Setting Ambitious Goals for Visiting Donors Can Backfire, Study of College Fund Raisers Finds

Fund raisers who seek big gifts are often evaluated each year on whether they make a specific number of visits to potential donors or complete a set number of solicitations.

But by setting overly high goals for both donor visits and number of solicitations, many charities are preventing fund raisers from getting the best possible results, according to a new study of college fund raisers by Eduventures, a Boston consulting company.

Fund raisers who were supposed to make 170 visits annually to donors raised an average of $1.23-million and completed five solicitations on average. But those with a lower goal, 130 donor visit per year, did better. On average, they completed nine solicitations, raising $1.37-million.

And fund raisers with lower goals for the number of solicitations, 20 to 30 annually, also raised more money in a year’s time: an average of $1.5-million — compared with $1.2-million, on average, among those required to complete more than 30 solicitations.

The higher goals, particularly for number of donor visits, appear to be pushing fund raisers to make visits and solicitations that don’t achieve desired ends, simply to make their quota, Eduventures officials said.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s article on performance measures charities use to evaluate fund raisers.