Professors are significantly more involved in university fundraising today than they were two or three decades ago, but the practice remains tricky, say seasoned development officers.
Philanthropists want universities to prove their donations are going to worthwhile programs. They also want to know the people involved in those projects and feel confident about the work.
“Wealthy donors have gotten tougher and pickier, and we have to pass a lot more tests than we used to,” says Scott Nichols, senior vice president of Boston University’s alumni relations division. He points out they have good reason: “There have been many cases of violations of donor intent, so over time donors have gotten much more wary of us.”
Such caution means fundraising takes longer than it did decades ago, Mr. Nichols says. But it’s also more successful than it used to be, and a crucial factor in that success is getting a university’s academics involved in conversations with wealthy donors.
Faculty are essential to the development process, says Audrey Kintzi, vice president for development and alumni relations at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, “so the onus is on us to be responsible for engaging them and making them feel good about being part of our team.”
While most academics are aware of the importance of fundraising and understand they will be expected to present their work to a donor at some point, many are unsure about how they would fit in to the process or participate comfortably and authentically.
Some think they are going to be pushed to pester people to give, while others worry they lack the social skills to interact easily with donors. And with the demands of teaching, advising, research, and publication, most academics wonder where they will find time for one more task.
It might take some cajoling, but if you can get one of your institution’s experts in the same room with a top fundraiser and a wealthy donor, it can make a big difference in whether the university lands a big gift.
“Fundraisers are like chemists,” says Ms. Kintzi. “We get the right mix of people in the room, and when we get that right, magic can happen — and that’s really our work.”
Here’s how you can get the most out of your university’s faculty experts.
Choose the right academics and win them over.
It’s important to put your faculty experts where they fit best. First, says Ms. Kintzi, don’t involve faculty until the time is right. In most cases, that’s well after development staff and other university officials have spent time building a relationship with a donor and have a strong sense of what causes and programs will attract that person’s attention and money.
Next, find out who among the faculty would be best suited to meet with that particular donor. Ms. Kintzi suggests development staff ask permission to attend academic department meetings throughout the year. That way fundraisers can learn about different professors’ areas of expertise, get a sense of their personalities, and find out who among them would be most willing to work with development officials.
Once you’ve selected the right people, follow these suggestions to put them at ease and help them embrace their role in the fundraising process:
- Be respectful of an academic’s time, says Valerie Otten, California Institute of Technology’s associate vice president for development, and remind your development team that faculty are juggling various scholarly demands, so approaching them requires understanding.
- Explain to faculty what role development officials expect them to play, and assure them the development team will prepare them before a conversation with a donor ever takes place, says Ms. Otten.
- Make it clear the professor won’t be expected to ask a donor for money but will instead be expected to engage the donor about their work, thus opening the door for the development team to eventually ask for a gift.
Prepare your faculty members to meet the donor.
No matter how well they understand their role, say veteran development officers, faculty members are not going to become proficient at opening those doors unless they get good preparation well ahead of their meetings with donors. In particular:
- Make sure your team has thoroughly researched a wealthy donor. Present that research to the professor, so that he or she has a full picture of the philanthropist and understands why the university believes the donor is worth pursuing, says Ms. Kintzi.
- Create a strategy memo that includes the development team’s goal going into the conversation, what part in the process the professor is expected to play, and the hoped-for outcome, she says.
- Sit down with the faculty member and go over each part of the memo. Reiterate that the professor’s job is to get the donor excited about the project and the university’s goals, and make sure he or she knows the fundraiser will be there to help, says Ms. Kintzi. Remind the academic again that he or she is not asking for money. Rather, the gift officer will later try to set up another conversation with the donor to present a gift proposal.
- Give the academic a set of questions to ask the donor, Ms. Otten says. If the donor is an alumna, that might mean asking her about her experiences at the institution when she was a student. If the donor is a local businessman, ask if he has interacted with the university in other ways. Or the professor might ask which aspects of the university the donor cares about most. The goal is always to try to find out what resonates with the donor.
Consider a formal presentation.
While casual meetings with donors are a good way to bring faculty and philanthropists together, development officials say asking a professor to more formally present his or her work is another good way to engage a potential donor and build a path to an eventual gift.
If you are asking an academic to give such a presentation, fundraising leaders suggest you develop specific talking points and go over these points together beforehand, says Ms. Otten. For example, the professor might first talk about the university’s track record, then how his or her specific work fits in to the university’s overall goals, the work’s potential impact, and how it differs from what others are doing at peer institutions.
Alternatively, ask four or five of your university’s professors to deliver what Mr. Nichols calls “snap talks,” five-minute discussions about the most interesting or exciting findings or aspects of their work.
Finally, whether you asked a professor to give a detailed presentation or a snap talk, let the faculty member know what the development team plans to do next and how this step will help make that easier. After a professor meets with a donor, the gift officer should prepare a written recap for the faculty member, Ms. Kintzi suggests, noting whether the development team plans to set up another meeting with the donor and professor or a visit where the professor is not involved. Either way, it’s important to let professors know the outcomes and to express appreciation for the time they put into the meeting or presentation.
“Close the loop with them so they know there’s value in what they did and the time they spent,” says Ms. Otten. “Tell them how much you appreciated the role they played and that it made a real difference.”