Some Recruitment Advice: Finding the Needle in the Haystack

 You decide you need to improve your bench strength in fundraising and revenue generation. However, you know that recruitment can be very labour-intensive and expensive. Once you develop a job description and post an advertisement on CharityVillage, AFP, LinkedIn, Indeed, or other recruitment sites, you are often flooded with cover letters and résumés. Most applicants are well-intentioned, some are qualified, but far too many simply do not fit your organization’s culture and needs.

Traditional full-service recruitment firms can help, but they often come at a high cost, frequently charging 20–30% of the successful candidate’s annual salary. For many organizations, that level of expense is difficult to justify.

Instead, consider a more concentrated and economical approach. Engage an experienced fundraising professional to manage the most time-consuming stage of the process — reviewing applications, vetting résumés, and conducting initial interviews. Rather than sorting through dozens of marginal candidates, you can begin working with a short list of highly qualified individuals ready for final interviews.

This targeted approach saves time, reduces cost, and keeps your leadership team focused on selecting the right person. And it still provides the benefit of an experienced fundraising professional who brings objectivity, sector knowledge, and recruitment expertise to the search — often at less than half the cost of a full-service firm.