AFP Member Spotlight: Matthew Dobson, CFRE, PMP

AFP Member Spotlights are a recurring series of interviews with AFP members, highlighting the unique individuals and career paths that exist within the fundraising profession. If you know an inspiring fundraising professional who deserves to be featured, please email [email protected].

In this member spotlight, we interviewed Matthew Dobson, CFRE, PMP, director of development at Devereux Georgia. With a background in program design and human services, he brings a creative, cross-functional approach to fundraising and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of professionals.

Q: How did you start your career in the fundraising profession and what led you there?
A: My entire career has been in human services related nonprofits. I started out being heavily involved with curriculum development and program design. Prior to fundraising, I even held a variety of operational and programmatic roles, always being led to where I felt like I could make the biggest impact for an organization. However, my initial start with fundraising actually came through volunteering for events and participating in peer-to-peer campaigns for causes that were close to my heart due to disease and diagnoses of personal friends and family members. 

Q: When and why did you decide to become an AFP member?
A: I realized that being a part of a large network of colleagues and other professionals would be key to success. As I transitioned into fundraising-centric roles, I discussed various different opportunities for growth and training with friends and coworkers. A friend of mine, an executive director at another organization, suggested that I check out AFP. At first, I was interested in the trainings, webinars, and other resources available. Soon I realized the importance of being a part of a chapter and joined the AFP Greater Atlanta Chapter. 

Q: Are you doing anything innovative at your organization (or a past organization) that you think other fundraisers could benefit from?
A: At my current organization, Devereux Georgia, we are really working to involve program staff in the fundraising process. We're part of a national behavioral health organization (The Devereux Foundation) and have programs statewide where we work primarily with adolescent youth populations. With us having a statewide presence, the development team cannot be everywhere at once. As a result, we've focused on cross training and bringing in key program managers, case workers, and other staff who are interested in development and marketing in order to help us with everything from external affairs, communications, donation drives, peer-to-peer fundraising, and event support. We've provided trainings to different departments as well as opportunities for other staff to attend trainings offered by local community foundations, AFP, and other partner organizations. We've even had program staff attend AFP ICON and other conferences!

Q: What is your favorite word? (only one word) How has this word influenced or inspired your career?
A: Creativity. I love being able to look at and find opportunities for creative problem solving in everything that I do. I thrive on being able to look for outside-the-box solutions. For example, I've applied a lot of project management structures into development teams I've been a part of. I feel like through utilizing PM processes, a structured environment is created for innovative ideas to thrive. It has allowed teams to brainstorm new ideas, test new campaigns, and innovate without exceeding narrow department budgets or burning out. 

Q: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I am most proud when I look at our industry and I see individuals who I used to teach, mentor, or work with now actively be involved with the fundraising profession. I've had former students, interns, colleagues, and clients all go on to seek careers in nonprofits and it always fills be with joy to see them grow and thrive. I've had former AmeriCorps Vistas join organizations as grant writers and gift officers. I've assisted with selecting the Teen Philanthropist of the Year for local AFP chapters, only to see them reach incredible goals. I've even convinced program staff to invest in cross training with development resulting in them pursuing their own CFRE. Being able to be a small part of all of that is what I am most proud of. 

Q: How has being an AFP member and participating in the AFP affinity groups benefited you in your career?
A: Being a part of AFP has given me a myriad of opportunities for networking, collaboration, mentorship, and celebration. The success of my career, the continued education, the credentialing (I've received my CFRE and PMP since becoming an AFP member all through support and guidance of other AFP members) have all been vital to my success and growth in the field. Most recently I've participated in the AFP Faculty Training Program and look forward to sharing and helping other AFP members grow their career and knowledge base as an AFP Certified Facilitator.  

Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the nonprofit fundraising profession today?
A: I think one of the biggest challenges is making sure your organization has a broad and diverse array of funding sources. In today's climate, you cannot simply rely on individual donors or grants. Events and sponsorships may provide some benefit, but also sometimes poor ROI. Government funding, state and local grants, corporate giving, it all ebbs and flows based on political climate and the economy. For true success, nonprofits need to look at diversifying their revenue streams as much as possible so they are not overly relying on any one method. Work towards implementing planned giving programs, be in contact with local community foundations, seek new and innovative partnership opportunities with other organizations, get out and build new donor and volunteer pipelines...the list goes on and on. Relying on older formulas for growth or just one or two traditional revenue streams just doesn't cut it anymore. 

Q: What advice do you have for other fundraising professionals?
A: Be flexible. Be agile. If your career has been primarily in annual giving or grants, spend some time learning about events, capital campaigns or even corporate philanthropy. You do not have to be a Jack/Jill of All Trades (Master of None). The biggest advice I have is to stay curious and reinvest in yourself. Learn new skills and do not pigeonhole yourself into just one sphere of fundraising. Cross training over distinct disciplines (major gifts, peer-to-peer, annual giving, etc.) makes you even more valuable. Go even further — be sure to understand what the programs side of your organization is facing. Gain some perspective and skills in operations, marketing, or communications. Even if these things are nowhere near needed for your current job description, it leads you towards a better well-rounded understanding and skill set for future career growth.