Retain, Recruit, Rebuild:
How to Build a Teamwork Culture
John A. Perry
Chief Development Officer
Joslin Diabetes Center
Possible Titles
 Your Development Team:
Stronger Together
 Make your Development
Team Great Again
 Aleppo, what is Aleppo?
Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Background
First impressions: setting the stage with your team
Ideas from the literature and experience
Challenges from outside the development office
and how to meet them
V. Some case studies-practical ideas to get high
performance
The Challenges We Face
 There is an epidemic of turnover in development
 Staff come from various backgrounds with
differing work cultures and experience
 The challenge of a leader today is to:
– Create a culture that the team buys into and adopts
– Hire and develop a cohesive team with a staff from various
backgrounds
– Get the team working toward common goals
– Retaining the team members when they have success and may
be hired away
– Developing team’s skills to reach higher levels of success
Provide Inspiration
“What are you
doing and why?”
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Despite What Some Say,
This is a Team Sport
“It’s not about
getting the best
players, it’s about
getting the five
who play best
together.”
John Wooden
Three-time national champion coach
UCLA Bruins
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When you are the new leader
 Get to know everyone individually
 Ask them to describe their role, then compare it
to the job description on file
 Set expectations, but only change a couple of
things right away
 Observe and evaluate for 30-60 days, then make
your big changes
 Make bold proposals to administration early—
you won’t get the budget, people, etc. you really
need when you’re not new anymore
Clarify Goals and Roles
 Dysfunctional teams often lack attention to
results
 Figure out what the key indicators of success are
and who is responsible
 Consider reviewing the team via Patrick Lencioni’s
book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
 I experienced a big turnaround in one place using
the assessment in this book
Lack of results?
Maybe your team is dysfunctional
Building your team
 Get to know them as individuals and as individual team
members who can make a contribution
 Catch people doing things right
 Tell them how to work with you—explain your style/”rules
of engagement”
 Ask what issues have been the problem—address them
 Explain what you will focus on personally-manage their
expectations
 Take your work seriously but not yourself—after all the first
three letters in fundraising are “FUN”
 Be a “multiplier,” not a “diminisher”
Be a Multiplier
Be a Multiplier
Be a Multiplier
Good to Great
Building Your Team
 Have the team members become familiar with
each others strengths and how to leverage them
 Get them to know each other as individuals:
“Development Staff Bingo,” welcome email
 Articulate some broad themes of what the
successful team looks like and repeat often
 Get to know each other’s strengths: consider a
tool such as Clifton StrengthsFinder
Clifton Strengths Finder from Gallup
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Building your team
 Be transparent/honest right away—explain you will
always be so
 Be vulnerable-what I call “permission to speak freely”
 Articulate a critical set of values and standards and
stick to them
 Be on their team before they will get on your team—
rise to the occasion during moments of truth
 Inspire them about the nobility of your mission and
their work
Standards for Hiring
 Reach high and don’t settle—remember “good is the
enemy of great.”
 No job hoppers
 They must have mission orientation for healthcare
philanthropy
 They must be a good fit for the team
 Go after people you want—don’t just wait to see who
applies. Get the word out that the culture is changing.
 Promote from within to boost morale and grow your
own team. Instill confidence in the insecure.
Beware of the Traps
 Establish yourself among peers outside the department (e.g. CFO,
COO, Faculty/Clinical leaders)
–
–
–
–
–
Coordinate/collaborate
Keep them informed, but don’t defer too much
Manage expectations and timing of success
Remember you are the expert in your field
Speak honestly to them and bring them along. Let them hear from donors directly
or see benchmark data
– Seek out mentors/advisers who can support you
 Learn the “unwritten rules and issues” of the organization
 Understand culture of your organization: remember “culture will
eat strategy for breakfast every day”
 Know the history of your team and its interactions with
administration, physicians, faculty
Make a Deal with Everyone
 Find out what motivates each person (“I want
to take my dog to work”)
 Work out a deal so you get specific
performance in return for the thing they want
(e.g., telecommuting, learning a new skill)
Beware of the Traps: Advice from Ralph
 Leadership is performing a Turnaround—
understand context
 Development program is Tabula Rasa
 It's about Trust
 Don’t try to do or promise Too much
 We need to evaluate Short Term vs. Long Term
 Be sure we have the Talent before going forward
 We need to proceed with caution with Trustees
 Focus on best-practice Tactics
Share Development Plan with Team
Staff
Effectiveness
Prospect
Engagement
Compelling Case
for Support
Fundraising
Results
Build high performance
staff team, adding new
members, maintaining
current budget
Engage top prospects
with President in first
year and craft individual
strategies
Communicate power of
unrestricted gifts. Craft
list of restricted giving
opportunities for
budgeted expenses
Identify 15 donors
capable of naming gifts,
cultivate with President,
submit proposals to 5
Establish clear goals and
metrics, including
specific milestones and
outcomes
Partner with physicians
to establish appropriate
grateful patient program
from best practices
Develop a menu of 7 & 8
figure “big idea” naming
opportunities with
philanthropic appeal
Establish major gifts
pipeline with 3X the
dollar goal in rated value
Establish clear, value added policies and
standard practices and
stick to them
Build on President’s
Roundtables/Reestablish Leadership
Council & Foundation
Board
Roll out new CCTD
“campaign” as a game
changer in diabetes
research to engage 7 &
8 figure prospects
Reach goal for ‘16 Gala
with ‘17 Gala chair
recruited and
introduced at ’16 event
Develop staff skills/
competency and create
plan to retain top talent
Use President’s strategic
plan white paper to seek
advice from/engage
major prospects
Practice Stewardship
beyond donor
expectations to reengage past supporters
Refocus on unrestricted
gifts by strengthening
events, cause marketing
and leadership giving
Increase Visits/Prospect Engagement
via Strategic Plan White Paper
 Work with President/Dean to craft a white paper
framework for emerging strategic plan (akin to capital
campaign study)
 It should not be too slick or “final looking” so prospects
feel they are insiders/advisers
 Send it to top-rated prospects with a letter/email from
President/Dean asking donor to meet with x gift officer
and provide advice
 Aggregate advice and feed it back to prospects as you
cultivate them
 Build your pipeline with this technique
Case Study
Brown’s Alpert Medical School
Timeframe: September 2010 through August 2011
• 505 White Papers mailed to prospects rated $100k - $1M
• 162 Visits made via the Strategic Priorities/White Paper
• 39 Donors agreed to consider a major gift proposal
• 30% of emails/letters Resulted in Donor Visits
• $11,693,000 – Gifts/Pledges committed via this process
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Set Top Line Goals and Cascade them
through the Team Members
 Goal 1: Raise $X
in new gifts and
pledges:
a. Annual Giving
i. Milestone 1
ii. Milestone 2
 Share 1/4ly at staff
meetings
 Or, share one or two
goals per staff
meeting
 Have people
report/be
accountable to team
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More Ideas to Build the Team
 Consider “no meeting Wednesdays”
 At staff retreat, cross polinate teams
for planning purposes, e.g., MGO’s
meeting with stewardship
 Take on big issues with cross functional
task groups that work for a year and
report on their progress
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Questions
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