Home / Sector research
The state of fundraising roles
How are fundraising roles designed, and what does that do to the people in them?
Two short surveys, about eight minutes each. One for the people who do the work, one for the people who hire and lead them. We publish what the sector tells us, free, to everyone who takes part.
Everyone has a theory. Nobody has the evidence.
Ask anyone in this sector why the last fundraiser left and you will get an answer in seconds. Ask for evidence and the room goes quiet.
When a fundraiser leaves, the story is nearly always that the wrong person was hired. That is rarely what happened. Usually the scope was too broad. The target was set with no plan underneath it. One person was carrying the work of three, reporting to a board that treated fundraising as somebody else's job.
Both sides of the same question.
Turnover in fundraising costs this sector money, momentum and donor relationships. Almost all of the conversation about it runs on anecdote.
So we are asking the people doing the work, and the people who design the roles and make the hires. Nothing here is a criticism of anybody. Almost every problem in this sector was created by good people doing their best with too little. But you cannot fix a design problem nobody has measured.
Take whichever one fits you.
If you both do the work and hire for it, you are welcome to take both.
If you work in fundraising
For anyone in a fundraising role, at any level, in any size of organisation, current or recent.
- Completely anonymous, no name needed
- What your role actually involves, against what you were told it would involve
- What is working, and what would make you stay
- About eight minutes
If you hire fundraisers
For CEOs, hiring managers, HR leads and board members who design fundraising roles or approve them.
- Confidential, reported only in aggregate
- How roles get designed, scoped and costed
- What happens when a hire does not work out
- About eight minutes
They build the published findings, and nothing else.
- The fundraiser survey is anonymous. It does not ask for your name, your email or your employer.
- The employer survey is confidential. Individual organisations are never named, quoted or made identifiable, and results are reported only in aggregate.
- Nothing is sold, rented or shared. Not to recruiters, not to suppliers, not to anybody.
- Your answers are never linked to your browsing. We do not connect survey responses to website visits or to advertising.
- The findings are published free. To everyone who takes part, and to the sector generally.
- Taking part puts you on no sales list. If you want to hear from us, there is a box below and you have to tick it yourself.
This page carries no advertising or analytics trackers.
This site runs no advertising or remarketing pixels anywhere. Other pages use Google Analytics, and only if you accept it, as described in our privacy notice. This page uses nothing at all, because measuring people would sit badly beside a promise of anonymity. The only thing passed to the survey is a short label saying which link brought you here. It says nothing about you.
Duncan Schieb, Role by Design.
This research is run by Duncan Schieb, founder of Role by Design, a consulting practice for Australian not-for-profits. He has spent his working life in fundraising in this country, has served on boards, and is a member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Questions about the research, the method, or how your data is handled: duncan@rolebydesign.com.au
Get the results when they land.
Leave your email and we will send you the published findings. You can do this whether or not you take a survey, and it is kept separate from survey responses.
The things worth knowing before you start.
I am a fundraiser. Can I take part?
Yes, and you are exactly who this is for. The fundraiser survey is anonymous. Nothing you say can be traced back to you or your organisation.
Is this only for one state?
No. The research is national. Some invitations go out state by state, so responses may arrive from one state before another. The published findings will always say where the responses came from.
Will my organisation be named?
Never. The employer survey is reported in aggregate only. No organisation is named, quoted or made identifiable in anything we publish.
When will the findings be published?
When there is enough in to say something honest. Leave your email above and you will get them the day they are out.