Compensating Development Professionals

Ken Goldstein has written about the problems with commission based compensation for fundraising. In this blog post, he explores the questions of how, and if, this standard should be applied in all cases. What about those smaller nonprofits that can ill afford to pay for fundraising upfront and how does a startup start up if they cannot raise those first dollars on a contingency?

Commission-based compensation for fundraising by staff and consultants, although legal, is widely viewed as a bad practice for nonprofits.

Few topics generate more heated discussion in non-profit organizations than whether development professionals (staff or consultants) should be paid a percentage of the money raised, receive commission-based compensation, or be paid a performance bonus. Two things are becoming more and more apparent; the practice is increasing and the practice is troubling the development profession. This article discusses why the practice should not be used.

Too often, especially in smaller non-profit organizations, staff development officers are forced into a position that belittles them and damages the organization. They are charged with personally raising their own salaries. In this piece, Pedaris describes why he believes this is a bad practice.