Should corporate fundraising job titles be Ronsealed?
John Thompson | 2 July 2010 | Blogs
When I first started in corporate fundraising, coming from PR where everybody knew what account executive/manager/director meant, my first job title was “business liaison executive” within the “Commerce & Corporate Department”. C&CD quickly changed its name so within a month I became a “corporate development executive” then manager, and so on, so forth.
However, the list of potential names for corporate fundraisers of varying seniority and function has changed significantly over the years and I was wondering whether it was time for a standard to apply?
For example, we now have corporate development managers that don’t manage people but manage accounts – and those that do manage people but not accounts. Corporate partnerships executives that manage people and others that don’t.
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Other job titles that spring to mind include: Business development manager, new business development manager, corporate relationships manager, corporate relations manager, corporate account manager, account director, senior corporate account director, business partnerships executive, commercial partnerships relationship manager, corporate fundraising officer/executive/manager/director etc, etc, etc.
Other areas of fundraising, such as trusts, don’t seem to have this level of title diversity. Why is that do you think? And what does your title mean to you? Would you change it if you could? – why and what to?
Furthermore, what do you think your job title communicates to potential corporate partners? Does it hinder you opening up relationships or do you think it doesn’t matter?
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
About John Thompson
John Thompson is a fundraising consultant with particular expertise in cause-marketing, sponsorship, strategy development, partnership marketing and executive recruitment. A blogger on UK Fundraising since 2006 with a background in corporate fundraising and public relations.