5 Ways College Fundraisers Can Help Academics Attract Big Gifts

In my seven years working in fundraising, first as a school director and now as a college dean, I have heard many academics and development professionals express frustration with each other. As one development officer told me at a workshop I ran, “My dean hates asking for money; he reminds me of that almost daily. I keep smiling, but I’m thinking, ‘It’s part of your job, buddy!’”

In a parallel workshop I ran for department chairs new to fundraising, one commented, “I know I’m supposed to do this … but I didn’t become a scholar so I could debase myself by begging in the streets!”

Yet at almost every institution of higher education, department chairs, directors, deans, and presidents are under unprecedented pressure to help raise more and more money from private sources.

Many academics who never were asked to help or lead fundraising are now being told to “step up.” The portion of an academic leader’s job spent on fundraising ― especially among deans — has skyrocketed. According to one commonly cited statistic, 40 percent of a dean’s time is devoted to raising money these days.

Most professors who become heads of academic units, myself included, had no prior fundraising training before being charged with these duties. In fact, I believe the values, skills, and experiences of most college faculty members may undermine their ability to work in tandem with development professionals.

However, it is possible for development professionals and college educators to forge partnerships. Here’s how professional fundraisers can help academics become successful fundraisers.

How to Understand the Academic Mind-Set

First, acknowledge that when academics approach fundraising, they face a fundamental contradiction. Academics are narrowly focused. Professors work at the same place, but they are not necessarily all on the “same team.” To the contrary, faculty were raised (over decades as undergrads, master’s, doctoral and post-doc students, tenure-line professors, etc.) to focus only on their academic disciplines.

They are not disloyal to their university, but their primary, passionate loyalty is to art history or psychology or electrical engineering – and more likely subfields (18^th-century Dutch painting, developmental psychology, multirate signal processing) within each of those areas.

Here lies the rub. At times money can be raised for specific purposes: For example, you work as director of development for the College of Engineering and you are raising money to name the electrical-engineering department. But no fundraiser can afford to get too narrow or inflexible. There are thousands of possible projects in engineering. So while you do indeed raise money for specific things, you need lots of arrows in your quiver for many potential targets.

In contrast, professors loyal to their specialties can succumb to what I call the “begonia effect.” As in: A professor of Dutch literature is driving through campus and sees facilities workers planting new beds of begonias near the main entrance. Nearby is a big sign that reads “Campus Beautification Project funded by a generous donation.” A development professional might smile and say, “What a nice, visible example of philanthropy at work!” However, the professor will be inclined to smolder and think, “Crazy! We need a new chair of 17^th-century Dutch literature, and those foundation folks are wasting their time raising money for useless plants!”

In theory, we academics understand that the donor probably was not open to redirect a gift to just any project: “Honestly, Mr. or Mrs. Major Donor, why throw away money on flowers? You should care more about 17^th-century Dutch literature!” But it rankles anyway.

The default feeling is, if you are not raising money for my specialization, then you are doing a bad job.

How to Build Partnerships with Academics

So what can you do? Here are five steps you can take to help academics overcome their reluctance to fundraise and empower them to secure gifts.

1. Start with what they know

When I became the director of a school of journalism and mass communication at a Big 10 university, I was lucky to work with senior professional fundraisers who also happened to be alumni of our program. At our first meeting, one of them suggested I was not as much of an amateur as I thought. For about 20 years I had been teaching a large intro lecture class in our field that covered a broad range of topics and had won two campuswide teaching awards. He then pointed out how that skill was transferable to the new enterprise and gently set me on a path to being an effective advocate for a variety of causes with diverse audiences.

You can similarly empower almost all academics with whom you work. Look at their CVs, and talk to them. You will find practices, knowledge, and habits that can be redirected to begin building that quiver of arrows. An added benefit: You will start your relationship on solid ground by showing respect for their expertise.

2. Prepare them thoroughly for face-to-face contact with donors

Good development officers know how to prepare their academic partners before meeting with donors. This includes providing information about past meetings with the donor, the extent of their wealth and ability to give, their philanthropic interests as well as insights into their connection to the cause. Remember, we academics share trepidation about “asking strangers for money.” So make it your job to humanize those donors so they seem less mysterious and distant.

For example, a development officer at a small liberal-arts college shared an anecdote. A new dean, a very successful teacher at the same college who had no background in fundraising, expressed concern about “asking strangers for money.” The development officer explained that alumni of the program were not strangers at all but former students who were “friends” of the program.

She related story after story about major donors who had spoken of their affinity for the institution, its work, and above all its faculty. In several cases, potential and present donors had mentioned that the dean had taught their children or grandchildren. The new dean instantly became more comfortable with the idea of fundraising because the contacts were no longer strangers.

So coach your protégés and share as much in-depth knowledge as possible about potential donors before contact is made.

3. Create well-researched presentations for a variety of causes

A cause is only as good as its spokespeople — you and the academic you work with — but it helps to have great supporting materials. A recurring nightmare for any teacher, especially professors who put a premium on being experts, is to be unprepared for an audience, whether a freshman class or a group of peers at a conference. One department chair I know commented, “I spend months preparing my PowerPoints and handouts for my classes. When they asked me to start fundraising, I thought, ‘This is something where you pretty much have to show up naked, with just your mental notes.’”

Not so. Academics who are successful fundraisers collaborate with marketing and design folks to create materials that help make the case to a donor. Perhaps just as important, the materials serve as prompts for the academic. At my college, for every major project, cause, or passion, we have created web videos, PowerPoint presentations, photo galleries, one-page explainers of proposed projects, and “rack cards” (a compact list of giving opportunities for easy reference). In one case we even created a newsletter for a readership of one: a super donor.

Although I have been comfortable with fundraising for years, I still find those aids useful and reassuring.

4. Set up mentoring time with more experienced leaders who raise money broadly

On any given campus, academic leaders and other faculty have had fundraising triumphs. The observations and examples fellow deans have offered me have helped greatly. Try to identify academic leaders who can advise your charge and offer peer-to-peer insights.

You don’t necessarily have to find peers with years of experience; some of the best case studies may come from academics who faced interesting circumstances or situations. Tales of failure can be educational as well. It builds confidence for the inexperienced to know that things haven’t always gone right for others.

5. (Gently) note the political benefits of both broad and targeted fundraising

Academic administrators should already know that failure to succeed in fundraising could endanger their jobs and that an ability to raise money for a variety of programs and projects can help an academic leader build and maintain support.

However, some academic leaders are sensitive about their relationships with faculty. We live in an era of unprecedented tension on campus; no-confidence votes seem to occur more than ever before. So you may not want to be as straightforward as to say, “There will be political benefits to you.” Try appealing to altruism with an approach such as, “I think we can help different parts of the unit.” A smart chair, dean, or director will understand and act accordingly.

We academics may seem to have a laser-like focus on what we value and what we do. But over and over again I have seen astute development officers foster a catholic perspective among academic leaders who learn to pursue opportunities that benefit many aspects of the units they oversee and the larger goal of advancing the educational mission.

David D. Perlmutter is a professor and dean of the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. He writes the Career Confidential advice column for The Chronicle of Higher Education and is the author of Promotion and Tenure Confidential (Harvard University Press, 2010).