Community Discussion: How Many of You Wear Multiple Hats at Your Organization?

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First, middle, last name? Busy, busy, busy!

Autumn can not only be a beautiful time of the year with the changing of the leaves but we all know it can be one of the busiest times of the year!

One of the big goals then is to be sure everyone is in communication that we are not making assumptions. This requires that we all meet together and that any silo action is stopped. This is not only about the sanity of those at the non-profit but protecting and nurturing our donors/prospects respectfully.

Step one for me is to be sure the communication plan of our donors/prospects and how it is going to play out is completely vetted.  What type of communications and when they are dropping is key. We want to be sure that as a donor/prospect they are not receiving any mixed messages.

For instance, ensuring that they don’t receive two direct mail pieces close together unless warranted. Another thought about this is ensuring that if you are building your mid-level giving program that an annual fund solicitation is not sabotaging a mid-level ask. Using your predictive models and wealth screening can help you segment the population you want to be speaking to.

My next concern is ensuring that everyone in the organization is aware of how the upcoming next 3 months will be impacting our lives.

For instance, if you do more than just research and now with the excitement of the end of the year push my time is being monopolized at a higher concentration then make sure you let everyone know. I was the director of prospect research but I also wrote thank you letters for the dean of the medical school for gifts at $10K+. As you can imagine, the amount of time I had to do research in December and January was extremely impacted.

Let your team know this and what they should be able to expect from you with regards to research.

Another thought about research is this time of the year we may have a higher volume of say event bios versus full-out research. Some people may assume that creating an event bio is quick and easy when it can be time consuming especially for those donors/prospects who have a lot of great information. How do you compact that into 2-3 sentences? It may also mean that event bios take precedence and my team needs to understand that.

Ultimately, what I am driving at is that in order for us to all enjoy the upcoming holidays that we need to upfront and communicate in an honest and realistic manner.

So, how many of you are wearing "multiple hats" at your organization? More importantly how are you making it work and share with the group? Let us know by commenting below!

News ARCHIVED | Blackbaud Target Analytics® Tips and Tricks 10/06/2015 1:23pm EDT

Added by Michael Quevli

5 Comments

Carley Haynes Aug '16

I'm not really sure if I'm wearing multiple hats as I've done the same work for two different organisations now....I have nothing else to compare it to!!!! I manage the RE database (gift processing, banking, acknowledgement letters and receipts, reporting, importing, setup events, database clean up and management etc ) conduct training as required, research new products and keep the organisation up to date on anything that might be better for us, advise on Online Express processes, update bounced emails and unsubscribes etc., It seems like a lot for one person to do but as I said.. I have no idea if that is normal or not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like this post though.. advising the team on my workload is something I am not particularly good at! Something else to work on!! :)

Linda Houlihan Dec '15

Using Blackbaud is usually about 1% of my job, but when I need it, it is really critical, so I appreciate that the look and feel doesn't radically change every time I use it. Thank you for keeping things consistent.

Laura Elliott Oct '15

Technically, I was brought on board as the Gift and Data Specialist. That consisted primarily of gift processing and imaging only and then backing up the bio person with data projects. Since then, the stewardship piece has grown drastically with our receipting and acknowledgment of the gifts. Let’s just say that our process have become increasingly complex to the point where it has become very time-consuming. Then I’ve been asked to back up our research person with wealth screening and linking when she gets to be too busy. I don’t mind the extra work, but now if only my job title and description reflected it! This is working out fine because even though my title hasn’t changed, everyone knows that I coordinate the acknowledgement process, so they know who to go to and they know that if it takes a while for a letter to get back to me, I’ll be on top of it. If or when things get too busy here, I also have a backup for the gift processing, so basically, it’s just a matter of everyone being in on the game plan and making sure that there is cross training.

Crystal Bruce Oct '15

I wish this platform had the capability to like a response. You are doing a phenomenal job of juggling those hats, Eileen!

Eileen Disken Oct '15

My job is amazing and wearing multiple hats makes each day exciting. My primary role is research. But often I train new users in our organization or answer questions for experience users who are working in RP. Researcher, trainer, database administrator, solutions central, etc. Training and assisting others in using RP to its fullest potential helps me keep me engaged with the field. Communication is the key to successful research.