[Foundation-l] Three fundraising job openings

[Robert Rohde]

On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 6:25 PM, Chad <innocentkiller at gmail.com> wrote:

> *facepalm*
>
> Do we honestly need 3 more employees all doing the same thing? I really
> think a dedicated "Donations Coordinator" could accomplish the same
> thing, rather than making 3 positions, at least at this point in time.
>
> Not to mention, assuming they each start at $80,000/yr, that's nearly a
> quarter of a million dollars in new salaries. While the new large
> donations
> have helped, they by no means have insured a multi-year massive increase
> in salaries (remember, these aren't the only new hires!). I won't even
> bother asking if our budget can cover this (the answer, truth or not, will
> be "yes")...I do however have one question:
>
> How much money does this leave for the kids in Africa we're helping?
> Or the PDF print-on-demand we're doing? Or even helping Kaltura
> develop it's for-profit venture, heaven forbid? We've got a long list
> of things we're helping, and I don't see much work being done towards
> /that/. As much as these goals strike me as lip-service and promises
> to woo donations, at least they're a better spending money on
> excessive jobs with even more excessive titles.
>
> The Foundation getting these large grants reminds me of getting my
> first credit card...it put this mentality of "I'll buy it now and figure
> out
> how to pay it later" into my head. I hope to God the Foundation
> doesn't make the same mistake.



Spend $1 to make $5.  Fundraising is a special case, in that each new hire
would be expected to directly lead to additional income far exceeding their
salary.  While there would be a point of diminishing returns, I don't think
3 hires is at that point.

Also, keep in mind that even though the fund drives have done well in
absolute terms (e.g. $2 million in the last one), there have been very
substantial portions of those efforts that were rushed or outright
mismanaged.  Taking fundraising more seriously should offer the opportunity
for substantial improvments.  I'm glad to see the Foundation taking these
steps.

-Robert Rohde