Senior College Fund Raisers Unlikely to Leave, Poll Finds

Chief fund raisers at colleges and universities are very satisfied with their pay and jobs, and most

don’t plan to leave their posts anytime soon, according to a new survey.

More than 600 chief development officers responded to the survey, which was conducted online during the summer by EMN/Witt/Kieffer, an executive-search company that serves academic institutions.

Respondents make an average of $98,708, and 38 percent of them earn $100,000 per year or more, according to a report on the survey. Sixty-two percent say they are paid fairly.

Those who work for research-oriented universities that receive between $15.5-million and $40-million in federal support each year, classified as Research II institutions by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, earn an average of $182,931, the highest salary among respondents. Executives who direct the fund-raising efforts at Baccalaureate II institutions, which are undergraduate colleges that award less than 40 percent of their degrees in liberal arts, earn $74,943, the lowest average compensation.

Many executives surveyed by EMN/Witt/Kieffer said that they would not take a new job unless they got a large raise. On average, respondents said they would require an increase of 30 percent or more over their current salary to move to a new position.

Indeed, only 15 percent of respondents cited compensation as a key element in job satisfaction. The executives picked quality of life, an institution’s leadership, professional challenges, decision-making authority, and the culture of the institution as the most important elements in job satisfaction. They listed locale, the quality of local schools, the ability of their spouse or partner to find employment, cost of living, and the commute to work as the five most important nonmonetary factors when considering a job move.

Only one out of five respondents reported that they were looking for a new job.

The percentage of job seekers in the survey may indicate that top development executives keep their jobs longer than less-senior fund raisers, says Richard A. Ammons, vice president for college advancement at Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minn. “I’d say there’s probably more turnover in the lower ranks,” Mr. Ammons says. “When you’re a chief advancement officer, you have the chance to do a number of different things. Your need to grow, your need for new experiences can be met more easily if you’re a chief advancement officer than if you’re assistant director of the annual fund.”

In addition to the potential for growth, other nonmonetary factors increase in importance during a job search, Gary J. Posner, vice president and director of EMN/Witt/Kieffer’s education practice says. Colleges and universities tend to underrate quality-of-life issues when recruiting senior development staff, he says. “They don’t play to their strengths, whether it’s a highly rural environment where people might want to raise their children, or a highly urban environment where some people might want to live.”

Michael F. Luck, vice president for philanthropy and alumni affairs for the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, in Albany, says that quality of life is important to fund raisers, and will probably become more attractive.

“Since September 11 a lot of ‘lookers’ have stopped looking,” he says, “or have started viewing the countryside as an enviable spot to be.” He says that the threat of terrorism may make institutions located in urban centers less appealing, and may make executives in any locale cherish their family lives more. “I think when so much chaos abounds that folks tend to hunker down and any wanderlust is subdued.”

The survey results offer a glimpse of the respondents, their backgrounds, and their institutions. Half work for institutions with budgets below $40-million. Sixty-two percent have at least 10 years of experience in education, though nearly half have less than one year of development experience outside the education field. They supervise an average of 19 full-time employees, and 78 percent of them report directly to their institution’s CEO, president, or chancellor.

Two-thirds of the respondents are between the ages of 46 and 61, the overwhelming majority (94 percent) of them are white, and most of them are male — 61 percent.

A free copy of “EMN/Witt/Kieffer Survey of Senior Development Officer Compensation” can be found online at http://www.emnwittkieffer.com or by writing to: EMN/ Witt/Kieffer Survey, 2015 Spring Road, Suite 510, Oak Brook, Ill. 60523.

AVERAGE SALARIES OF COLLEGE FUND RAISERS