Two in five fundraisers (43%) believe that their charity’s chief executive does not understand their role and its challenges, a survey has found.
Research conducted by Claire Warner, founder of Charity Well, and published by Civil Society Media's Fundraising Magazine yesterday, looked at wellbeing in the sector and found that many fundraisers experience issues with leadership and management in their career.
The survey unveiled high turnover levels in fundraising teams. On average, respondents had only been in their current role for two years and eight months.
A total of 83% of respondents cited poor management and leadership among their reasons for looking for a new job.
One fundraiser, for example, said: “Poor management, poor trustees, treatment of fundraising – and therefore fundraisers – as a cost to be minimised rather than an investment, are all reasons. Setting impossible targets and then concluding that it is a failure of fundraising when these are not met, not a failure of governance, is also a common perception.”
The research also found that many fundraisers have experienced or witnessed examples of bullying and harassment, and that less than a third (30%) agree with the sentence “my organisation has a great health and wellbeing culture”.
The survey was carried out in two parts between May 2019 and February 2020 and was answered by 700 fundraisers in total. Fundraising Magazine’s subscribers can read full results in this month's magazine and online here.
