The College President’s Role in Fundraising
With the financial outlook for colleges and universities tenuous, institutional fundraising has never been more critical, and the president’s role never more central. As “fundraiser-in-chief,”...
With the financial outlook for colleges and universities tenuous, institutional fundraising has never been more critical, and the president’s role never more central. As “fundraiser-in-chief,” the president wears the hats of storyteller, door opener, and magnet. With giving to higher education on the rise and as transformational gifts become more essential to higher education, the president is often now the linchpin for this level of contribution. The president is the visionary, tone-setter, and in some ways the frontline development professional who is cultivating these critical relationships and asking for gifts.
Presidents have always played an essential part in higher education advancement and development efforts, as well as in complementary areas such as marketing and alumni affairs. As has become clear in our discussions with presidents, advancement leaders, and trustees across higher education, the president plays an increasingly vital role, especially in the largest gifts.
[This article was originally published by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Permission to reprint has been granted.]
Most high-net-worth individuals considering a gift of $10 million, $25 million, $50 million, or more want to ensure their investment supports the president’s vision and will live on as a capital investment, thriving program, or secure endowment long after the gift is made. They want to understand the president’s long-term strategy for the institution, know that this strategy reflects the support of the board of trustees, align themselves with these plans if their vision is compatible, and develop trust in the institution that their gift will be stewarded properly. All of these steps must be facilitated by the president with the support of a talented chief advancement officer (CAO) and their team.
Radical and unexpected events can overwhelm this process, as exemplified by the 2023 Congressional hearings in which presidents of three of the most esteemed universities in the world were placed in a perilous circumstance exacerbated by activist donors. But, for most institutions in the US, the president has a clear and unique opportunity to nurture positive relationships that position the institution for long-term stability and success, driving fundraising in new and creative ways and engineering record-breaking campaigns. They can establish an environment in which fundraising is interdisciplinary, everyone plays a part, and team members are accountable.
In this article, we look at steps a president can take to prepare for this important role. At the root, these recommendations are about the president establishing a leadership culture in which fundraising is an ongoing strategic, collaborative priority that develops and matures over time, to the betterment and benefit of the institution.
Steps and Strategies
The following are recommendations for sitting presidents, to boost your fundraising impact:
- Make a commitment. As a president, you can spend 50%, 60%, or more of your time engaged in direct or indirect fundraising-related activities, whether on the road meeting donors, making calls, or sending emails. While it is the chief advancement officer’s sole job to raise funds and make friends for the institution, you as president must also make it your job. Many presidents embrace the idea of fundraising, but obstacles arise in devoting the time and resources to this work. In our recruitment of presidents, the obligation to fundraise is typically spelled out in the job profile and is a significant criterion in candidate selection. Related competencies such as emotional intelligence and relationship-building are increasingly prioritized.
- Build a relationship with the chief advancement officer. The president and CAO must align on fundraising goals and how to achieve them, building a strong, mutually beneficial partnership. Ways of doing so include regular one-on-ones to discuss goals, challenges, and opportunities; shared dashboards or reports to ensure coordination on metrics; and collaborative strategic planning to ensure alignment with broader institutional priorities. Overall, you and your CAO must succeed and fail – celebrating wins and addressing setbacks – together.
- Engage the CAO in strategic decisionmaking. One mistake some presidents make is to underutilize or underestimate the CAO. The chief advancement officer, however, can provide you with essential visibility into key stakeholder groups including the board of trustees, offer important guidance on delicate political navigation, and provide critical insights into budgeting and the role philanthropy can play in that process. Utilize this expertise to your advantage.
- Develop strategy and messaging. The president must outline for the CAO their strategy and long-term vision, in alignment with their board of trustees, creating a platform to develop corresponding campaign themes and messaging for donors, alumni, and external stakeholders. A Deloitte survey from nearly a decade ago listed the president’s top three requisite skills as strategist, communicator and storyteller, and fundraiser. These needed traits have not changed, and we would argue that these three are inextricably linked. Your messaging must be thoughtful, clear, and compelling. Further, it must express the mission, values, and value proposition of the institution, with an urgency that insists the future is not guaranteed.
- Set an ambitious but realistic bar and ensure your board supports you. A president is in a unique institutional position when it comes to annual fundraising and long-term campaign goals. The CAO may want these targets to be low enough that their team can exceed them in dramatic fashion – under-promise and over-deliver. Simultaneously, the board of trustees may want to set goals ambitiously high because of their own desire for the institution to raise its profile and achieve great success. Both ends of the spectrum create unproductive incentives such as pushing a gift to the next fiscal year if an annual goal has already been met or counting non-traditional contributions such as verbal planned gift commitments or government funds toward a campaign goal that is too high.Fundraising goals should inspire while also being achievable. How do you formulate them? First, understand your advancement team as best as you can – their history of fundraising, their current productivity, the resources available to them, and their challenges. Second, you should work with the chief advancement officer, their team, your team, and even outside counsel to relentlessly benchmark your institution’s advancement program against your peers and aspirant institutions. Do not rely solely on the advancement team to generate these comparators – utilize all the tools at your disposal.
- Invest in yourself. Fundraising is primarily a learned skill. You can and should rely on your CAO to educate you on theoretical aspects of fundraising as well as practical – how best to “make the ask” without the focus always being on money. Organizations like CASE and the Association of Fundraising Professionals offer immersive programs, while online bootcamps exist as well. In addition, we would strongly recommend that you form your own kitchen cabinet of fellow presidents at similar institutions to discuss critical topics like fundraising. By talking with peers who are facing parallel challenges, you can sometimes learn tremendously more than you can in a seminar room or at your laptop.
- Get help. As indicated in tip four, you should not feel the need to go it alone or remain wholly dependent on your CAO. You can and should engage help when you need it in the form of experienced board members, thoughtful consultants, knowledgeable advisors, and interim leaders. Bringing in outside help, such as to assist in the development of a comprehensive fundraising campaign, can pay enormous dividends, drawing upon proven expertise and freeing the president and CAO to execute a well-constructed plan.
Conclusion
The role of the president is changing quickly and in almost innumerable ways. This is as true for fundraising as it is for many other aspects of the office. While the ground is shifting beneath, however, a few principles remain true for first-time presidents and long-serving ones: devote yourself to the practice of advancement, find a good partner with whom to collaborate, set appropriate goals, craft thoughtful messages and programs, and seek out assistance and guidance when you need it. As has been proven over and over again, presidents and their higher education institutions can achieve remarkable results by consistently implementing these principles with the integrity required of college and university leaders. We look forward to seeing what you accomplish.
