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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Thank you for taking the time to peruse the September issue of Bright Ideas! I hope you find these articles informative and useful. This month, for Part III of our series on the question of what makes a good trustee, Geoff Liggett, Director of Alumni Relations and Development at Pomfret School in Conneticut offers his insights and advice.
Then, Brian Doherty, Vice President of Finance and Administration at Elms College, shares his perspective on the optimal relationship between advancement and finance.
The third component of this issue is a compilation of input from individuals representing a broad spectrum of institutions on the topic of trends in leadership giving to the annual fund. We posed three questions: 1) identify the top trends in annual giving, 2) what is the biggest challenge to increasing your leadership gifts, and 3) what trends have you identified in the pursuit of leadership gifts? We received wide-ranging responses to these questions—perhaps you will recognize your own experiences among the answers we received!
Please enjoy this month's reading recommendations and remember, you are invited to share the title of any book, article, blog, etc. — it doesn't have to be strictly work-related—that you have recently enjoyed.
Please share your comments with us and, as always, we encourage you to submit ideas for future articles. Please send your article ideas to: info@woolbrightgroup.com Best regards from all of us at The Woolbright Group!
Announcements:
“Moving Women’s Philanthropy Forward: Influences, Intent, Impact”
November 13 – 14, 2008
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
20th Annual Symposium
For information or to register on-line: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu
By phone: 317-278-8990
“View from the Top: Harsh Realities in this Industry”
November 14, 2008
Campus Center at Lasell College, Newton, MA
Networking and breakfast 8 a.m.; program at 8:30 a.m.
Featuring guest speakers:
Scott Nichols, Vice President, University Development and Alumni Relations, Boston University
Kris Schaeffer, Vice President, Advancement, Simmons College
Peter Ramsey, Secretary of the Academy, Phillips Academy
To register, please click: http://www.casei.org/breakfast.htm
$45/CASE member
$60/non-CASE member
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What Makes a Good Trustee? - Part III
Interview with Geoff Liggett, Director of Alumni Relations and Development, Pomfret School
1. Tell us a little about the make-up of your Board of Trustees (number, who they are—parents, alumni, term of service, other)
The trustee by-laws state that Pomfret School may elect up to 32 members for its board. There are currently 27. Of these, 17 are alumni and 10 are parents. Of the 17 alumni, four currently have children at the school. Nominations for trustees come from the Board’s Governance Committee, which polls annually all alumni and parents for potential members. Trustees are elected to four-year terms, and can serve two consecutive terms. They must retire from the board after a second term. There are also three ex-officio members including the Head of School, and the Presidents of the Alumni Association, and Parents Association. Finally, there are honorary life trustees who are voted by the full board. These members are invited to all meetings and also receive all trustee mailings. While they have a voice and are welcome at all meetings, they have no vote.
2. How would you define the role of the board at Pomfret?
First and foremost, it is their responsibility to select, support and evaluate the Head of School, and oversee the finances and investments of the school, both of which they do exceptionally well. Pomfret has a very active board. In the past seven years the parent representation has grown from one to ten. These parents (obviously) are well informed about the workings of the school and have energized the board. The board took a leadership role in Pomfret’s recently completed $48 million campaign, and has wasted little time in putting together a strategic plan for the next campaign. They focus on the overall governance of the institution and have spent a lot of time during the strategic planning process to better clarify the role they should play here at the school. In the short term they have formed task forces with the senior administration to concentrate on mission and the School’s position in the marketplace.
3. In general, what do you see as the role of the board related to raising philanthropic support for their respective institutions? From your perspective, how is that best accomplished?
There is a rule of thumb that trustees should contribute approximately 30% toward a capital campaign’s goal. The number is probably at least the same for Annual Giving – or that has been our experience at Pomfret. Setting a personal example is the most important thing that a board member can do. Most of our trustees follow the “give or get” adage. About one third are active fundraisers. One can provide training and set goals, but in the end the willingness to ask for money is either in their blood or it’s not. A select few of our best fundraisers have been board members, but even they didn’t hit their stride until several years of active soliciting. Finding a way to instill and sustain an ongoing passion for the school and its work is perhaps our greatest challenge.
4 In general, what do you think are the three biggest challenges (or issues) facing boards today?
Time. It is one of the most precious resources for trustees and it is vital that the administration of (in this case) a school prepares them well for meetings. This can mean a lot of up-front work, but is greatly appreciated by the trustees and makes them more effective and feel a sense of accomplishment.
Succession planning. To recruit and train talented people who will soon take leadership positions on the board and the school.
Compliance. To keep current on the increasing number of state and federal regulations and compliance issues which affect the school.
Fund raising. It is an increasingly competitive environment for raising money. And yet, the pressure to raise significantly greater funds each year for the school only increases.
5. In your own experience, how has the board regularly evaluated itself? Its members? What is the process?
There is an annual review of the board and senior staff of the school. For the board there is a self-evaluation as well as an opportunity provided for their views on the functioning of the board. There is also a committee evaluation done by each of the committee heads. This information is collated and reviewed by the Governance Committee and suggestions for changes or actions recommended to the Executive Committee. The board, and Head evaluations are conducted via the on-line survey provided by NAIS.
6. Do you and/or your staff utilize any outside resources related to governance matters (i.e., websites, workshops, journals, blogs, consultants, etc.)?
Of those listed above, articles written in journals and occasional meetings with consultants would be the two most frequently used sources of information regarding board governance.
7. In the past few years, there has been much discussion among advancement about the preparedness and ability of boards in their ability to raise philanthropic support for their schools and colleges. To what do you attribute such discussions? What role might Chief Advancement Officers play in educating board members? What steps have you taken to address this topic with members of your board?
A lot of responsibility for the board's readiness and ability to conduct campaigns – annual or capital – rests with the CAO and CEO of the organization. If a board is expected to raise approximately 25 – 30% of the AF and campaign totals, it is imperative that there are board members who can make those kinds of commitments. Several steps used at Pomfret include:
Identification of, and advocacy for, potential new members. An individual can make only so many leadership gifts. It is imperative to bring on new members while keeping past members connected.
CAOs must be clear on the needs and expectations regarding each member's philanthropy, and educate those trustees who are responsible for recruiting members to the board.
Comparative analyses with similar institutions are a helpful tool to inform the board, and align their expectations with their desires (abilities?).
It is critical that the CAO informs and communicates frequently with the president of the board and head of the development committee. They are the leaders of any fundraising efforts and must be on the same page with the CAO.
8. Are there any other comments, suggestions or observations about the role of boards in raising philanthropic support that you might provide? Any words of wisdom? Any lessons learned from your own experience?
Be active. Take on as much responsibility for the smooth functioning of the board as possible If 30% of our gifts are coming from this constituency, it is worth every minute of your time.
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The Woolbright Group provides comprehensive consulting services in the areas of Board and staff development. For more information, please call Cynthia Woolbright at 585.787.0325, or e-mail us at info@woolbrightgroup.com.
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Advancement and Finance: A Value-Added Partnership
Brian E. Doherty, Vice President of Finance and Administration,
Elms College
Building a Partnership
Developing an effective partnership among the Advancement and Finance teams is an important relationship for any philanthropic program. Strong communication and interaction through strategic planning and implementation, assessing fundraising capacity and goal setting, operational planning and performance tracking, promotion of constituency relations, and financial stewardship lead to synergistic benefits to your organization.
For starters, Finance and Advancement, along with other members of the senior management team, play an integral role in setting the institution's strategic plan.This enables Advancement to develop strategies that align the institution's mission, values, competencies and accomplishments with the philanthropic objectives of its various donor constituencies. Awareness of changes in the demographics of your institution's primary student markets, alumni characteristics, regional economic base, and competing institutions will also help Advancement strategize. Knowing what differentiates your institution and what is critical to its long-term sustainability and success is critical.
Next, implementing an effective performance evaluation system should be a joint effort of Advancement and Finance. The ability to set realistic fundraising goals by type of gift requires insight into the respective giving drivers, the demographics of the donor base, and the effectiveness of key programs and tactics in each primary gift stream. It is also necessary to evaluate past performance against plan. Finance, working with Advancement, can play an important role in this qualitative and quantitative assessment. A sophisticated fundraising software information system is important to this analysis.
Thirdly, determining the key success factors and financial performance metrics and milestones should be a collaborative effort between Advancement and Finance. Some of the common areas of concentration include trended annual giving rates by alumni class and by academic major, average gift amount, gifts by dollar size, gifts by donor purpose. Many Advancement offices evaluate their productivity by looking at dollars raised for the size and expense level of the group.
This practice should also apply to any unusual or non-recurring material gifts.Maintaining perspective on the sustainability of all gifts is important from both the Finance and Advancement viewpoints and requires establishing a set of metrics by which to track and analyze all activity. Analysis of this sort will also prove invaluable when considering embarking on a new campaign.
Beyond specific advancement goals, Finance can also engage with Advancement in some other key areas such as implementing a pipeline review process.Here, the involvement of the senior leadership of Advancement, Finance and the President is recommended. Pipeline management is extremely important to the short-term and long-term ability of Advancement to contribute to the growth of the institution. The pipeline represents the tracking of donor prospects by gift type, range and probability through a typical gift management cycle (i.e., donor identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation and closing). Keeping the pipeline growing, increasing the conversion rate, knowing your donors and their readiness, and accelerating the timeframe where appropriate are keys to success.
Still another area where Advancement and Finance can work closely together is in tracking activity related to generation of annual fund and major gifts. Advancement often sets the activity around donor prospect visits. This requires a disciplined approach to identify, schedule and visit the prospect, and then to document and update the pipeline. Determining what operating data effectively monitors and reports the critical Advancement activities is one of the major challenges for Advancement and Finance. Again, a sophisticated fundraising software information system is important to this tracking.
Implementing a Philanthropic Plan
The implementation of the philanthropic plan brings Finance and Advancement together again to promote support of the institution. There should be a specific outreach plan for each of the major stakeholders or constituencies that comprise the donor base.This communications plan should be tailored to their different motivations and philanthropic goals. The alumni, parents, faculty and staff, trustees, community foundations, business community and civic organizations require specialized value propositions and messaging to more effectively connect with their interests. Advancement and Finance can play a very integral, supportive role in inspiring confidence in the institution. The entire leadership team led by the President needs to strive to increase its external presence in order to communicate and promote the mission, priorities and accomplishments of the institution. It is important for the institution to be a valued member of the community and region in which it resides by being a good citizen and neighbor, and by being community service driven.
Donors have many choices where to invest their philanthropic support. The institution must be worthy. Donors want to be assured that not only will their gifts be used beneficially, but also that the institution is financially sound and sustainable. Each constituency invests in the institution in its own way whether it is a decision to make a gift, enroll a child, serve on the board, or enter into a strategic partnership. It is incumbent upon the institution to demonstrate prudent financial stewardship of that investment. Living and achieving the mission day-by-day earn goodwill and trust. An effective partnership between Advancement and Finance is a key strategic element in the successful fulfillment of this goal.
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Discussion Forum: Trends in Leadership Giving in the Annual Fund
For perspective on trends in leadership giving we asked annual giving officers representing a spectrum of institutions to provide feedback on the following three topics:
- Identify the top three trends in annual giving today
- Name the biggest challenge to increasing your leadership gifts
- What, if any, trends can you identify in raising leadership gifts for the annual fund
The response we received is summarized below.
- Identify the top three trends in annual giving today.
Although the input varied, topmost for many was the challenge of engaging new donors—particularly younger alumni. The need to connect with these younger prospective donors using non-traditional fundraising methods, including social networking and on-line and other interactive media, was a recurring theme. Comments on this topic ranged from “new donor acquisition has become increasingly more challenging;” to “young alumni are not responding to traditional appeals and require a creative approach.”
Respondents cited a trend toward “paperless” giving and a decline in the effectiveness of direct mail. One respondent observed that the increase in on-line giving seems more prevalent among graduates from 1980-2007.
Campaign “style” was seen as moving toward more highly structured models—i.e., requiring “a volunteer structure, targeted prospects, leadership giving, and identifiable goals.” A move away from volunteer driven fundraising was also mentioned, along with donors wanting tangible rewards such as t-shirts, mugs, and tote bags. The need to explain to donors why higher education is “relevant in a world with so many pressing needs” and defining the “added value” to individual donors was another refrain.
Finally, a trend toward stagnant/decreased participation overall, and fewer donors making large gifts worried some respondents. This was coupled with the need to balance the request for alumni participation with proven return on investment.
- Name the biggest challenge to increasing your leadership gifts.
Responses included:
“The greatest challenge is getting people to move up the annual fund pyramid while keeping their contributions unrestricted. Higher level of engagement, which is necessary to grow leadership gifts in this economic climate, has tended to sway individuals toward restricting their contributions.”
“The current economy!”
“Engaging women who graduated in the 70s and 80s and bringing them along as leadership donors.”
“Educating alumni on why our institution has a need, how a gift can have an impact and how it was spent.”
“Staffing; interdivision collaboration.”
“Tough times with the economy and the number of organizations soliciting support on the rise [translates to] less money to spend, more organizations to spend it on. Besides that, about one third of our solicitable alumni base is young alumni.”
- What, if any, trends can you identify in raising leadership gifts for the annual fund?
One respondent summarized: “Given the economy, we have seen good success in asking individuals for installment gifts that in total are the equivalent of a leadership contribution. A gift of $250 quarterly is a little easier from the checkbook than $1,000 in a single transaction. Providing easy payment options (auto withdrawal etc) is important.”
Some cited the “increased interest in where the gift is going,” along with “the increase in restricted giving” as a strong trend among their donors.
Another stated: “People with wealth from the '80 and 90s operating in a blackberry era want the attention and respect that they feel they deserve. How to balance [this] with educating them about why [and] how a gift can have an impact, how it was spent, and how [the school] adds value to their lives.”
Finally, one respondent characterized his school's efforts in these terms: “[Leadership giving is] going to be more and more important going forward. These will be the best donors and the backbone of any successful annual fund program in the future. Re-engaging alumni and getting parents fired up has been an excellent method of uncovering new leadership for the university...leading to potential major gift donors or trustees with volunteer fundraising experience and a good solid understanding of the institution's philanthropy.”
The Woolbright Group wishes to thank the following institutions for their participation in this article: The Catholic University of America, Dartmouth College, Lebanon Valley College, Rochester Institute of Technology, Smith College, Syracuse University, and University of Vermont.
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We want to hear from you! Please post your comments, solutions, or new topic ideas to us at: info@woolbrightgroup.com. Be assured we will only post your confidential comments (no names, just the text of your recommendations!).
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The Reading File:
Reader’s Recommendations and Reviews
Welcome to The Reading File, a regular feature of Bright Ideas where our readers share their reading recommendations. We invite you to share the title of something you found worthwhile. It doesn't have to be a book and it doesn't have to be strictly work related! Feel free to submit just the basics (title, author), or include a brief review. We'd love to hear from you–thank you in advance for your participation!
A Far Country
By Daniel Mason
Mason’s second book (“The Piano Tuner” was the first) is a gripping story of family ties, journeys, and challenges in an unidentified country (probably Brazil). Twelve-year-old Isabel leaves her family home in the country on the edge of a sugar cane plantation following years of drought and civil unrest. Impoverished, hungry, and desperately lonely for her 17-year-old brother, she sets off alone but with her parents’ blessing, to the big city in search of her brother.
Andrea Pactor
Assistant Director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy
Indiana University
Venice, the Tourist Maze: A Cultural Critique of the World's Most Touristed City
By Robert C. Davis and Garry R. Marvin
This is so much more than a travel guide about my most favorite city in the world. It is a fascinating look at the history of an extraordinary place as it intertwines with the history of tourism (Venice first licensed tour guides in 1219, for gosh sake....), and human history itself. Co-written by a social historian and a social anthropologist, it is a rich cross-pollination of stories of culture, religion, history, ritual, mythology, and symbology. I've been most struck with the observation that "a tourist is half a pilgrim, if a pilgrim is half a tourist," and the whole of my own experience of journey, search, appearance/reality, and "other" as it relates to place.
Annie Emanuelli
Marketing Writer/Editor, Institutional Marketing
Elms College
Three Cups of Tea
By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
The subtitle says it all: “One man’s mission to promote peace—one school at a time.” Greg Mortenson was lost after trying to climb K-2 and ultimately was moved by what he found in the village in Pakistan where he recuperated. He was moved by what he saw and learned and began a mission to build schools—mostly for girls—in remote areas of Pakistan and eventually Afghanistan. His commitment and ultimate impact on the lives of poor girls is an inspiration.
Broken for You
By Stephanie Kallos
A poignant story of a wealthy, lonely septuagenarian whose life circumstances change, and she begins to create her own “family.” She collects an unusual assortment of people who come together to open and share her life and, ultimately, her mission of healing and righting wrongs. It has interesting twists and turns, great joy, painful moments, and great characters.
Barbara Sirvis
President (retired)
Southern Vermont College
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