The difficulty of progressing a career in fundraising.

An interesting letter in Third Sector magazine published 17th August 2010 pointing out that the recently advertised post of Chief Executive's at the Institute of Fundraising does not mention fundraising experience as  necessary for the role. Its an interesting point, but there is a bit more to it which I would like to tease out.

Firstly, if you look at the current role of Chief Executive and the job description its clear that the current incumbent did not have those skills or experience when he was first appointed. The role has grown with him and it has become more about quasi regulation and lobbying while less about certification and professional development (that process already being well developed). Secondly, very few airlines have a chief executive who can fly a plane. That may be a moot point, but when I was in business I had no direct experience of the work done by our staff. I just made sure I employed people who did and that seemed to work quite well.

This reminds me of my early days in fundraising where it was almost the de facto standard that the head of fundraising would be an ex military officer with no experience of actually raising money. I think this was the result of lots of redundancies in the army and the fact that trustees were often ex military themselves, knew that officers would be good at taking instruction, good at issuing orders, and would not be averse to "kicking ass", as our American cousins would say. Its still the case that quite a number of fundraising directors in large charities have come from outside the sector, but have experience of managing and motivating large staff teams.

I think the silent issue raised by the letter in Third Sector, and something that lurks in the back of all fundraisers minds, is that there does appear to be a career glass ceiling beyond which we cannot aspire. With so many people from outside fundraising getting the top jobs (or in the alumni fundraising world so many Americans apparently getting them) the statistical likelihood of getting beyond middle management is slim. If you are not willing to relocate to London as a middle grade fundraiser and get involved in a lot of networking there, then the chances of senior promotion have to be close to zero.

Sorry this is not more cheery, but we are all standing in a career landscape the foothills of which most of us are never likely to progress beyond. We just need to accept that this is the way things are, and that the Chief Executive's role at the Institute is just another mountain near the horizon which we can only gaze on longingly.