43% of College Fund Raisers Don’t Expect to Meet Goals

Higher-education fund raisers largely have a bleak outlook for the year ahead, according to a new survey of 415 advancement professionals at 48 colleges and universities.

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The survey, conducted by the educational advancement firm Washburn & McGoldrick, found that 43 percent of college and university fund raisers do not expect to meet their institution’s fund-raising goals this fiscal year. Just 22 percent do expect to meet those goals.

Universities that award master’s degrees reported the lowest confidence levels in their fund-raising abilities this year: Fifty-four percent of those institutions said they did not expect to meet their goals. At liberal-arts colleges, that share was 46 percent.

In survey responses, fund raisers voiced confusion about how to articulate their needs to donors without sounding out of touch with the pandemic, economic troubles, and other aspects of the current climate. Roughly a third of respondents said they fear a misstep in their appeals could discourage donations.

A fund raiser at a liberal-arts college noted the obvious need that health and social-service organizations can cite in appeals. The fund raiser worried that colleges’ financial needs — including diminished endowments, lost revenue due to room and board refunds, and a higher demand for financial aid — are more abstract by comparison. “How can we make that equally compelling argument for higher education?” the fund raiser wrote.

A majority of fund raisers — 57 percent — said they were concerned about whether their institution would be able to adapt fund-raising strategies to remain effective in a fraught economy. As social-distancing measures continue, those strategies are largely online. Forty-seven percent of fund raisers said their ability to connect with supporters virtually was a top concern.

Other findings:

• 67 percent of surveyed fund raisers worried about how they would keep existing fund-raising efforts on track.
• 33 percent were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to effectively connect with donors.