief Philanthropy Officer, something I would enjoy. But yet, he doesn't have the truest major gift experience. And so we talked through that in terms of what it would mean to have that, how does he get to that point coming out of a different area of fundraising, because chances are his opportunity to have more applications, better received resumes would be heightened if he had major gift, principle gift experience. 

Sometimes being a CPO isn't for everybody. Another client I’m dealing with, she's beginning to realize that she really loves the just the pure fundraising relationship, building process, and that all the other aspects of her job that entail the politics of the office, the budgeting, the management, the politics of of a larger system really aren't what she wants to do. And, we have begun a conversation around the fact that maybe being a Chief Philanthropy Officer isn't what moves her, so this goes back to this, goals. Sometimes going up isn't in your personal or long-term best interest because it doesn't fit with where you want to be. So another decision point younger people are maybe building, in terms of infrastructure and database and finance, there's sometimes a limitation. There is that, “okay maybe they won't be the Chief Philanthropy Officer.” All of those things are a realization of goals. And here's my last comment about number one and then we'll quickly go through the other four. Is the goals are always changing, they're not static. You don't set them at 25 and say well now I’m done. As you gain more experience you begin to realize there are certain things I’m good at, certain things that I’m not certain, things I like, certain things I don’t, and that not everybody is meant to be the Vice President of Philanthropy, and I’m not talking about talent. I’m talking about desire and sometimes people are happier, whether it's personal preference wanting to do other things, involvement, work-life balance, in terms of what's going on at home all of those things play into this idea of setting your goals. And so when you set goals in your career development it should be an ongoing process. So you might even consider writing them down and then on an annual basis evaluating if they still fit. Goal-setting and direction and that evolution is the most important thing, in terms of professional growth, because you want to grow to where you like being, like to work, like to do every day things that appeal to you and not being forced to do things you don't like.

Number two is once you have your goals, write them down and create a plan. If there's a deficiency in education, what are you going to do about it? If there, it, by the way the plan might include not only time but money, personal money, professional support from the office, what are the things that you need to do to fill those holes to meet that goal? What are the action steps the plan for any one of the different items that could be helping you develop, attend more conferences? How are you going to do that take a certification course? How are you going to do that? What's the time element? Creating goals is critical, and we've talked about this in various podcasts, that the more you put small goals - so instead of just one big goal you have five little ones - that lead to that big goal - the more likely you are to achieve it so keep that in mind. 

Number three is searching for new opportunities, and I’m not talking about jobs. Here a recent conversation with a gift officer who's looking to grow, younger in the profession, wanting to figure out where she wants to be. I asked if she had ever talked to her boss, which we're going to talk about number four more specifically, about sitting in on new meetings, being a part a fly on the wall, so to speak, of the budgeting process, when they go through that on any new basis. And her response was, “well I’ve never even asked. I said, well those are opportunities to learn and to have a chance to grow without doing anything other than going to work. And engaging at a higher level, I’m all for external opportunities, and maybe that's networking and things of that nature with volunteering. It, for conferences ,which hopefully will come back soon, or helping the organization or a nonpro another nonprofit as a volunteer, I’m all for those things. But, I think the thing we miss most often is the things we could be involved with within the confines of our own organization, something you don't know that could lead to a learning opportunity, something that will increase your knowledge of how an organization, in this case nonprofit, works, and it doesn't cost anything. Again, it may be just a fly on the wall watching things happen.

I remember in my earlier in my career as I was, before health care, wanting and possibly thinking about being a headmaster at a, in the private secondary education, I asked my boss, the headmaster, could I come and sit in on executive committee meetings of the board when appropriate because I wanted to learn what happened in them, he was so gracious he was like oh gosh yeah and then they would start asking me to do things. It was easy growth which leads us right to number four: talk to your supervisor your manager whoever's in your office that leads about what you're trying to accomplish. If they don't know what your goals are for growth, how in the world is it they could ever help you? I’m always surprised when I asked the question, “have you talked to your boss, supervisor, manager about what you're trying to accomplish?” and they say well you know I don't get many chances. And then after I ask the question they say, “well no I haven't talked to them.” Well maybe they think you're happy where you're at.

The first line of defense is, as we discussed, is talking and thinking and working through your goals, putting them on paper but also then in that opportunity search to include people that can help you. And the first people should be the people that are closest. Some things they may say no to. Some things they may say yes to. But if they don't even know that you're trying to grow, how in the world are they trying to help you? And that's on you, on all of us, to let people know, “How can I be more than I am today?”

Here's what i'm trying to get to -  the last thing is to keep track of your progress. We chatted a few moments ago about the idea of a step-by-step plan and putting things in writing, make some check marks, and when things are accomplished, cross them off and then write the next thing. That's going to help you grow. So it's an, again, a plan that grows with you. It's not static. It's evaluated. Things come out because they're appropriate or we accomplished more, got them done, check them off, and more things come in. But if you don't track that progress in some way, shape, or form, then you probably are going to miss out on some opportunities. It doesn't have to be a long plan, half a page, note card, something you keep in your bedroom, whatever on your computer, keeping track and putting in writing can be incredibly helpful. 

So the five again is, set goals number, two is create a plan, number three is look for those opportunities, start internally if at all possible, number four is talk with people, particularly your internal leadership about what you might be able to do, number five is to track that success. 

Some questions for you to contemplate as you go through this just to keep in the back your mind, what's the right type of professional growth? This goes back to where do you want to be in five or ten years, and not everybody wants to be the ultimate boss or should be the ultimate boss. Is the industry right - are you in the right place? What's the right type of growth that's going to help you

Number two. Will professional growth relate or result in a promotion? If your goal is promotion then make sure the growth is tied to that. If you want the next job knowing what the next job is and the goal of that job, the responsibilities, your growth should be inside that. If your grow, if your opportunity and desire to grow is much more grandiose then you don't have to worry about that as much, but how does this help you grow job-wise? Opportunity? What are some of the downsides? Downsides for a lack of professional growth, it may mean people think you're less interested, which may or may not be true. But we'd have a habit, as human beings, to fill in voids with our own thoughts. If we don't know what the answers are and so supervisors, office mates, and others, if they don't understand what you're trying to accomplish they'll fill in their own narrative and sometimes if you don't have a plan or can't articulate it that plan that narrative might be, “well they don't care as much.” That may not be true. Probably not, but keep that in mind. Where can I find opportunities for growth? Well with the internet it's everywhere and most of it is free. I did this about three months ago for a client who was looking at professional growth and I just googled free and it was some training things and we found stuff everywhere. There's no excuse if you're looking for professional growth not to find it. The internet, and particularly the pandemic, where a lot of things and education sessions and things have become online and free are available everywhere, so don't let the fact, well I don't have much money - there's free opportunities out there that can be incredibly helpful. And the number one is a mentoring situation which, in some ways and with associations can formalize it, doesn't cost anything. 

What do you do if you're stuck and have stopped growing professionally? Last question. Reach out to someone you trust. Talk with them. Say, “Help me. Here's what I’m trying to do. Here's what I’ve done. What do you see? What do I need to do?” Sometimes, talking it out with a trusted colleague, friend, mentor, someone can open up all kinds of windows you didn't even know existed. You're not in this alone. People want you to be successful. If you're a good person, if you do good work, they want you to get to where you want to go. And I spend more of my time, as I get older and older, more and more, helping people figure out what they want and how to get there. And that brings me incredible joy. That's why I do what I do. I’m a teacher. Who are the people in that, your life, that are like that, that can help you? Figure out how to get there because they probably want to, if you just ask them. Professional growth, critically important, and hopefully today you got some tactical things you can think about in laying out a plan for you. 

Looking forward, the third and last episode will be on bonuses, which is interesting in non-profit world, in the nonprofit sector, particularly with gift officers. We'll talk about that and how that works. It's more prevalent than you think.

Again if you would like to reach out to me it's podcast at hallettphilanthropy.com, podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. Glad to take your questions. If you think I said something crazy, or just disagree, don't forget to use reeks r-e-e-k-s at hallettphilanthropy.com. I love what I do. I hope you feel the same, whether it's writing the blogs on the website or doing the podcast or interacting with clients. I feel so energized by the work that I get up every day and get the privilege of doing. I hope you feel the same. I hope it gives you a sense of accomplishment that you're making a difference for your nonprofit and your community. That's the joy of nonprofit work in the world of philanthropy is we make things happen, and don't forget that leads me to my all-time favorite saying: Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened be someone who makes something happen, for yourself, for someone else, for your community, as a part of your non-profit work, for people and issues and challenges and places that are wondering what happened. And your community will be a better place. I thank you for your time look forward to seeing you right here back on “Around with Randall,” and don't forget make it a great day.