Denver, CO
I will provide training for retirees with corporate sales backgrounds to help them become nonprofit, campaign and community fundraisers.
Big Idea
Nonprofits across the country are facing a leadership vacuum. Our experience is that there is also a severe shortage of fundraisers — the positions that essentially ensure that the mission-related work of nonprofits can take place. Simultaneously, there are large numbers of retirees and boomers exiting corporate America who have successful backgrounds in selling but who lack the context and understanding of nonprofit culture and language to successfully apply their skills. This idea will bridge that gap by customizing and replicating an intensive fundraising program to help boomer retirees with sales backgrounds transition to nonprofit fundraising.
How Winning Will Help
I have developed and successfully implemented a three-day intensive program to prepare emerging leaders in nonprofits for fund development positions. The $5,000 prize will allow me to customize the training for transition from corporate sales to nonprofit fundraising and help identify partners (development professionals) across the country that can be trained to deliver this program in their communities.
More About Janine Vanderburg
I have run a consulting firm for more than 20 years that specializes in working with the nonprofit sector.
A year ago, I did a workshop on transitioning to the nonprofit sector. The response was overwhelming, and the great majority of people attending were older adults looking for encore careers in the nonprofit sector. Without fail, despite their extraordinary successes in the private sector in sales, they had difficulty bridging the culture of the nonprofit sector and speaking the language.
This idea could help individuals and the hundreds of thousands of nonprofits that need seasoned people who can effectively communicate their mission and their value.