We can help you
Hire Higher™

Your people are your single-most valuable asset in achieving the mission of your organization. They are the “difference-makers” who not only make it possible to do what you do, but to do it with excellence.

Our Executive Search team at DickersonBakker is passionate about helping our clients Hire Higher™, thereby elevating your people, your leadership, and your entire organization to achieve an even greater impact in the lives of the people you serve.

DickersonBakker offers full spectrum Executive Search services for nonprofit organizations across the globe, custom-fit to meet the needs of your organization. When you engage DickersonBakker Executive Search, we guide you through our thorough, time-tested, and proven process to recruit the best available candidates for your position.

Talent Matters Most

Serving the nonprofit sector is not just part of what we do. It’s all we do. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned in our nearly forty years working in the nonprofit sector, it’s that every nonprofit is only as great as the people who lead it. Exceptionally talented people serving in the right roles is critical to driving success. Nothing is more important.

We approach our client relationships with integrity and transparency. We are passionate about what our clients do and seek authentic personal connections with each. When we engage with a client, it's more about mission, service, and our commitment to being there every step of the way until the job is done.

Here’s how we can help you.

Finding and recruiting exceptional talent to fill key leadership positions is among the most important decisions you can make to ensure the success of your nonprofit. Successfully filling these roles can be a daunting and extremely time-consuming task. As a result, many nonprofit organizations struggle to find and recruit the best qualified candidates.

That’s where we come in. At DickersonBakker, we understand the nonprofit sector and have the marketplace knowledge, expertise, relationships, and access to networks that are vitally important for you to succeed in recruiting exceptional talent for your organization.

When you partner with us to help you fill a vacancy, we will facilitate a process of mutual discernment between great organizations and great leaders. We have a proven process refined of by time and experience that consistently yields excellent results, guaranteed.

Discovery & Strategy

Discovery & Strategy

We do a full 360-degree analysis to understand the unique needs of your organization and the ideal traits needed for the role then develop a comprehensive Opportunity Profile for the search.

Candidate Evaluation

Candidate Evaluation

We will conduct deep vetting of qualified candidates on three critical elements of fit:
1) Professional Acumen
2) Mission Match
3) Cultural Alignment.

Targeted Sourcing

Targeted Sourcing

We will craft and execute a plan to aggressively promote your position opening through active networking and marketing in appropriate circles.

Candidate Selection

Candidate Selection

We facilitate the process and keep in close contact with you and with each candidate every step of the way, providing both expert counsel and a sounding board to help guide decisions.

Applicant Screening

Applicant Screening

We will perform all prescreening, including a review of applicants’ submittals, initial telephone conversations, and online meetings/interviews to discern candidates’ suitability for the position.

Integrative Strategies

Integrative Strategies

We will help you extend an offer and negotiate issues as they arise. We can also help you develop an on-boarding plan to help ensure a successful transition.
Explore our Opportunities
Case Studies
f you are an exceptionally talented candidate seeking an executive-level opportunity and/or a fundraising position in the nonprofit sector, you’ve come to the right place.

Church Capital Campaign Case Study | Lake Hills Church

Industry Leading Guarantees
No other search firm in the nonprofit sector offers better guarantees.

Most executive search firms shy away from guarantees. We embrace them. Our guarantees help DickersonBakker stand head and shoulders above every other nonprofit search firm in the sector. Not only do we guarantee that we will find and recruit a successful placement for your position opening, but we also guarantee our placements for two full years, which is longer than anyone else in the not-for-profit recruitment industry. 

“Our Two-Year Placement Guarantee sets DickersonBakker apart from every other search firm out there in the non-profit sector. Not only do we guarantee that we will successfully find and recruit a successful placement for your position opening, we also guarantee our placements for two whole years. Given that most nonprofits these days are plagued by short tenures and regular turnover amongst their staff, this represents a significant added value to any non-profit organization.”  – 

DERRIC BAKKER – PRESIDENT, DICKERSONBAKKER EXECUTIVE SEARCH

Exceptional talent to advance your mission
Guaranteed.

Derric Bakker

President
Our Two-Year Placement Guarantee sets DickersonBakker apart from every other search firm out there in the nonprofit sector. Not only do we guarantee that we will successfully find and recruit a successful placement for your position opening, we also guarantee our placements for two whole years. Given that most nonprofits these days are plagued by short tenures and regular turnover among their staff, this represents a significant added value to any nonprofit organization.
Why not put our experience to work for you?

Your nonprofit will be assigned one search consultant to work with from beginning to the successful completion of the search. Every DickersonBakker executive search consultant has been a nonprofit leader before they became search consultants. We have walked in the shoes of, not only our clients, but our candidates as well. As a result, we are equipped to do our work with professionalism, insight, and empathy.

Past Clients & Completed Searches

Finding
Leaders That Last™

Talent always attracts more of the same. Building an organization that’s magnetic to talent starts at the top – you can’t have a magnetic organization without exceptional leaders. We help our clients hire Leaders that LastTM. That is, we aim to recruit leaders who elevate, not just the role, but the entire organization. Leaders who not only drive excellence in their area of responsibility but also have the personal characteristics needed to lead and grow healthy, high-performing teams.

Our team has helped dozens of nonprofits just like yours find and recruit exceptionally talented professionals for key executive leadership and fundraising roles. In each case, we are committed to the success of the search as well as the long-term thriving of the leaders we recruit.

Who We Recruit

Who We Recruit

President/CEO

  • Executive Director
  • President
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Head of School

Senior Executive Leadership

  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Chief Development Officer
  • Chief Information Officer
  • General Counsel
  • Vice President of External Affairs
  • Director of Human Resources
  • Director of Finance and Administration
  • Director of Programs & Services
  • Director of Marketing & Communications
  • Director of Operations
  • Comptroller/Controller

Fundraising Positions

  • Chief Development Officer
  • Chief Advancement Officer
  • Vice President of Development
  • Vice President of Advancement
  • Senior Vice President of Development
  • Director of Development
  • Director of Development Operations
  • Director of Donor Engagement
  • Director of Donor Relations
  • Director of Major Giving
  • Major Gift Officer(s)
  • Regional Development Officer(s)
  • Direct Response Manager
  • Director of Marketing & Communications

  • Who We Recruit
    • President/CEO & Executive Director
    • Senior Executive Leadership
      • Make this a live link that users can click to open a popup window or toggle open dropdown list (“Sampling of roles we recruit for”)
        • Chief Operating Officer
        • Chief Financial Officer
        • Chief Development Officer
        • Chief Information Officer
        • General Counsel
        • Vice President of External Affairs
        • Director of Human Resources
        • Director of Finance and Administration
        • Director of Programs & Services
        • Director of Marketing & Communications
        • Director of Operations
        • Comptroller/Controller
    • Fundraising Positions
      • Make this a live link that users can click to open a popup window or toggle open dropdown list (“Sampling of roles we recruit for”)
        • Chief Development Officer
        • Chief Advancement Officer
        • Vice President of Development
        • Vice President of Advancement
        • Senior Vice President of Development
        • Director of Development
        • Director of Development Operations 
        • Director of Donor Engagement
        • Director of Donor Relations 
        • Director of Major Giving
        • Major Gift Officer(s) 
        • Regional Development Officer(s) 
        • Direct Response Manager
        • Director of Marketing & Communications
    • Head of School
Executive Search
Experts
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Group Vice President
Amber Christoferson
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VP Executive Services
Cole Costanzo, MA
team image
Senior VP Client Partnership
Jeff Crabtree

Meet The Team

Meet the experienced and talented folks that you will be working alongside.

Pathways:

No doubt you’ve heard it said that successful major gift fund development is “all about relationships”. We couldn’t agree more. At the same time, however, it just isn’t that simple. Real success in major gift fundraising is about strategically managing relationships with high-value donors in order to maximize their understanding of, interest in, involvement with, and commitment to your organization and its underlying mission. Even the word “relationships” is ambiguous. Major donors don’t have “relationships” with organizations. They have relationships with people in the organization. Too many put too much emphasis on the relationship with the development officer and overlook the importance of others. Relationships between your organization and its major donors actually have multiple dimensions, each increasingly important as you advance to higher tiers of giving.


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Presentation:

The case statement, also known as the “case for support,” provides a glimpse into the heart of a non-profit organization and is a vital part of any major gift fundraising effort. With over twenty years experience working with major donors we know what they are looking for in an offer. We will work with you to craft a compelling and professional case for support and guide you through the development of additional collateral materials needed to effectively present your case. We will also spend time in the field with your team to help them hone their presentation skills and train them in the “Art of the Close”.


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People:

Of all the building blocks needed to create a major gift program, none is more important than the people you have in place on your major gift leadership team. Having the right people in the right roles is a critical part of the Keystone Solution™ and we will work with you to ensure that your staff and volunteers are well-trained and appropriately gifted for their roles. If necessary, we will work with you to recruit additional members to your major gift leadership team.


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Prospects:

Any good fisherman knows that you can’t catch a big fish if you’ve got your line in the wrong pond. The future success of any major gift fund-raising program is built upon the organization’s ability to attract new donors to support its mission. To ensure on-going growth, a wide base of dynamic support is necessary, which presumes that a significant number of new major donors must be acquired and subsequently nurtured and elevated to rising giving levels. Using both “high-tech” and “high-touch” approaches we will work with your organization to identify a pool of best major gift prospects for your major gift program and to segment them into prioritized lists. As part of our prospecting services, we are also able to provide Donor Research Services to help you realize the major gift potential in your donor database and circles of influence.


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Practices:

Successful major gift fundraising is both an art and a science. The art is in the relationships, but the science is in the systems. Someone once said, “Motivation is what gets you started; good habits are what keep you going.” Putting good major gift development policies and procedures in place and getting into the habit of living by them is a critical part of making a program sustainable. Dickerson, Bakker & Associates will work with your organization to implement best practices within your major gift development department to ensure that the improvements we put in place will continue not just beyond our term of service but can be consistently applied even if you have a turnover of staff.


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Brand:

An organization’s brand is perhaps its most important asset. Most people think of brand superficially—considering only those aspects encompassing the “look and feel” of an organization (e.g. name, logo, etc.). Those brand marks are just outward expressions of your brand, however. At a deeper level, BRAND represents a promise to your constituents of those quintessential qualities that define who you are, what you do, and what you stand for as an organization. Doubt about the integrity of an organization’s brand promise almost always has a detrimental effect on giving, regardless of the effectiveness or competency of the fund development staff. Establishing and adhering to a clear focused brand is foundational in your ability to communicate who you are, what you do, where you are going, and how you will get there.


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Culture:

CULTURE refers to the collective attitudes that characterize and impact the ways that an organization’s people will perceive one another and work together. A “development-friendly” culture provides a fertile soil for giving to flourish. Dickerson, Bakker & Associates has identified six ingredients that together comprise a vibrant, development-friendly culture, and—if consistently applied—will significantly improve your organization’s ability to consistently garner high-level investments from major donors.


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Quality:

While mainstream donors may be satisfied with a simple understanding of what an organization does, major donors are more interested in what an organization achieves, or—more specifically—will achieve with the money they invest. Major donors want to know how their investment is helping bring about positive change in the lives of people. Major donors increasingly condition giving upon delivery of impact metrics, often requesting information on outcomes even before investing. Organizations that are serious about achieving success in major gift development will therefore do best when they embrace a culture that supports and encourages outcomes thinking.


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