A Tale of Two Fundraisers

Written by Gina Vaughn, Gail Perry Group’s Vice President of Client Services.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes

Two fundraisers. Same team, same goal, same manager.

One of these two fundraisers finishes the year well past goal. The other misses it and is running on fumes trying to get there.

If your first instinct is “the one who hit goal was just better at this,” hold that thought. 

It’s the conclusion almost everyone jumps to, and it’s often wrong.

Even worse, it doesn’t tell you anything you can actually do differently.

When two people with similar circumstances get very different results, the gap doesn’t always come down to raw ability.

It comes down to a small set of specific, learnable habits, which means the underperforming fundraiser isn’t a lost cause.

They’re missing something identifiable and fixable.

What We Found

When we looked closely at how each fundraiser spent their time and approached their work, a few clear differences emerged.

1. Fundraiser A recorded next steps. Fundraiser B kept it in their head.

Fundraiser A had a simple, consistent system: after every donor interaction, a specific next step with a specific date, recorded in a database.

Fundraiser B relied on memory and instinct. Relationships quietly went stale not from lack of care, but from lack of a system to catch them.

Fundraiser A asked for help early. Fundraiser B tried to solve everything alone.

When a relationship got complicated- a family dynamic, a change in the donor’s circumstances, an ambiguous signal- Fundraiser A quickly brought it to their manager or teammates to think it through together.

Fundraiser B treated asking for help as a sign they are not able to handle it themselves, which meant problems sat unresolved far longer than they needed to.

Fundraiser A protected donor-facing time. Fundraiser B let it erode.

Fundraiser A defended blocks of calendar time specifically for donor contact, treating internal meetings and administrative work as things to fit around that priority.

Fundraiser B let their calendar fill reactively, which meant donor contact, the actual revenue-generating activity, got squeezed into whatever time was left over.

None of these differences are about intelligence, work ethic, or mission commitment.

Both fundraisers cared deeply about the work and were putting in real effort.

The gap was entirely about specific, teachable habits that one had developed and the other hadn’t.

That distinction matters because it changes what a manager should actually do. “Work harder” or “care more” isn’t useful feedback when the real issue is a missing system for tracking next steps or a habit of over-analyzing readiness. Specific, behavioral coaching is the solution.

What This Means for Managing Your Team

If you have fundraisers with a real performance gap despite comparable circumstances, resist the instinct to explain it as a talent difference. Instead:

• Compare how each person actually spends their time, not just their results
• Look specifically at their systems for tracking donor relationships and next steps
• Notice whether they ask for help proactively or try to solve everything solo
• Check whether donor-facing time is protected or getting squeezed out by everything else

A Quick Gut Check

Before your next performance conversation, ask:

• Do you know specifically how your fundraisers spend their week, or just what their results look like?
• Is there a concrete system (or lack of one) for tracking donor relationships that might explain part of the gap?
• Have you coached the specific habit, or just the outcome?

The difference between your best and your struggling fundraisers is not always talent. It’s usually a short list of specific habits, and once you can name them, they’re coachable.

Could your fundraising team be getting better results with a few simple changes?

Sometimes the difference isn’t talent. It’s the habits, systems and support your fundraisers have in place. GPG can help you identify what’s holding your team back and develop practical strategies to strengthen performance.

Talk With GPG About Your Fundraising Team