What Nonprofit Developers Want from Consultants
Author: Dirk Rinker
A little while back Campbell Rinker asked hundreds of nonprofit development professionals to describe their preferences regarding marketing and fundraising consulting firms. Our readers and other development professionals responded with candid and thought-provoking responses to one of our questions:
What is the most important quality a direct marketing or fundraising consulting firm needs to bring to their relationship with you?
This month, DonorSpeak reports back to you on the responses.
Most often, expertise was cited as the most compelling attribute in a consulting firm. Essentially, nonprofits want their direct marketing and fundraising consultants to demonstrate a complete understanding of the organization’s mission and specific challenges they face. They want a consultant to demonstrate “in-depth knowledge of the service offered,” as well as “wise, insightful, and understanding counsel, based on… the client's unique needs, goals, and support base, to help the client achieve their priority objectives.”
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Beyond this expertise to help with internal needs, nonprofits look for expertise and evidence of real-world success. One says, “[We want] expertise with other like organizations … that can tell us what works and what doesn't.” Another asks for “experience…from other successful institutions.” Yet, they desire that experience to be tailored to their organization’s style. They don’t necessarily want to be just another cookie from the cutter.
Nonprofits also yearn for service. They frequently use terms such as responsiveness, adaptability, availability, communication, personalization, customization, meeting needs, working together, customer service, flexibility, and follow through to hammer home their desire for consulting firms to provide a higher level of service to their organization. They cite training, staff support, understanding, and especially a willingness to listen as ways consultants can demonstrate service.
A desire for integrity is also high on nonprofits’ list. Nonprofits are asking consultants to deliver on what they promise, adhere to ethical principles, demonstrate “honesty, integrity, vision, innovation,” transparency, and professionalism. In fact, the word integrity was the most frequently used word in hundreds of responses.
Neither is there any lack of hunger for strategy and good analysis. Respondents ask for consultants who provide “accurate analysis of where we are and what we need to do to achieve development/growth goals,” who “understand the factors that differentiate us from other environments and leverage those differences to their maximum effectiveness,” and who bring “institutional knowledge, talent, and original ideas” to the relationship.
More than just a relationship, quite a few nonprofits say they consider working with consultants as a partnership, and they want to feel a commitment, “shared-risk,” and an investment in them on the part of their advisors. One says they look for “a commitment to forming a unique partnership,” while another mentions looking for “a passion for our mission,” and others say they’re looking for “shoulder to shoulder” attitude and “teamwork.” For another respondent, this means “[the advisors] are willing to know the client's level of fundraising maturity and their challenges before and during the period of engagement.”
More than a few respondents cited creativity as the most important quality of the relationship, calling for “creativity, tested strategies with proven results,” and “high quality, creative, and attractive appeals.” Another indicated a need for “Innovative and creative packaging that does not look like a 'mass mailing'.” However, based on the input from this study, creativity appears to take a back seat to income – nonprofits would much rather meet their budgets than be cutting edge.
Surprisingly, not as many answers reflect on income to the nonprofit, admittedly the primary reason for awarding a contract to the consultant in the first place. Out of several hundred responses, only about one in twenty mentions results, ROI, return on the mailing, and bottom line targets. Perhaps development professionals know that when the advisors deliver on their need for expertise, service, integrity, strategy, relationship, and creativity, income is the natural outcome.
