Author: Kenneth Soldink

What Development Teams Get Wrong about Donor Relations

by Erika Bernal

Most would agree that there is no fund development without donor relations. Consider this article a personal perspective—informed by more than a decade of donor relations and stewardship experience—about the missed collaborative opportunities between development and donor relations teams. There is no time like now to create partnerships to address the divide. As an industry, we have segmented out donor relations and stewardship as separate efforts that take place after we have established relationships with our donors. We pass new donors along with the signed buck slip to those who have been trained to maintain the warmth of the donor’s relationship with the institution until pledges have been paid or until it seems like the right time to make the next big ask. Some Crucial Rethinking I would like to challenge the development officers out there to think about the role that you play with a new prospect. You are introduced to someone who may be interested in your cause. You may request research to identify this individual’s home value, past event attendance, known associates or interests. You check into a past charitable giving history to your organization and anything else that may pop up in a Google search. In short, you put […]

You May Be Excluding Some of Your Most Loyal Donors From Recognition

by Heather L. Greig

Over the last decade, many colleges and universities have launched programs intended to encourage annual giving through the recognition of donor loyalty. In every case that I can think of, these societies are recognizing consecutive giving, which makes sense—we want people to give every year. I am a long-time fan of the loyalty society and the value it can add to a program as part of a comprehensive donor retention strategy but that’s not what this article is about. This article is about what might be missing from the equation. By defining loyalty as consecutive giving, we are in fact, excluding some of our most loyal donors from recognition. Most likely, many of your major donors have not made gifts each year, and while philosophically, we strive to create a culture that promotes annual giving among our top donors, the reality is that there will always be some who don’t give every year. I am not talking about the once-a-decade donor but about the donors that give almost every year. If someone is a seven-figure donor who occasionally misses a year between major contributions, are we serving the best interests of our institutions by not recognizing them as loyal? 3 Ways to […]

The President as Steward

by Jim M. Langley

While virtually every advancement operation has a stewardship function, presidents would be wise to ensure that the totality of the stewardship obligation is not presumed to be the province of a single office (often led by a single person). Presidents can create a culture of accountability by speaking to the importance of private donors, not just fundraising totals, to students, faculty and staff at significant campus events and through major channels of communication. When a gift commitment is secured, presidents assume the ethical, moral and legal responsibility to see that their institutions do as promised. They assume the same responsibility for all gift agreements inherited upon inauguration. New presidents would be wise to ask for a review of major gifts received in the past decade before they start making their introductory rounds. This high-level review sends a powerful and constructive signal throughout the organization. In addition, presidents should play a personal role in expressing gratitude for, and stressing the central importance of, private gifts. While gift acknowledgements and endowment reports are important and appreciated by donors, they are insufficient to the preservation of strong personal ties. Presidents can strengthen relationships with donors by being more personal and spontaneous. For instance, presidents […]

Giving and Recognition Societies – We Can Do Better!

by Lynne Wester

I frequently say to my friends in donor relations that I would like to find the person who invented giving societies and give them a swift punch or two. I am of the opinion that great donor recognition does not hinge on giving societies. I am also of the probably unpopular opinion that most donors are not motivated by their membership in a giving society. I have never seen statistical or empirical evidence in a single study that shows the ROI of a giving society or that the presence of recognition based giving societies moves giving upward. If someone has one, I’d pay to see it. So what am I talking about here? Let’s share some common definitions… Developing giving and recognition levels, associated benefits, and administering these benefits can be a cumbersome task. Many donor relations shops are overburdened by these ineffective practices. The multiple levels within societies create confusion and chaos for staff and donors alike. A great many of these constructs are artificial and not useful in engaging and recognizing donors. Many giving societies do not have distinct benefits and tangible value, especially in the light of quid pro quo violations and other such IRS fun. So what do […]

Is Your Professional Development Ad Hoc or Planned?

by Martin Klubeck, Daniel Fusch

A 2014 Academic Impressions survey of over 500 higher-ed professionals found that higher education institutions are divided roughly in half in terms of whether professional development is planned and proactive, or ad hoc and reactive. This gave us pause for thought — and it should give you pause, too. Rethinking Professional Development as a Critical Asset It’s accepted that your institution will be hiring and developing new faculty and staff as employees retire or move on, but the knowledge and skills they need are shifting significantly. In Academic Impressions’ paper The Other Higher Ed Bubble, Amit Mrig argued that those institutions that thrive in the years ahead will be those that seek the necessary innovations to improve quality while reducing costs, create new models for delivering education, and align organizational structures and incentives. One part of the argument that we find especially pertinent is the need to innovate – we can’t expect to thrive, much less survive, by doing the same things, the same way.  Hearing “We’ve always done it that way” may be the best indicator that it’s time to change.  The pressures higher education faces are changing, and so are the skill sets needed to address those pressures. Emerging […]

The Skills Higher-Ed Leaders Need to Succeed

by Amit Mrig, Daniel Fusch

2017 Update: Following up on this research, we have published our findings and our best current thinking in the paper “The Skills Future Higher-Ed Leaders Need to Succeed.” In Denver, CO this March, Academic Impressions convened a select group of forty academic and administrative leaders from diverse colleges and universities to address the question: What are the skills and qualities that leaders in the future need to have in order to thrive? Why this Conversation is So Critical Now Leadership matters. As program facilitator Pat Sanaghan remarked, an institution “cannot rise above its leadership.” The circumstances colleges find themselves in today — whether those circumstances are productive or disastrous — are a product of the decisions and actions (or inaction) of past leaders. If your own institution’s outlook isn’t bright, that’s a leadership issue. In a time of significant change and stress in the industry, we need to rethink the kind of leadership we need. How We Pursued this Conversation No one sage has the answers to this complex question. That’s why we called together 40 people from all across an institution’s organizational chart and from diverse types of institutions. We had presidents, chiefs of staff, chief academic officers. We also had several […]

Book Preview: Writing Meaningful Contact Reports – A Handbook for Fundraisers

by Erin Swietlik, Academic Impressions Contact reports are arguably the most overlooked component of the fundraising process. Advancement leaders at our conferences regularly say that their best fundraisers rarely take the time or care to properly record interactions with donors. These advancement leaders understand that contact reports are a crucial component of the fundraising process, but are concerned that this understanding does not resonate with their frontline teams. The Challenge When development officers complete contact reports irregularly, or assign this task to assistant, crucial information can be lost. Inconsistency of completion and detail leads to reports that lack the pertinent information required to help guide future fundraising strategy. This is especially true when the task is delegated to an assistant who does not have first-hand experience of the relationship or interaction. The challenge of inconsistency is further complicated by the current record-high rate of turnover across the fundraising industry. Without proper documentation of donor interactions, institutions risk the loss of a great amount of institutional and relational knowledge when fundraisers transition from one institution to another. This loss of knowledge can, in turn, result in a loss of traction and a potential delay in securing gifts from these previously engaged […]

Title IX: Recent Changes and What They Mean for You

February 2015. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) recently released three documents to provide guidance for the Title IX Coordinator role at colleges and universities: One that clarifies the Title IX Coordinator role One that outlines Title IX Coordinator responsibilities A 30-page Title IX resource guide To help your institution understand the crux of these new clarification efforts, we interviewed two experts on Title IX — Bev Baligad, Director of Student Compliance and Training/Student Title IX Coordinator at Lansing Community College, and Scott Warner, partner at Franczek Radelet P.C. Below, Baligad and Warner discuss the three main takeaways from these important documents and critical steps your institution can take to help you apply the OCR’s recommendations. Key Takeaways from the OCR Documents Lisa LaPoint: Based on the new guidance, what do you consider to be the key takeaways? Bev Baligad: There are three main takeaways, relating to authority, support, and knowledge: Authority is really important. The OCR doesn’t really want people to just meet technical compliance with the federal regulations; they are looking for institutions to actually give Coordinators the means and authority to appropriately deal with the discriminatory behavior, if found. Support is also big. Institutions need to start making sure the […]

How Faculty Can More Effectively Support Adult Doctoral Students

by Gina L. Peyton

Have you ever opened your email inbox the day after an assignment is due and received an email with the subject line entitled “request for extension of time”? My first thought is “Here we go,” but then I immediately switch my thought process to: “Be objective; my students are adults completing their doctoral degree.” I work with online doctoral students in the school of education for a not-for-profit private university. The average age of our doctoral students is 47 years. These students are adults working in their specialized fields completing their terminal degree to further their professional endeavors. For the most part, they are professionals working full-time, and are married with children ranging from infants to college students to college graduates with families of their own. These individuals are not students in an undergraduate program, fresh out of high school and still deciding “what they want to be when they grow up.” Adult students have many issues in their lives other than completing their doctoral degree. They deal with work deadlines, mortgages and bills, aging parents, sick children, divorces and child custody, to name a few examples. When a doctoral student reaches out to me for help or for a little […]

Advising: 3 Ways to Effectively Assist Students during High Traffic Periods

by Sue Ohrablo, Ed.D.

This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. This week marks the end of yet another hectic week filled with long days, endless phone calls, appointments, emails, and walk-ins. There are times when I get frustrated that I have to answer yet another question about when commencement invitations will be sent out or what the course number is for a particular class. This is not advising. At least, this is not the advising that keeps me motivated and makes me feel like I’m positively contributing to a student’s academic journey. However, as I look back on the past weeks, I also have to remember the student who was sobbing softly on the phone as she articulated her frustration with a professor whom she felt was harassing her, or the student who proudly shared with me the details of her new job, or the student who referred to me as “The Oracle” just because I am always there to provide answers and direction. As I held these discussions, emails kept coming and the phone kept ringing. I knew I didn’t have the time to focus so intently on […]