Becoming a Louisville Slugger: Academic Fundraising 101

Preconferenc

In the balance: work/life balance of senior development professionals within higher education

Work/life balance has become a goal or quest for professionals of many disciplines. To achieve this often precarious and sought after stability has been studied through various lenses and perspectives. This dissertation utilizes a qualitative methodological framework to study the work/life balance of six senior advancement professionals at Research Extensive public higher education institutions

Which came first, the project or the fundraising?

One of the harder endeavors faced in a library is maintaining a balance between necessary projects and providing the funds to finance them. Ideally, discussions of funding and projects should go hand-in-hand, as each discussion is relevant to the other. However, this is not always the case. Donors may have preconceived notions about how they would like their generosity used. Similarly, a library's desire to raise capital may tempt it to accept gifts for projects that may not be part of their overall development plan. By including fund-raising at the beginning of a project, a library increases its chances of creating a successful action plan and balancing its financial and project priorities

Priorities, Internal Customers, & Marketing [Slides]

Slides from a presentation priority setting for academic libraries, marketing, and working alongside academic advancement presented at ALADN 2017 Conference on May 2017 in Cleveland, OH

Library Development 4.6: Geometric Nonlinearity (How stable are your cables?) [Slides]

Slides from a presentation on academic advancement and library development given at the ALADN 2018 Pre-conference on May 20, 2018 in Ft. Worth, TX

Moving the Horse before the Cart: Aligning Fundraising with Academic Library Trends

Academic libraries undergo change at an almost constant rate, yet the effect of change can differ across various institutions. As technological and educational environments evolve, the impact to advancement activities can be overlooked if not kept in consideration as it relates to engaging donor investment. Strategically these opportunities for the organization may be hidden and not as visible to stakeholders as traditional or legacy options. This panel will explore six of these broader academic library trends and lead discussion regarding impact to donors, potential modification to fundraising strategies and challenges to library administrators. This panel of senior library and advancement leaders will provide strategies, examples and concepts for recognizing these trends as well as modifying and aligning your library’s institutional advancement efforts

What is the quality in your quantity?: Library development assessment should look beyond mere numbers

Purpose: To outline the potential hazards of a purely numerical approach to evaluating development professionals and development programs.Design/methodology/approach: Narrative paper outlining various means used to assess a library development program.Findings: Library development assessment that utilizes quantitative analysis alone without substantive analysis of the underlying numbers will likely yield incorrect conclusions.Originality/value: Practical suggestions for utilizing qualitative techniques when assessing a library development program or development professional

Women and Wealth: How to Connect Them for Your Campus

Thanks to greater career opportunities, savvy investments and longer lives, women are sitting on a pile of money that has the potential to change the world.The combined net worth of the 1.6 million female top wealth holders is $2.2 trillion. The average net worth of those women is$1.38 million, slightly higher than for the same group of men. A Boston College study found that among married women executives at Fortune 500 companies, 75% actually out-earned their husbands.With much of this wealth potentially available to higher education, it's important to engage women ad donors and advocates for your program, said Debra Engle, VP for development and Karlene Jennings, director of development for the university library, both at Iowa State University. They spoke it at the University of Nebraska conference on Women, in Educational Leadership in September

SPEC Kit 297: Library Development (December 2006)

This SPEC Kit investigates the staffing, reporting relationships, and duties of library development programs in ARL member libraries to provide a baseline for institutions as they work to create, refine, or advocate for library development programs in their institutions.The survey was distributed to the 123 ARL member libraries in March 2006. Ninety libraries (73%) responded to the survey. Eighty-three (92%) reported that they have a formal library development program. Of those institutions, all have a fundraising professional assigned to the program, 76 (92%) use printed giving materials, 71 (86%) use direct mail, 50 (60%) conduct a phonathon, 50 (60%) have a friends organization, and 47 (57%) raise more than $500,000 a year in private support.This SPEC Kit includes documentation from respondents in the form of mission statements, organization charts, job descriptions, budgets, and policies

Development is dysfunctional …

Purpose: This paper aims to assist and offer workarounds for dysfunctional situations in library development situations.Design/methodology/approach: Uses practical solutions gained from experience to avoid or deal with dysfunctional situations.Findings: Development, by its very nature, is anything but straight forward. For a number of reasons, development efforts can get off track.Originality/value: Suggests practical strategies for minimizing dysfunctional elements in library development efforts