Research Background

How NPEdge Profiles Were Developed

Executive recruiter David Edell specializes in placing executives with nonprofit organizations. His years of experience showed that it's difficult to find effective fundraising professionals. He particularly noticed that many employers and job candidates assumed that successful experience in for-profit sales jobs was a good indicator of potential success in fundraising. In his experience, however, this was not always the case.

Edell joined with Paul Connolly, Ph.D., an expert in assessments for the workplace, to develop personality-based tools that would help employers and candidates alike. More than a dozen well established nonprofit organizations participated in the job analysis that yielded theNPEdge reports. Our subject matter experts informed us there are two major branches to the fundraising profession: Fundraiser Generalist and Major Gifts Professional. Our quest was then to find the personality characteristics particular to success in those two positions.

These reports were created under special arrangement with Hogan Assessment Systems and are based on the Hogan Personality Inventory. Hogan tests have 30 years of experience and research behind them. They are rigorously validated and continuously updated. They have been used in validation studies of more than 100 job titles and are proven to have no adverse impact on selection. Hogan Assessments pioneered the use of personality measures for making organizational decisions. Hogan Assessments are widely considered the gold standard for job personality testing.

This groundbreaking research resulted in the easy-to-use, secure online NPEdge reports..

David Edell is president and cofounder of Development Resource Group, an executive search firm dedicated to the nonprofit sector. He has personally been involved in the recruitment of hundreds of CEOs and development specialists for nonprofits of every type.

Paul M. Connolly, Ph.D. is president and founder of Performance Programs, Inc., an organization specializing in human resource surveys, tests, and assessments since 1987. He has worked with psychological tests and assessments for organizations his entire career.

See the article:
They Can Sell, but Can They Do Fundraising?