Evaluating How Well a Fund Raiser Does in Luring Big Gifts

To evaluate the performance of fund raisers who seek big gifts, public-television stations have a new tool at their disposal.

The premise of the evaluation system is simple: Fund raisers seeking big gifts should have a series of clear-cut annual goals — including a minimum dollar goal, as well as other targets, such as the number of potential donors approached. If they can’t meet those targets, they should be forced to leave their jobs. The tool was adopted by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in its $8-million effort to help more than 100 public-television stations learn how to aggressively seek big donations.

The evaluation system public-television stations are using was created five years ago by Richard K. Dupree, executive director of development at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, in Bloomington, who uses it with his own staff.

He says the evaluation instrument is now being used by many universities and other nonprofit groups. In the five years he has been using the instrument with his own staff of nine, Mr. Dupree says that four fund raisers who didn’t measure up resigned or were let go. He says he gives fund raisers advice and support for six months if they don’t meet their goals, but after that, he says, it is wrong to keep poor performers on staff.

“My folks began to freak when they saw that they were supposed to raise $1-million; it was viewed as micromanagement, like a police state,” he says. “I said, ‘Forget the dollar figure, if you do everything else you’re being evaluated on, you will exceed the dollar goal.’”

The dollar goals do not drive the evaluation system, Mr. Dupree adds. “The system drives the dollars. Now, fund raisers here appreciate the system.”

Here’s how it works: Fund raisers are evaluated annually on a 100-point scale divided into four performance areas worth 25 points each: dollar goals, the number of contacts made with donors, the number of written proposals submitted to donors, and “quality of work.”

To assess the quality of work, Mr. Dupree suggests examining a fund raiser’s performance in five areas, each worth five points: the percentage of proposals that prompt donors to make a gift or pledge; the number of visits to donors who give small amounts but can afford to contribute more; the number of contacts with donors who can afford to make a big gift but are not ready to do so; the number of meetings with donors that include trustees and other nonprofit leaders; and the ability to manage travel and other costs involved in soliciting big gifts.

At Mr. Dupree’s institution, fund raisers who receive no fewer than 75 points are rated as satisfactory, but they do not receive a bonus. Those who earn less than 75 points receive a warning and additional help to improve their performance over the next six months. To earn a bonus, fund raisers must earn at least 80 points.

Mr. Dupree offers the following tips, based on how things work at his institution, to show how charities can use the evaluation method to create realistic goals for fund raisers and measure their performance:

Dollar goals. Fund raisers’ goals should include both cash and pledges, says Mr. Dupree. He gives his staff the goal of raising 50 percent in cash and the other half in pledges.

While fund raisers at Indiana University’s business school are expected to raise $1-million to $1.5-million annually, many small groups can expect a major-gifts officer to raise $250,000 a year by seeking gifts of $1,000 or more, Mr. Dupree says. He says groups can raise that much as long as they start out with several hundred or more donors who each give at least a few hundred dollars a year.

Contacts. Mr. Dupree asks his staff to commit to making 150 contacts with donors who have the potential of making large gifts, and the majority of those contacts must be in-person meetings. To earn points, each contact should be followed up with some action, such as another visit scheduled, that shows the donor is willing to consider a gift.

Proposals to donors. Out of 150 contacts with donors, Mr. Dupree’s fund raisers are expected to follow up with at least 30 written proposals to donors, and at least 24 of them must be requests for $75,000 or more. All proposals are reviewed before being forwarded to donors, and copies are kept on file. (Another part of the evaluation gives fund raisers additional points for proposals that generate a pledge or gift.)

Quality of work. Fund raisers can earn up to five points for each of the following:

• Proposals accepted by donors. Fund raisers receive points for proposals that donors reward with a gift or pledge. If, for example, half of a development officer’s proposals were accepted by donors, that person would earn 2.5 points.

• Contacts with previous donors. Fund raisers set their own goals for the number of meetings they set up each year with donors who have made or are capable of significant gifts but are not yet ready to give, says Mr. Dupree. If a fund raiser agrees to contact 25 such individuals per year and ends up talking to 15, he or she would receive three out of the possible five points.

• Contacts with potential donors. Fund raisers also set their own goals for the number of contacts they make annually with people who have supported the organization with modest gifts below the minimum amount that qualifies as a “major gift.” The contacts are scored in the same manner as meetings with previous donors.

• Use of trustees and other leaders. Fund raisers win points by involving trustees, deans, and other such leaders in meetings to ask donors for big gifts, Mr. Dupree says.

  At the beginning of each year, he meets with fund raisers to map out rough plans for their travel in coming months and who they will visit. At that time, most fund raisers can predict at least some meetings in which a top leader could, as Mr. Dupree says, “help close the gift.” At the end of the year, if fund raisers were able to involve as many leaders as predicted, they earn the full five points. An added benefit of the system: “Deans love knowing when we’ll need them a year in advance,” Mr. Dupree says.

• Staying within budget. Fund raisers who work for Mr. Dupree, some of whom are expected to find and woo donors in certain regions of the country, receive $11,000 annually to pay for travel, meals with donors, and related expenses. If they stay within that budget, they get the full five points, says Mr. Dupree. “If they go one dollar over, they get zero. It’s all or nothing.”

More information on Mr. Dupree’s “Performance Evaluation Toolkit” for major-gift officers is available on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Web site to help stations seek big gifts (http://majorgivingnow.org/home.html).