Ops Insights #078 Why I Hired a Gift Processor with Zero Experience
November 26, 2025 | Read Time: 3 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop
The best gift processor I ever hired had zero gift entry skills. Lisa was her name.
When I heard Lisa was getting laid off because a spreadsheet said she was "non-essential," I called her and told her we had an opening.
I worked with her at my prior employer and knew how good she was with people. She was our front desk administrative assistant and colleagues and donors loved her.
She knew everyone by name.
She remembered spouses, kids, and pets.
She could read a room in three seconds and make people feel at ease.
On paper, she was "just" front desk.
No gift entry experience.
No database titles.
However, there were two key things I knew about her. First, I knew she would be donor-centric. She carried context and details in her head that most systems never capture. When someone can see beyond a database, that is the next level, and that you cannot always teach. Second, I knew she was trainable and could learn the gift entry part. She picked up quickly as a CDM Super User, helping with data integrity projects.
The database skills I can easily train on when someone is willing and able to learn. The donor-centricity part not so much.
I told my new team why I trusted Lisa and why she would be great, even with zero experience in gift processing. Yes, there were candidates with stronger resumes on paper.
We hired her anyway. Then I trained her.
Gift entry.
Coding, batching, reconciliation.
Workflows and reports.
She picked up the tech quickly. The real difference was how she used her relationship instincts inside the data.
She saw a $25 gift from a donor who usually gave five figures, and flagged it for a personal call.
She caught a $10 online recurring gift from a quiet long-time donor, and turned it into a check-in, not a transaction.
She picked up donor calls and often turned them into new or renewed gifts.
She saw a lapsed DAF donor make a credit card gift, and she treated it as a signal to pass it to a gift officer to reconnect and say thank you.
The "unqualified" front desk admin became one of the most important people in our fundraising office.
What I learned about hiring gift processors:
You can train someone to do gift entry.
You cannot train someone to genuinely care about donors.
The person who notices people will notice patterns in your data.
If you only hire for CRM experience, you miss the human touch.
If you are hiring a gift processor right now,
⛔ Do not only scan for database skills.
✅ Ask yourself, who would make our donors feel known and remembered?
✅ Who has the donor-centricity part, and is that person trainable on the database side?
That might be your best next hire.
Take Action
Are you looking to hire? Follow these 3 steps to find the right person.
1 ➡ Review your job description and ensure it incorporates soft skills and not just tech skills.
2 ➡ Prepare interview questions that assess both tech skills and people skills.
3 ➡ Make sure multiple people from your team interview for collective, all-around feedback.
If you are not sure where to start, look for someone who knows data and tech so you can trust they got it covered, but is also a good people-person who can interact with all team members/various roles and is donor-centric-minded. Use these interview questions.
You’ve got this!
👋 See you next time,
Jenny
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