This is a picture of me after leaving my last fundraising job! I was so happy! My career after fundraising? I had NO CLUE, but I was excited for whatever came next.
Of course, I tried to find other fundraising jobs, but nothing really stuck. So I started looking around. Where could my fundraising skills be best applied?
Fundraising taught me how to:
- Research grants
- Write consistently
- Create events like dinners, galas, career fairs
- Ask for money and do sales
- Create marketing materials, like write and send newsletters, update the website, and even TV ads
- Do graphic design and design our annual report, brochures, swag, and more.
- Send out invoices and followup
- Reach out to people who had no reason to talk with me and make them care
- Work in a team and pull off some remarkable events.
- What has fundraising taught YOU? Write it down.
With skills like these, I chose the career after fundraising that many people choose- Entrepreneurship.
I decided to become a nonprofit fundraising consultant, and organizational development coach. I also learned how to present and teach, and use those opportunities to get more clients.
- Since leaving fundraising, I’ve used my marketing and sales skills to get clients.
- In my career after fundraising, I’ve put on 15 online conferences, using my event creation skills to get sponsorship and seats sold for every event.
- I’ve spoken all over the world, from the UK to Jamaica.
- In the years since my last fundraising job, I’ve written 10 ecourses, 3 books, and over 1000 blog posts
- I’ve gotten multiple government contracts to teach marketing to small businesses, and worked with Oregon Metro, the City of Austin Texas, the SBA Small Business Week, the statewide Oregon SBDC, and others.
- Not to mention, I’ve gotten published and quoted in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and many others.
What should you do for your next career?
Now, I can’t tell you what the right career after fundraising is for you. But for me, the skills I learned in fundraising were extremely transferable to what I am doing now. Of course, I learned a lot since leaving my fundraising job. I’m grateful that I invested in coaching to ask for more because a side-effect of working in fundraising is that we tend to devalue our work. That’s why I love helping current and former fundraisers see their value and their worth and make more than ever before.
Just this last year I helped two nonprofit consultants raise their rates exponentially and stop worrying about money, and do more of the things they love. Check out my testimonials page here then set up a call.
If you’re interested in becoming a consultant or raising your rates as a consultant, come to our Nonprofit Consulting Conference August 25th and 26th! Check it out here.