Development = Sales?

“You wouldn’t try to sell a product without an adequate sales team, would you?”

That’s the analogy a board member put out, as he tried to convince his organization to hire an additional development staffer.

It was an interesting thought – that posited the development department as the organization’s advance team, and the group’s real-world impact as an item to be sold to people just waiting to buy something they hadn’t known they needed.

Well, sure. Sorta.

And yet – it made me uneasy.

Not the aspect that posited that it takes staff to position and support an organization’s fund-seeking visibility/viability.

But the part that implied that staff itself were the “sales team” masterminding a pitch to an unsuspecting public.

Maybe I’m naïve in thinking of fundraising as a higher calling, but I see it as partnering with people of good will to help the world rise to a better place. There’s an element of sales, sure, because that’s the tools you need to get the job done. But at the core is a fierce dedication to mission, by all means necessary. At the core, it’s not about finding people who need/will purchase your wares – it’s about saving the world and bringing us all along with you.

But in any case, your development department is not your sales team. Your board is. The development department supplies the tools, but the board – and committee members, volunteers, other donors – are the ones doing the listening that allows the organization to close the sale.

OK, I said it. I guess there is more than a little element of sales here. But it’s a means, not the end.