Being an Executive Director or CEO in the nonprofit sector is incredibly rewarding. And incredibly challenging, particularly in the area of fundraising. Tightened budgets are putting unusual pressures on nonprofits and you as the CEO's are bearing the brunt of that pressure. We at FundraisingCoach.com have reached out to more than 100 CEO's and Executive Directors of nonprofits asking them what what 5 things were most getting in the way of them effectively raising enough money for their nonprofit. We received dozens of answers! They can be grouped into these common themes: time management, lack of training, staffing, the board, poor or incomplete systems, and issues with prospects or donor relations.

[Note: This is only for CEO's, Presidents, or Executive Directors. If your position isn't one of those, please do not complete this survey.]

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* 1. Job Title:

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* 2. How long have you been leading a nonprofit (including years as an executive before your present position)?

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* 3. The 15 statements below are the actual words from our interviews. Please rank these frustrations in order of most frustrating to least frustrating. (Choose "N/A" if the question doesn't apply to you or your situation.)

TRAINING:

  5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neutral 2- Disagree 1 -Strongly disagree 0- N/A
I just don't like asking for money. There are so many other things to do that it's easy to put off asking.
I am afraid to ask for money. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am.
I honestly have never been trained to ask. I have other leadership and management skills, but I think training would help me do this more effectively.

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* 4. TIME MANAGEMENT:

  5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neutral 2- Disagree 1 -Strongly disagree 0- N/A
Too many day-to-day/operational issues needs get in the way of me being strategic. I’m too busy putting out fires to have time to talk to donors.

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* 5. STAFFING:

  5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neutral 2- Disagree 1 -Strongly disagree 0- N/A
Asking for money isn’t my responsibility. That should be done by someone else, like the fundraising person.
The board isn't allowing me to staff the nonprofit in a way that would free me up to develop donor relationships.

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* 6. SYSTEMS:

  5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neutral 2- Disagree 1- Strongly disagree 0- N/A
We have no history of a major gifts program. We’re just getting this off the ground.
I have no idea what the development staff is doing.
I expect to have to build a relationship, but I never even get a bio or profile of the people development wants me to meet. I’d do better with more preparation.

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* 7. PROSPECTS:

  5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neutral 2- Disagree 1- Strongly disagree 0- N/A
I don't have enough qualified prospects in our pipeline.
I only want to just ask people that are ready to make big gifts. Someone else should figure out if they're qualified.
People give to event participants (walkathon, bowlathon, awards gala, etc.), not to our nonprofit. It's hard to bridge that connection.

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* 8. BOARD:

  5- Strongly agree 4- Agree 3- Neutral 2- Disagree 1- Strongly disagree 0- N/A
My board has high fundraising expectations but doesn't give donations or make introductions to possible donors to help us get there.
My board doesn’t realize that 90% of fundraising isn’t asking, it’s building a relationship. And they don’t appreciate how time consuming that is.
Getting to 100% board participation shouldn’t be a Herculean effort, but it is. (A task we don’t always achieve.)

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* 9. If you'd like to learn about the results of this study, enter your email here:

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