If you are a fundraiser in your 20’s or 30’s and anything like me, your life is full of significant transitions.

In my case, I’m engaged to be married next year, and we are finally thinking of buying a house. I recently moved to a new city (Guelph, Ontario), and I’m driving a lot more than I used to (Toronto life was all bikes, TTC, and cabs). My knees are also making clicking noises. And I’m starting to get grey hairs. It’s a whole new world…

But my most significant transition has been a professional one. I recently started a new job at the University of Guelph. I moved from a world of small shops, small budgets, and lots of freelance consulting to advancement fundraising for a large and well-respected university. I am no longer the only fundraiser in the building. I’m not even the only CFRE in the building! And I’m certainly not the most knowledgeable.

I also moved from years of working with small teams and managing groups of volunteers and one or two staff to being a small part of a large team, which is connected to other large teams around the university. And now I manage a rotating cast of 40-50 student callers and supervisors. My job involves a lot more HR (hiring, coaching, putting out fires) than ever before!

Over the past few months, I’ve poured through websites, binders, books, and emails, trying to get a handle on this fascinating and complicated world of university advancement. I’ve learned new procedures, and seen what can happen when development departments are resourced appropriately. I’ve also learned how to narrow my focus – that is a big change for a small shop person!

For any of you who work in a smaller organization and are wondering if a transition like this one might work for you, here are some questions to consider:

• Are you open to being a small fish in a big pond? There are lots of very talented people doing many of the jobs you used to do – are you willing to plug into a larger system, trust your colleagues, and narrow your focus?
• Are you ok starting from the bottom? You may have to take a job with less responsibility (though, quite possibly, more pay, benefits, pension, etc.) than your previous position. Are you ok knowing you might have one, two or three, more layers of management above you?
• Do you want to focus? There is no better place to hone particular skills than in a large university or hospital. When all you do is solicit and steward major donors, you get pretty good at it.
• Would you be ok moving around? There’s actually a surprising amount of movement in larger organizations. Many people move up or laterally as they discover what they enjoy/are good at. Plus, contracts expire; people go on maternity leave, etc. Are you open and flexible to this kind of environment?
• Are you looking for respectability? Fundraising as a profession is still relatively young. The AFP is only a few decades old, and most people don’t have CFREs. There are fundraising programs at college, but many people have never attended those programs. There aren’t really any credentials you ‘have to have’ to work as a fundraiser, so you end up doing a bit of everything. In my case, moving to a larger university was part of my professional need to establish myself at a recognized and respected institution.

You might be the Director of Development, but if it’s at Mom and Pop Charity and you raise $100,000 each fiscal, believe me – prospective employers will put two and two together. Sometimes it really does help to have professional experience at a larger organization getting larger gifts – and hey, you can always move back to a small shop later in your career if you want.

Whether you continue to work for small shops (and believe me, I love small shops – that’s why I spent so many years raising money for ‘em!) or you work in a larger institution, step back and take stock of what you need personally and professionally to grow – and don’t be afraid to do the work you need to do to be ready to take that next step. Even if your knees are a little clicky when you take it.

Josh Bowman, CFRE, is loving his new job as the Alumni Advancement Manager, Telefundraising and Parents at the University of Guelph. He is a professional fundraiser, story-teller, comedian, and blogger. He has worked and consulted in Vancouver, New York, and now Toronto for almost a decade.