Over the past five to ten years, a significant number of foundations started to adopt strategies and business models specifically designed to attract and retain more donors and to increase assets; that is, to grow. These strategies largely focused on extending marketing beyond traditional avenues and methods to include professional advisor intermediaries who serve the high net worth clients the foundations wanted to reach with their philanthropic services.

Foundations that adopted such models--that is, they have reached out to professional advisors of all types and to financial institutions, have marketed, and have adopted the appropriate technology systems, have solid investment strategies and have had the patience to continue to nurture these relationships over time--have indeed started to reap the rewards of their efforts.

Along the way, some foundations have set a strategy for very significant growth, and have found that beyond the fairly predictable organizational adjustments one would assume to accompany such growth, there are other, less predictable but equally important steps that must be taken. In particular, the organization must put in place a senior team that across the board can handle sophisticated relationships and circumstances, serve as rainmakers, develop and sustain new business, and leverage the administrative and support services of the core foundation staff. This team is fully prepared to "do deals" on behalf of the foundation, or engage in the "knowledge-based sale" of the foundation’s business to a variety of potential partners.

The hiring of such a senior team results in the change of organizational structure away from a traditional, hierarchical, triangle-shaped structure to a flatter, more horizontal organization with more "power players" than in an organization that is poised for more consistent business as usual. Foundations that find themselves with significant momentum after adopting and consistently implementing business processes to support growth may now be ready to take this next structural step.

There are several things to keep in mind when adding team members to an organization for the express intent to aggressively grow the foundation:

• The first thing is that this strategy is not for every foundation. It really relates to foundations that have been on a growth trajectory, have laid a solid foundation in their organizations from an operational perspective, and that are equipped to handle highly complicated and sophisticated business dealings.

• Senior team members who can do deals or be a rainmaker for the foundation will require competitive salary levels to for-profit efforts. The board must be willing to invest in these human resources, and commit to budgeting for higher salaries for these team members.

• The time to put these senior team members in place is when the foundation has already laid the strong foundation for growth—all core positions are filled and business processes are efficient.

GivingNet is available to work with you and your board to develop a strategy for aggressive growth.  Contact us to discuss how to move forward in this direction.

Powering Up Philanthropy
The first in a series of three interviews with Carla Dearing President & CEO, on GivingNet's 'next generation' donor engagement strategies.

The goal of Internet-based donor engagement is to tap the participatory, passion-driven and self-service attributes of the Web on behalf of philanthropy.