Stop the Revolving Door: How to Attract and Keep Fundraising Talent in a High-Turnover Field 

Thursday, January 12, 2023
11:30 am - 12:00 pm - Lunch and Networking 
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm - Program 

This course has been approved for 1 point of CFRE credit. 

Location: 
Austin Community College 
Highland Business Center, Room 301
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Austin, Texas 78752-4390 

Online registration for this event has now closed. 

Session Description

The revolving door of fundraising staff is detrimental to organizational growth, staff morale, and donor relationships - and the “Great Recession” has only made it harder to find and retain talent. 

So what can we do about it?  At this session we'll explore: 

• Why nonprofits must adopt new, more flexible, and more equitable hiring practices in order to broaden candidate pools and remain responsive to jobseekers’ priorities.
  

• How focusing on people-centered hiring and retention practices can be an achievable, affordable, and impactful way to shift a fundraising culture.
  

• What types of professional development will provide meaningful opportunities for your development team to learn new skills grow their networks and engage in the sector as a whole.

• How you can embody people-first policies to support your team, increase retention, and foster a successful virtual/asynchronously working culture.
  
  

You’ll leave the session understanding what you can do in the short- and long-term to address high development attrition, and you’ll have tangible resources and  recommendations to attract and retain top fundraising talent. 

This workshop is led by Cat Ashton, founder and CEO of Giant Squid Group, who brings a commitment to intersectional feminist and anti-racist values to her management and leadership, and who speaks and coaches on the high burnout and high turnover endemic in fundraising.  

Speaker: Catherine Ashton, Founder & CEO, Giant Squid Group 

Catherine Ashton (she/her) is on a mission to change the way nonprofits fundraise, lead, and work. As the founder of Giant Squid Group LLC, Catherine works with start-up and small nonprofits through an intersectional feminist and anti-racist lens to help them move grassroots organizing toward systems-level change. 

Catherine is dedicated to promoting inclusivity and equity in the nonprofit sector and has been a raging feminist from a young age.  In her “outside of work” time she’s volunteering with the Austin Diaper Bank, doing a jigsaw puzzle and listening to true crime podcasts, or spending time with her daughter Rosalind and rescue dogs, horses, and cats. You can find Catherine at linkedin.com/in/catherinebashton and learn about her nonprofit work at giantsquidgroup.com.