Here are some typical duties cited in job opening announcements for an Executive Director or CEO:

“Must actively solicit contributions and cultivate relationships to complete the capital campaign and ensure annual budgets are met.”

“Develops comprehensive plans for expanding revenue through new fundraising projects and guiding the staff in executing current and new plans.”

These responsibilities are so significant that sometimes it almost seems that the ED/CEO needs to have worked as a Development Director before becoming an Executive Director.

Is this the case?

No. However, looking at these job descriptions, we find two important clues to the eventual success of the ED:

The ED/CEO needs to be the face of the organization for most major donors and funders, and should be comfortable asking for gifts at the highest levels.
The ED/CEO needs to devote a significant amount of their total time to fundraising – perhaps as much as 50%.*

I’m often asked this question: Once an ED hires an experienced development director, can’t the ED do less fundraising?

The answer is yes, if you are referring to planning, organizing, and guiding other staff in fundraising programs and activities.
The answer is no, if you are referring to the time spent in total. Your time with major donors, planned giving donors, corporate leaders, and foundations should skyrocket once you hire a great development director.

Setting the ED up to meet with more of these folks is a major responsibility of the development director. For the ED, this is some of the most productive and valuable time you can spend in your work. It will result in more funding for your organization than most other activities – it has a huge ROI. Your donors want to talk with the leader of the organization, and the bigger the ask, the more important it is for the ED/CEO to be an important player in the cultivation, the ask, and the stewardship after the gift.

So the more successful your development director, the more time you will spend in fundraising as the ED – and it will be quality time, worthy of your leadership position. If you aspire to lead a nonprofit organization as the ED/CEO, make sure you enjoy fundraising and are good at it. And be sure to hire a great development director to make your time in fundraising as valuable as possible!

*For several years now, the average percentage of time spent by the ED/CEOs of nonprofit organizations – large and small – has been about 50%. At the small organization end of the spectrum, EDs probably spend even more than 50% of their time in fundraising, because there’s often no one else to do the work. On the large end of the size spectrum (organizations such as universities and hospitals), the CEO has the time to do it, and must do it to keep the largest gifts coming in.