# Tony Poderis on when to appoint a first fundraising director

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/07/26/tony-poderis-when-appoint-first-fundraising-director/
- Published: 2006-07-26T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

US fundraising consultant and writer Tony Poderis has added a new article to his
Raise-funds.com website addressing the issue of when should an organisation appoint
its first fundraising director.
Tony, a long-time contributor to the UK Fundraising
Forum, writes regularly on practical issues affecting charities, boards and fundraisers.
His style is positive, based on his considerable fundraising experience, but also
blunt. In his latest article he argues: “if a non-profit organisation is beginning
to ask whether it needs a professional development director, it probably should 
have hired one months, even years ago.”

He adds that “the biggest mistake non-profits make in hiring their first development
director is waiting until the board, executive director, and other key personnel
have arrived at a consensus that one is needed NOW.” Consequently, “an organisation
that waits until it is necessary to hire a development director has waited too long.”

Tony offers a useful checklist to use with the organisation’s fundraising plan to
help it establish when a fundraising manager will become an essential requirement.
But he points out that there are no universal indicators of when this will be: it
all depends on the individual organisation.

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“When Should a Non-Profit Organization

Hire its First Development Director?” is just one of dozens of considered, practical
discussions of some of the key issues in fundraising that Tony shares at no charge
in his Fundraising Forum Library.

 * **[Vitalise appoints trustee with online communications expertise](https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/08/11/vitalise-appoints-trustee-online-communications-expertise/)**(
   11 August 2006)
 * **[New Fundraising Manager at NCT](https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/08/31/new-fundraising-manager-nct/)**(
   31 August 2006)
 * **[New National Fundraising Manager at PDSA](https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/09/19/new-national-fundraising-manager-pdsa/)**(
   19 September 2006)