Development is the area on which I've chosen to focus
for the future, and I've done quite a bit of studying
about it in the last two years.

Concisely, commission is very much frowned upon in the
development field.  Professional fund raising
organizations, such as NSFRE, have as part of its
rules that its members must not be paid commission.
NSFRE, from what I can tell, is pretty much the
industry standard.

Now, there are organizations that do pay commission,
and why is beyond me (paying for performance, I
suppose), but it's the best way I know of to scare
your funders away.  When people give to your
organization, they want to believe that every penny is
going to programs and property.  They don't want to
think that x% is being promised as an incentive to
"the beggers."

I would suggest that any looking into this go to
http://www.charitychannel.com and research what has
been discussed on this topic in (over)abundance.  It
comes up about four times a year, and it always starts
the biggest flame war!



--- Amy A Kleinert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I vote "nay" on the commission for a fund raiser.  A
> commissioned fund
> raiser does put both the fund raiser and the
> organization in a ethical
> quandary. When your livelihood is based on the funds
> you raise,
> questionable tactics might be used. You owe it to
> your donors to provide
> faithful and ethical stewardship. Also, put yourself
> in the donors'
> shoes:  If that person is aware that the fund raiser
> is on commission
> how will she respond?  How do you respond to a
> salesperson that is on
> commission, you are guarded for fear you will be
> swindled and hustled out
> of your money. Commission has a negative image, does
> your organization
> want to project that image?  Like any employee, you
> place a level of trust
> that they will perform the duties of their position.
>  A fund raiser has internal
> incentives, to do a good job and to create an
> impressive portfolio for
> the next position. Fund raisers hold themselves to a
> professional and
> ethical standard, I would be weary of a fund raiser
> willing to work on
> commission.
>
> Amy Kleinert
> Marketing Manager
> South Bend Regional Museum of Art
> South Bend, Indiana
>
>
> On Thu, 3 Aug 2000, Jerrie Clarke wrote:
>
> > We are beginning plans to advertise for and hire a
> development person to
> > raise money for our endowment and some special
> projects.  We've researched
> > salary for that position, and I've seen a few
> posts on this List in the last
> > year concerning the range of salaries.  A member
> of our Board suggested we
> > offer a commission along with a base salary.  That
> seems to be a standard
> > practice in some fields.  Has anyone heard of that
> or does anyone's museum
> > do that?  Is there any kind of ethical issue
> involved?  Would any of you
> > involved in fund raising accept a smaller salary
> with that option?
> >
> > Jerrie
> >
> > Jerrie Clarke
> > Curator of Collections
> > Valdez Museum
> > http://www.alaska.net/~vldzmuse/index.html
> >
> >
>
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=====
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