All Gravy and No Turkey?
3 Staples for Avoiding the Gifts that Keep on Taking
This is the season for saying “Thanks!” not “uhhhh…Thanks?” But you know that all gifts are not created equal. If you are not clear about what your institution needs, what it will and won’t accept as a gift and how much it costs to name something, you can find yourself gift poor at the end of the year with big dollar totals and no priorities funded!
Here are 3 tools that every college needs to be sure that gifts align with institutional needs and priorities:
Fundraising Agenda: Even outside of campaign mode, you need to know what you are fundraising for. Your college should have a process of identifying needs and strategic priorities. Derive from that an annual or multi-year fundraising agenda with discrete projects and project costs identified. This agenda should be blessed at the highest level and form the basis for your advancement team’s annual plan. When a well-meaning donor offers to donate the funds for an unwanted saltwater aquarium to the biology department, this will give the development officer a quick and institutionally backed way of politely declining and refocusing the donor’s generosity on the institution’s pre-identified priorities.
Gift Acceptance Policy: I once raised money for a college with an equestrian program. Donors constantly wanted to donate horses. Surprisingly they never offered two-year-old thoroughbreds. I literally learned to look a gift horse in the mouth. Old and infirm, the college had to stop taking on the feeding and vet bills associated with accepting these otherwise loveable animals. Every college needs a board-approved gift acceptance policy that authorizes the development office to say “no” to some gifts and provides a clear pathway for accepting in-kind and highly restricted gifts, especially.
Naming Opportunities Policy: Don’t endow a fund or name a facility if the gift is not going to cover costs. Many institutions still have $10,000 minimums for named endowments. At a normal spend rate that will kick off about $500 per year. How much do you spend accounting for and spending that $500, especially if it is a scholarship that requires convening a committee to sort through applications? Treat your successors the way you wish your predecessors would have treated you. Make sure that you have a board-approved policy that requires that the naming level gift for an endowment or a facility is sufficient to ensure that you can indeed accomplish the donors’ intentions now and in the future. Accepting a gift now that costs more to maintain later leads to intergenerational poor stewardship.
Stewardship is what this is all about. Remember we are in the philanthropy business not the money collection business. Being clear about what your needs and priorities are is the first step in being able to tell a donor that his or her values align with your institution’s goals. When that clarity and alignment are there from the beginning, everyone is happy including, especially, the donor.
When you’re ready to get clear with your donors and make them happy, call me.
In the meantime, Download: 3 Things Every College President Should Know About Fundraising.
Just Dessert: Make sure your accountability metrics for development officers are not based on dollars alone. Acknowledge them for bringing in gifts aligned with institutional priorities not just for 0s and commas.
Happy Thanksgiving!