Stay Interviews

08 Dec Stay Interviews

9 December 2025

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

I would say that a fundraiser with enough experience to matter will take several months to learn their way around, a year or so to learn the donor base, and another year or even two to build the kind of relationships with other staff, Board directors, and donors that are necessary to raise money consistently. Unfortunately, fundraisers don’t often stay that long. The national average tenure for fundraising staff is 20 months.

So how can we help fundraising staff stay longer? (or any staff for that matter)

Hudson Taconic Lands uses “Stay Interviews.”

What’s a “stay interview”?

“Stay interviews are the opposite of a performance review; the staff does most of the talking. This is a chance for staff to give us feedback on how they are doing in their job, if there are improvements their supervisor could make to improve their work experience, share about work/life balance and give direct feedback about their job, team, and organization. We do this once a year, in the fall. Usually done by a supervisor but could be done by an HR person.”

That’s how their Operations Director, Bay Meyer, described it to me. (You can find HTL’s blank questionnaire here.)

So, I got interested and went down the rabbit hole.

The idea is based on a book by Dick Finnegan called The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention. The book’s second edition was published in 2023 by the Society for Human Resource Management. SHRM also posted excerpts on their blog that are both inspiring and worth reading on your own. You can become a member, or you can read one per month free.

Finnegan uses just five questions with probing follow-ups. Here they are, without all the explanation he offers. (I didn’t get his permission to reprint them). I think they are brilliant. I think the whole idea is brilliant.

1. What do you look forward to each day when you commute to work?
   1. Give me an example
   2. Tell me more about…
   3. Who do you look forward to working with the most?
2. What are you learning here, and what do you want to learn?
   1. Which other jobs here look attractive to you?
   2. What skills do you think are required for those jobs?
   3. What skills would you have to build to attain those jobs or some responsibilities of those jobs?
3. Why do you stay here?
   1. Tell me more about why that is so important to you.
   2. Is that the only reason you stay or are there others?
   3. If you narrowed your reasons to stay to just one, what would it be?
4. When is the last time you thought about leaving us, and what prompted it?
   1. Tell me more about how that happened. Who said what?
   2. What’s the single best thing I can do to make that better for you?
   3. How important is that to you now on a 1-10 scale?
5. What can I do to make your job better for you?
   1. Do I tell you when you do something well?
   2. Do I say and do things to help you do your job better?
   3. What are three ways I can be a better manager for you?

Finnegan suggests that you commit yourself to listening first, probing to learn more, and taking notes.

I have to tell you that I love this. HTL reports that they have already implemented several of the ideas that have come from the stay interviews they have conducted to date.

I’m interested in other real-world examples. If your organization uses stay interviews, or if you have been a staff member participating, I would love to learn more from you. Call or email any time.

Because starting over every 20 months is a really bad alternative.

-da

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo by R Sen courtesy of Pixabay.