Following the presentation of the first fundraising remuneration study conducted in partnership by the Association Française des fundraisers and YourVoice, Luc Meuret, founder of YourVoice, took time out for a three-question interview to tell us a little more about the study...
1. What methodology did you adopt to carry out this study on remuneration in the fundraising sector?
In April, AFF sent out a questionnaire to all its members and received just under 500 responses. We have retained 360 of them, as we wished to study the remuneration of fundraisers on permanent contracts who work for fundraising organizations (associations, foundations or public bodies), excluding freelancers and employees of fundraising consultancies, whom we will analyze in another report at a later date.
The panel of people who took part in our study is 80% female, two-thirds of them based in the Paris region. 33% had recently entered the workforce and 34% were in mid-career (aged 35 to 45). A quarter of the responses studied came from management positions, and we also noted a predominance of fundraisers from the social and humanitarian sectors. 92% of respondents have at least a Master's degree, 30% have been to a business school, 29% have trained in communications or marketing, and 23% have a degree in humanities or political science.
The data we collected before the summer and analyzed up to October revealed a wide variety of responses. Salary surveys are often segmented according to seniority in the same position and the size of the organization. The dispersal of salaries in the fundraising sector did not allow us to follow this pattern.
As a result, we have published several tables for seven different professions (resource development director, key accounts manager, philanthropy manager, patronage manager, bequest manager, relationship marketing manager, relationship marketing manager) and in five distinct sectors (social & humanitarian action, social accommodation and education; cultural activities; advocacy and environmental protection; higher education, training and research; health). We have also drawn up a ranking for the Ile-de-France region and another for the other regions.
We took a closer look at each of these professions independently, and noted that remuneration could be sensitive to experience, the size of the organization or the size of the team being managed. We also looked at what was happening across the Channel.
2. What advice would you give to fundraisers looking to increase their remuneration?
Half of the fundraisers who responded to the questionnaire claim to have received a raise in the last year.
There are four main options for increasing remuneration: increasing the level of fundraising, taking on more managerial responsibilities, moving to a different structure (since fundraising teams are often small and offer few opportunities for advancement), or changing sector.
While overall salaries are not very different between agencies and collecting organizations, at a certain management level, working in an agency can also be a way of increasing your remuneration.
Moreover, new recruits are often better paid than long-standing employees, which can cause problems. 25% of respondents to our survey also admit to variable remuneration, and even if the majority of these emoluments are collective and not individual, this may be a way for employing organizations to retain their fundraisers, obviously within the ethical limits of the profession.
3. Why did your firm become involved in the fundraising sector?
I'm personally very attached to the fundraising family, as I myself practiced this profession some twenty years ago for the Aide et Action association. I also discovered the sector when I attended the AFF annual seminar in June and the International Fundraising Congress in Amsterdam. We've been AFF partners since our firm was founded in 2009. We took part in their very first job referential drawn up in 2011, and we are their career consulting partner for their events in 2023.
Every year, we also recruit fundraisers for major players in the public interest, and we are naturally involved in all matters relating to their remuneration. The fundraising professions are the interface between social engineering and the economic world, and the founding principle of our firm follows the same philosophy, since we create bridges between this commercial world and the public sphere.
