4 lies you don’t have to buy about nonprofit salary negotiation

Are you tired of being broke at the end of the month?

Would you like to have some savings and even put some money away for retirement?

Maybe like Destiny’s child, you are asking your job,

“Can you pay my bills?
Can you pay my telephone bills?
If so maybe we can chill-
But I don’t think you do-
SO you and me are through!”

How can you get a higher salary in your nonprofit fundraising job?

You’ve got to ask for it.

How do you ask, when grants are unreliable, when you have a government contract that is late, or when you know your boss isn’t thinking about giving ANYONE a raise?

This career mistake can cost you $10,000 per year.

Imagine if you had negotiated up $10,000 when you first got your job. You could be making $60,000 instead of $50,000. You’re losing $10,000 per year each year you stay at this job.

Or imagine that because of the successes you’ve had in your role so far, you had a chance at your annual review to negotiate a $10,000 increase in salary. And you didn’t. And here we are. Still trying to pay the bills!

You’ve got to learn how to negotiate your salary- so you can pay your bills!

First, here are 4 lies you don’t have to believe about fundraising salary negotiation

1. You can only negotiate your salary and benefits when you get hired.

Nope. You can negotiate your salary, benefits and a variety of other things at different points during the year. You can go to your boss and say, “What are the metrics that you would like to see me hit in the next 3 months?” And there’s more you can say- but we’re going to tell you inside the Fundraising Career Conference in April 17-21 2017. Learn more.

2. You can only negotiate for money, not for other things. 

According to Meghan Godorov, salary negotiation expert who will be teaching at the Fundraising Career Conference:

“Most people assume that the only thing they can negotiate is the salary. But a lot of times you can negotiate other aspects of your work, your schedule or having a day from home, or maybe a different start time. Something around travel. It just depends on the organization, and sometimes you just have to know what they value. You know that you’re valuable, but I think that you have to think about that and then you have to know how you believe you’re valuable fits in with what the organization values itself. So sometimes it’s just a disconnect, and having tried to negotiate salary, you want to make sure you go in there thinking about your plan B and C. So if you know plan A is salary and that’s not going to budge, then you know that plan B and C you can ask for whatever other two factors you feel might help you stay, or might help you feel compensated in a better way.”

3. You have to say everything you want all at once. 

Nope. Sometimes we talk too much. We say all the things that we want to say to our supervisor and ask for that raise along with that, instead of sort of being factual and succinct and letting the supervisor respond to one request first. Prepare yourself for how you want that conversation to go.

Meghan Godorov counsels, “It takes practice to be open to that discomfort within your negotiation. You need to be open to really understand and really showcase why you’re coming from this particular vantage point, but also where your supervisor may be coming from.”

4. You know what your boss wants. Dollars raised. Period. 

You might be assuming you know what you’re being judged on.  You can’t really know until you ask these two questions:

‘What do you value? What are the metrics of my job that would make me get a raise?’

For example, in my last job I thought fundraising metrics were the most important thing that I was going to be judged on. And actually, my boss was judging my clothing, judging how I got to work (my bike instead of my broken down old car)- how I made a marketing piece, not just my metrics on who I touched or how much I raised.

Now that you know some questions to ask as you start the salary and raise negotiation, come to the online Fundraising Career Conference, April 17. 19th and 21st. You don’t even have to leave your desk to get a raise at this job or the next nonprofit job you have.

Your investment in this conference could pay back within the first day of your new salary. 

Learn more here.

Here are some more articles on how to negotiate your nonprofit salary

Case Study: How to negotiate your nonprofit salary

Getting a Raise at Your Fundraising Job: Interview with Meghan Godorov, Salary Negotiation expert