Recruitment, training & interim management

Recruitment, professional support and training of staff can be a time-consuming process, requiring particular expertise and skills which many charities, focusing as they do on their core activities, may struggle to provide.

Recruitment

Charities can find the resourcing of fundraising and development problematic. This is partly due to the tendency for fundraising and development professionals to move every four or five years, so that it can be hard for an organisation to develop a consistent and easily-measured approach to fundraising. The need for different skills according to prevailing organisational needs is also a factor; for example, someone who is excellent at strategic planning and laying the foundations for fundraising may not have the focus and eye for detail to run a major fundraising campaign. Charity recruitment consultancies can provide an excellent general – and generic – service, but few if any have consultants who have experience as fundraising practitioners and who are able to differentiate between the claimed performance and experience of candidates and the actuality.

How Craigmyle can help

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As a fundraising consultancy with more than 50 years’ continuous experience of strategic and ‘hands-on’ fundraising, we ensure that all our consultants are themselves experienced fundraising practitioners.
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The Craigmyle approach is invariably bespoke, tailored to the specific needs of the client rather than offering a standardised ‘Director of Fundraising’ or ‘Director of Development’ recruitment process. We start by assessing: the background context to the recruitment; the client ethos and profile; the precise nature of the post and how it interacts and reports to others within the organisation; the circumstances leading to the job vacancy descriptions; perceived client needs and expectations; and specific task or skills requirements.
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Craigmyle, with the client, then looks at a range of options – for example, rather than recruiting a Director of Fundraising (bearing in mind that good ones can be relatively expensive and often hard to find), might it make sense to recruit a less experienced person while offering a higher level of training and support?
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Craigmyle drafts job descriptions and person specifications, formats interview processes and questions and can help with shortlisting and interviews.

Interim management

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Coupled with recruitment, Craigmyle’s interim management service can be an excellent option. This is not a long-term replacement for internal resourcing, but a short-to-medium term solution which can bring in essential skills and experience at short notice. It allows an organisation to continue with active fundraising and maintain momentum whilst looking for a replacement; it takes the pressure off the recruitment process and ensures that there is no need to rush the appointment or settle for second best.

Where next?

For an informal discussion, phone us on 01582 762441, or send us an e-mail.

 
Find out how we can help with...
Capital campaigns
Feasibility studies
Revenue fundraising
Securing major gifts
Trust fundraising
Legacy programmes
Fundraising strategies
Charitable giving and taxation
Recruitment, training & interim management