Fundraising Staff Growth
The Real Cost of Ignoring Your Fundraising Staff's Growth
Dr. Gary Cole | The Philanthropic Advisory
The average fundraiser stays 16 months. The learning curve for most development roles is 10 to 12 months. Your organization gets roughly four months of fully productive work before the person leaves and you start over.
If your organization has not made a serious investment in the growth and development of your fundraising staff, you are not saving money. You are spending money, over and over, on a cycle of hiring, onboarding, losing, and hiring again. The sector data on this is clear.
Turnover in the nonprofit sector runs between 19- 21% annually, compared to 12% across all other industries. In the development department, the situation is worse. Research from CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund surveyed more than 2,700 organizations and found that half of all development directors expect to leave their current jobs within two years or less. Forty percent are not committed to careers in fundraising at all.
What does this mean for nonprofits? You are not only losing people. You are losing donors.
When a key development staff member walks out the door, donor retention rates drop by up to 10%. The donor relationships your fundraiser built over months or years, the knowledge of a donor’s interests and giving history, and the timing of a personal conversation, none of this transfers to a database record. The knowledge leaves with the person.
For major gift programs, the cost compounds further. A Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis of nine years of data from more than 180 major-gift officers found fundraisers take an average of four years to reach full productivity. Those with four or more years of tenure raised an average value equivalent to 5.5 times their salary. Fundraisers who leave before the four-year mark often cost more than they raise during their tenure.
Those numbers are sobering. They cost more than they raise.
The direct cost of replacing a departing development professional ranges from 90% to 200% of their annual salary. When you factor in lost productivity, missed campaigns, and paused donor cultivation, the total cost approaches three times the position's salary. Development director vacancies sit open for an average of six months, according to the CompassPoint research. Half of all executive directors report vacancies lasting even longer.
This is not a staffing problem. This is a revenue problem.
The reasons fundraisers leave are well-documented. A Candid survey of nonprofit employees found the top four reasons were consistent across 2023 and 2024: too much work with too little support (59%), limited growth opportunities (54%), unsupportive management (52%), and inadequate pay (50%). Limited growth opportunity ranks second, ahead of management and compensation. Your fundraising staff is telling you what they need. Many organizations are not listening.
30% of staff are experiencing burnout
Burnout is accelerating the problem. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s State of Nonprofits 2025 report found that 95% of nonprofit leaders identified burnout as a major organizational challenge, and that 30% of staff were already experiencing burnout. Seventy-five percent of surveyed leaders said burnout directly impacts their organization’s ability to achieve its mission.
A staff member who burns out does not always leave right away. Sometimes they stay, checked out, going through the motions. Staying while disengaged carries its own cost.
Here is what the investment side of this equation looks like. Organizations that offer professional development have a 33% higher retention rate than those that do not. Nonprofit HR analysis found that preventing the departure of just one employee every two years yields a return on investment of 200% to 300% for most organizations. The estimated annual investment is $1,000 to $2,000 per person in direct professional development costs.
One departure prevented. A 200% return.
The average donor retention rate across the sector sits at 40% to 45%. First-time donor retention averages only 14%. Acquiring a new donor costs five times as much as retaining one you already have. Every month, a development position sits vacant, donor relationships go cold, and those odds get steeper.
Investing in the growth and development of your fundraising staff is not a soft benefit to offer. This is the financially sound decision for your organization. The research is not ambiguous on this point.
If you lead a nonprofit, look at your development team right now. Ask yourself what you have offered them in the last 12 months in terms of training, mentorship, coaching, or a clear path forward. If your answer is limited, you are not only at risk of losing a good fundraiser. You are at risk of losing donors and the revenue they bring.
The exit interview doesn't tell you what the investment would have cost. The exit interview only tells you what the loss did.
