When I got involved in fund raising as an academic, a wise development officer noted a key difference in the way donors saw him and me. “I am a salesman,” he said. Most donors, being business people, understand sales, he explained, and have no problem evaluating sales pitches.
But before they give a substantial amount of money to an organization, he added, they really want to know and develop confidence in its leadership: “You are the public face of the unit. They need to trust you and believe in you.”
In other words, donors certainly want to see facts, figures, plans, and prospects, but faith in the person who presents them is paramount. As an academic, you’re used to going it alone and representing your own scholarly interests until you take on an administrative role and have to start fund raising. So how do you become an ambassador for your department’s causes and win the trust of disparate potential donors?
Be in command of the facts. As the public face of the department (or college), you must know a lot about what you are advocating for. Don’t go on the road until you:
- Are knowledgeable about your program’s and your university’s basic numbers and statistics. Nothing is more embarrassing than asking for help to create a scholarship and then drawing a blank when the donor inquires, “So, what does tuition run nowadays, with room and board?”
- Have handy, perhaps in aesthetically pleasing pamphlet or flier form, a menu of some of the top projects or programs for which you seek support. That list should reflect the consensus of the faculty, not just your own preferences.
- Understand the history—quantitative and qualitative—of the department. You don’t want to be surprised by a donor bringing up a major problem from the past that you don’t know anything about.
At the same time, if you really don’t know how to answer a particular question, don’t try to fake it. It is perfectly acceptable to reply, “Hmm, that’s a good question. Let me find out about that.”
Be able to translate academic jargon and processes. Part of your job as the public face of your department is being able to describe what it does in ways that outsiders can understand and appreciate.
A dean acquaintance described how he was seeking money for an endowed chair from a donor who, like most people outside higher education, knew nothing about academic hiring. Basically the donor had said, “If I give you the money next week, could we find somebody and hire them by the end of the month?” The dean quickly and clearly explained the process of approvals, committees, ads, interviews, and faculty votes. In a nutshell: “It is complicated and takes a relatively long time, but we do it this way so we can hire the best possible person.”
Be positive. Another piece of advice I appreciated from development folks is this: “Nobody pours money into a sinking ship.” Appeals for exceptional emergencies or to stave off disaster can work … once. In the long run, people will help you if they think investment will mean better times, not just keeping the wolf from the door for a semester. Indeed, research on charitable giving shows that sustainable positive outcomes get more donations than “woe is me.”
You need to be positive in personality to bear the positive message. If you are dour and grievance-laden, then academic administration and fund raising may not be for you. You may well have a long list of complaints you yearn to share with the world (e.g., “The conference-room ceiling leaks!” or “The head of the promotion-and-tenure committee is a supervillain!”). Keep them to yourself.
Positive does not mean delusional. The donors want to know that you are a shrewd evaluator of the challenges your institution faces, and they will appreciate sensible solutions. They can tell when someone is being a Pollyanna.
Understand the donor’s background and interests as best you can. As dean, I replaced someone who had retired after being dean since the college’s founding at Texas Tech and had been at the university for 30 years in one capacity or another. As a development administrator put it to me, “Almost every donor knows your predecessor on a first-name basis. It’s going to take you years to get close to that.” That’s why I have been writing, calling, and, above all, traveling as much as I reasonably can.
I am helped, as you should be, by the memory, notes, and files that were kept about past development efforts. Procedurally, every time anyone from the university foundation or the college meets with a donor, there should be a “contact report” added to that donor’s profile. Important points from past conversations should be available, and you should be familiar with them—as in “very concerned about access to college for needy students” or “strongly grateful to Professor Sellmeyer, who was his mentor.”
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. The retired dean of our college is my go-to for advice and background knowledge. I have also found that donors themselves are good sources of advice about the passions and concerns of their friends.
Of course, humans are complex, and surprises crop up all the time. In the give-and-take of conversation, you will learn that donors have multiple interests or interests that no one expected. Go with the flow, and take notes. You never know when a seemingly tangential aside or thought bubble may prove significantly useful months or years down the road.
Be presentable. If you are already a chair, dean, or director, or are about to become one, you probably have some inkling that the dress codes, manners, and ways of speaking in your peer group are different than for faculty members. Consider: Would you write a big check to somebody who was wearing flip-flops? Well, maybe you would, as a faculty member. But in the business world—the one in which most donors have spent their postcollege lives—"unkempt” translates as “unprofessional.”
Context and setting matter, of course. When visiting New York in winter, I pack my blue suit, school tie, and black shoes. In California I go tieless (but with a university pin) and sport pastels. If I am meeting an 80-year-old donor and spouse for the first time at a fancy restaurant, I dress up. If I am staying at his house and we are old friends, a polo shirt and sandals may be fine. In time and with experience, you will learn which sartorial aspect fits which occasion and audience.
Become a good listener. An acquaintance recalled that when he became department chair, he found that one big difference from being a faculty member was that he had to “hear out” his colleagues. It’s true: At faculty meetings, anyone can daydream, play World of Tanks online, or catch up on correspondence—except for the chair, who will incite resentment if she or he seems distracted. Likewise, in your office you should not seem bored if a senior professor comes to complain about his teaching schedule. Pay attention; it’s part of the job.
It’s no different dealing with donors. They are most likely achievers, people who have done well in their careers. They are meeting with you out of courtesy and are generally disposed to hear you out, but not just to hear you. They have ideas, reminiscences and stories, questions, and propositions that you should courteously consider.
Don’t do it just to be polite or because you hope it will result in money. Do it because it’s good for you and your department. Alumni in particular can provide external feedback on the quality of the education you are providing or on industry trends. Their ideas for helping your department may be ones that have never occurred to you. Listen and learn.
One of the misimpressions that people who don’t work with donors have is that the enterprise involves a lot of “kissing up.” Well, no. Grovel to donors, over-flatter them, and they will soon lose respect for you and lose faith in your causes. Most donors want to work with someone they can grow to admire and trust, not a sycophant.
Nevertheless, you should be, to borrow a phrase from Samuel Johnson, “most able” to make yourself “agreeable to those with whom there was business to be done.” It’s not difficult, and the rewards are personal satisfaction and the accelerated progress of your academic program.