4 key tasks before you leave your fundraising job

As a fundraiser, your work helps move your organization’s mission forward. If you’re preparing to leave your fundraising job, what steps can you take to help your successor build on your work? Heather Eddy, President and CEO of Kistner Eddy Executive Services (KEES), recommends putting together some key documentation before your departure. By doing so, you’ll help continue to propel the mission forward. Here are Heather’s recommendations.

4 tasks to complete before you leave your fundraising job

Create a one-page brief of pointers for your replacement

In this document, include the following information:

• What you wish you’d known in your first month that it took six months to figure out?
• What big projects would you work on if you were staying another six months?
• Which 5 to 15 donors will need attention in the next few months?
• A list of any upcoming priorities, from your perspective

You can tailor this document to your specific role. For example, if your job focuses on coordinating events, you might share your top few tips or recommendations for each of your major events.

Document your data practices

In Heather’s experience, 9 times out of 10, a development director’s greatest frustration is figuring out the information in the database. But it’s not just how to use the database itself; a new staff member also needs to understand the meaning around the data. This is why it’s so important to document your data entry practices, including the reasoning behind them.

Make a list of important relationships

Heather finds that when staff turns over, the biggest setback occurs with relationships. Avoid this loss by documenting the top 10 or 15 donor relationships in your work. Or, you can make a Top 10 list of every function of your job. For example, you could list the 10 people you can count on to help at events, the top 10 grantors, and the top 10 businesses that provide in-kind donations. In order for the organization to thrive after your departure, make sure those relationships don’t leave with you. Heather suggests that prior to your departure, you personally link these key stakeholders with your successor. You can do this by sending individual emails or making calls. Or, if the search for your replacement is still underway, reach out to let them know a search is in progress, and share this information with the director or board president.

Record personal interactions in your database

Ideally, you already record these personal interactions on an ongoing basis, so details won’t be lost when you leave. (Tip: If you’re using LGL, contact reports are designed for this purpose.) But if you haven’t been doing this on an ongoing basis, you can still take the time to document some key information in the database before you leave.

Conclusion

Planning a thoughtful and organized departure from your organization means that the momentum you’ve built won’t be lost after you’ve gone. And that way, you can help the organization thrive even after you’ve moved on.

About Heather Eddy: Heather Eddy helps organizations achieve excellence by building strong, capable, dynamic, and diverse leadership teams. Throughout her 29-year career, boards continue to frequently seek her expertise when looking to diversify and reenergize their leadership teams, particularly through hiring the next CEO/ED/President or top Philanthropy role.