Anyone else have visions of piles of HR paperwork when they hear the word “onboarding?” Us, too. While the paperwork is definitely a very important piece of the puzzle, it’s not the whole picture.

Onboarding new Development staff has been a hot topic among our clients lately. When you’ve got a small team of folks who wear many hats, as is often the case in our sector, there tends to be A LOT of information that needs to be transferred to a new hire. It can be a challenge to do so thoroughly and efficiently, and with limited team bandwidth, it usually becomes a case of “learn as you do”.

Learning through doing can be a great tool, but we also want to formalize the process to ensure employee and volunteer leaders’ onboarding experiences are consistent, and to save you and your team precious time.

So, here’s our advice:

Your strategic plan = the holy grail. Use it! Identify the top 3-5 key goals relevant to your new hire’s position. (If you don’t have an outlined strategic plan, connect with us!) Will this person be overseeing grants when you’ve got a goal to increase government funding by 5%? Will they be responsible for implementing new donor communication strategies to increase retention rate?

Now’s the time to establish the initial expectations for the role. Based on those goals you identified, what are the most important things they’ll need to get started right away? This section will vary depending on the position, but clear priorities aligned with your strategic goals will make it MUCH easier to distill down the information you share during onboarding. 

Provide clear external messaging and context. We’ve all got ways we talk about our organization and our work internally (that probably includes lots of acronyms that make sense to absolutely no one outside the org), but here’s where that magic word *consistency* makes another important appearance. We want to make sure all of our staff and volunteer leaders are speaking about our work in the same way to external audiences. 

Sharing a few grant report examples is a great way to showcase how you’re presenting your organization to funders, and to provide context for specific programs you’re highlighting and why. They’re sure to include some recent stats, too, which is another great asset.

Formalize your information documenting and sharing processes! This can and should be done before you even get to the onboarding process. Oftentimes different pieces of institutional knowledge live with different people which can make it time consuming and confusing to collect information for a grant, donor meeting, etc. 

For example: We love that Betty, our Director of Development, knows that the Smiths only want to be contacted by phone call, AND we want everyone else to know it, too, so that no one gets a confused call back when they send the Smiths an email. More is more, so document away!

It would be impossible to share ALL the information you have with a new hire during the onboarding process, so they’re going to have to do a little discovery on their own. THAT’S where good documentation comes in. If you’ve got a CRM, use it! (And if you don’t, we recommend Bloomerang.) Keep notes on important upcoming grant opportunities, recent meetings with corporate partners, and relevant donor preferences to keep in mind.

Now, all this advice we’ve shared goes for staff, Board members and volunteers, too, but it doesn’t stop there…

Just like you onboard your staff, you should be onboarding your donors, too. Yes, really.

Your donors aren’t (and shouldn’t be) just a source of income. While they do provide crucial financial support, they’re partners in your mission, too – a necessary piece of the puzzle that drives your work. Donors can be some of your best fundraisers, and you want to make sure they have the tools to do so!

Just like we talked about for staff earlier, onboarding is a time to set expectations and goals. Establish your organizational culture with your donors – share your core values, mission, vision, and recent initiatives and appropriate benchmarks. 

This is the time to let your donors know how they can interact with you beyond their first donation. Do you have monthly volunteer opportunities? Can they create their own fundraising page? Or invite their friends to an upcoming mixer? Some donors will be proactive about getting more involved, but many of them will follow your lead!

Your donors are on your team, and as the age-old saying goes…

Now if you’re saying to yourself, “This is great, but how do we put it into practice?,” you’re in luck! TPC’s Founder, Hannah Berger, and Communications Consultant, Maggie Stillman, are teaming up in March for a workshop addressing just that! You’ll learn how to elevate your donor relationships through strategic communications and turnkey engagement tools to streamline your stewardship process. Click here to join our mailing list to get notified when registration is open.

In the meantime, check out this blog post for some tips to help amp up your donor stewardship and retention rates!

As always, we’re rooting for you and your fundraising success!

-Team TPC