Selecting Fundraising Personnel – A Step-by-Step Process

Editor Note: this blog post is a part of a series of professional articles about sports fundraising. It was written by a published author and expert in the field, Dr. Richard Leonard specifically for SPONSOR.ME blog readers.

The selection process for a fundraising team member (which can be terminated at any time) customarily proceeds as follows:

Phase 1

Phase one consists of the collection and review of applications/questionnaires and résumés for prospective fundraising program employees. These two types of instruments are accepted and recognized techniques for gathering pertinent information regarding a specific individual.

The design of application and questionnaire instruments is limited by legal boundaries. For fundraising employees and staff members, employment applications must conform to all U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Privacy Information Act provisos and stipulations.

Special Notation: Some application and questionnaire categories are more noteworthy in the selection of a fundraising team member than others. Depending on the volume of applications and questionnaires received, a fundraising program administrator must prioritize which categories to survey and measure for an applicant’s fundraising program suitability.

Phase 2:

Phase two consists of an informal preliminary evaluation. In other words, it is the assessment of the talent of a potential fundraising staff/team member. It can be as informal as the fundraising administrator and other team members verbally assessing a candidate’s qualifications or as formal as charting detailed selection criteria and quantifying the results.

Phase 3:

Phase three consists of face-to-face conferences with potential fundraising staff and team members. Program administrators initiate this meeting through a conventional interview process. The intensity and format of the interview is determined by the significance and gravity of the position in the fundraising program’s operating scheme.

Phase 4:

This phase consists of personal and professional reference checks as well as background investigations. This step in the selection process is habitually disregarded, but is crucial in affirming the character of the fundraising staff/team member. The fundraising administrator should have a slate of definite questions ready for all reference communications.

Background checks are a reality of the present. To be considered for an athletic organization/ fundraising program position, candidates should go through the following four step background check progression:

Step #1: A detailed consent form is completed by the job candidate. At this point, it should be made clear to the candidate that all possible employment offers/agreements are contingent upon successful completion of the athletic organization’s/fundraising program’s background check.

Step #2: The consent form, which features all candidate’s information for a background check, is sent (either electronically or by traditional mail) to an independent, authorized third party. At this point, finger print checks are also a prudent background safeguard.

Step #3: The candidate, through an autonomous and sanctioned third party, submits to a drug screening test. Any anomalies in the screening outcomes must be explained and have a physician’s accompanying clarifying documentation.

Step #4: If required by internal athletic organization/fundraising program policies or external governing regulatory bodies, fundraising administration needs to make any subsequent background checks to verify a candidate’s clearance information.

Special Notation: At no time should a candidate be hired for a fundraising program position until their background check obligations are satisfied and screening information has been cleared. A customary processing time for background checks and drug screening by independent agencies is normally between 48-72 hours. Prior to launching a background check program (as a part of the selection process), all practices should be analyzed and approved by the athletic organization’s/fundraising program’s legal counsel.

Phase 5: This phase consists of negotiations and hiring.

After all the germane information has been assembled and references checked, the decision is made to offer the fundraising program position. There are two consequential rules that must always be applied when securing additional fundraising team members. The first standard is to always convey the truth in all recruiting practices no matter how much the fundraising program might desire or need a particular individual. The second principal is to never ‘negative recruit’ against another athletic organization. Negative recruiting is basically identifying other competitors for a potential fundraising team member and verbalizing derogatory remarks about their program, fundraising methodology, and overall organization. Violating these basic rules will always come back to ‘haunt’ the fundraising program one is trying to maintain and build.

Special Notation: A fundraising administrator needs to declare up front which items in the negotiation meeting are open for discussion and which items are deal breakers. Not only will a fundraising administrator avoid critical personnel errors by using this technique, he/she will set the tempo of the interview and have total control of the negotiation.

For more information on this and other fundraising topics, please click on the book cover below.