Congratulations for your business success as founder of a for-profit company which you have sold recently. And best of all good luck should you accept the offer of a job to apply those business skills to a non-profit organization.As a successful entrepreneur, you no doubt hardly ever accepted the word “can’t” when you were conceiving, planning and developing your business. We in the non-profit world, as well, do not want to be deterred by someone saying we can’t do this or that. Instead, I am taking the liberty to suggest that you seriously consider that you “don’t” take on the job as it is being presently offered.
Either the Board of Trustees of the organization are ignorant of what are their explicit fund-raising duties, or they are looking to you, as a former super salesman, to somehow come in and raise the money for them. You may be getting positioned for failure. From what you wrote, it appears to me that you are expected to be the ultimate, and perhaps sole, fund-raiser.
You are being offered a percent-of-funds-raised figure for your compensation, and that’s indicator enough to me that you will be out there being expected to raise the money. Even more objectionable, and potentially damaging to you, contingent-pay appears to kick-in after yet another contingent-pay scheme---that is after your base salary has been met. That looks to me as if you are responsible for raising your own salary. To have the organization base one contingent-pay deal following yet another, that being your base salary is reached first, is outrageous. They are setting goals based on paying you, and not on the cost of carrying out the organization’s mission.
And by not having grant writing experience of any kind in advance of going in and being expected to be a successful grant proposal writer, is yet another serious barrier for you. Feeling you can do the job is great, but you need to know what the job is in the first place, and then to have some experience and certainly the skills to do the job.
You came from a for-profit business. Thus, you would understand and accept that when sales persons are paid on a bonus, commission, or percentage basis, customers could care less what or how the salespersons were paid---just so the customers knew that they purchased their product or service at the best price in the marketplace. And they do that by comparison buying, estimates, bidding, etc.
But when it comes to donors giving their money to charitable organizations, that is a totally different transaction---one you must understand and observe by shifting your for-profit experience to the new dynamic. When most donors give their money, they are not receiving a product at the best price in the marketplace. They are giving their money to fund their interests and concerns in the community and they generally will not tolerate that a portion of their money will go directly into the pocket of solicitors. Donors understand and accept that a portion of their donated funds do help pay for basic operations, including salaries, but that is what funding of an organization’s mission---its operational expenses---is all about. But knowing that an actual amount of their particular gift will go directly to a paid solicitor, is something most of them will never accept.
I suggest that you read the following articles and plan only to work for a salary and write grant proposals with absolutely no contingency related to funds raised or granted which would then be the basis for your compensation.
--- When The Development Officer Is Obliged To Raise Her Or His Own Salary
http://www.raise-funds.com/011005forum.html
--- Who Should Raise The Money From Within Your Organization?
http://www.raise-funds.com/092004forum.html
--- The Argument Against Paying Development Professionals Based Upon The Amount Of Funds Raised For Non-Profit Organizations
http://www.raise-funds.com/898forum.html
--- Positioning Grant Writers For Success
http://www.raise-funds.com/040202forum.html
The good news is that you will find many close parallel components which are applied in sales programs and fund-raising campaigns. And your experience will help a great deal. But, it’s critically important to know of the two very distinctly different ways businesses and charities look at Mission and Bottom-Line. You will learn that in my article:
--- Sales Professional to Development Professional: A Workable Transition
http://www.raise-funds.com/071907forum.html
I urge that you come to a complete and clear agreement regarding the best organization under which you can work effectively. You must not work to have funds specifically raised to pay your salary. You should not work for any form of contingent-pay. The Board must take the lead in fund-raising with you as the manager/facilitator. Even so, take care. They want you to be responsible for fund-raising, special events, grant proposal writing, and to have program duties as well. That's not a full plate, it's one overflowing to such a degree that even the best entrepreneur will not be able to keep up.
Remember, when you organized your business, it was your business. You owned it. You had full control. It's very different working for a charitable organization.
In a non-profit setting, you do not own the business. It is a public charity and you do what your Board, donors, volunteers, and the community want you to do. It's completely counter to what you have done previously, and you must ask yourself if you will accept and work under those differences and concessions.
Let us know how you are doing.
Tony
Tony Poderis
http://www.raise-funds.com
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