Colleges Try New Tactics to Retain Fund Raisers

Besieged by headhunters, institutions fight to keep talent they already have

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By ERIN STROUT

Good fund raisers are hard to find. Everybody knows that. But when a college finally lands them, the bigger challenge is figuring out how to get them to stay for the long haul.

The situation has become so dire that the innocent act of sending a talented gift officer to a professional-development conference is like offering up a top football recruit to your biggest rival. Those events are swarming with headhunters. If a college is ending a campaign or experiencing a change in leadership, such as a new president, forget it. You may as well hold a job fair at the office instead of waiting for the inevitable raid.

The University of Missouri at Kansas City, for example, completed a $200-million campaign this summer. Since then the Board of Trustees has been working to create a new private foundation to raise money for the university. The planning has been done behind closed doors, says Giancarlo J. Amato, vice chancellor for university advancement, making already burned-out fund raisers fearful of what might happen to their jobs when the foundation is created.

"I've already had two of our 15 development officers say that they will not be sticking around to find out what happens," says Mr. Amato. "Because this is being done secretly at the board level, it's created a real morale problem."

Headhunting Opportunity

A survey last year by the consulting firm Eduventures Inc. asked development officers at 72 public and private research institutions what their primary challenge was: 86 percent said recruiting, training, and retaining staff members.

It's common for colleges to be on the lookout for the conclusion of successful campaigns at other institutions. That's the perfect time to present a new job opportunity to somebody who gained valuable experience or played an important role in a campaign. Mr. Amato and many others freely admit that they scour headlines for such news, especially when they are ready to hire additional staff members for their own campaigns.

"It's an easy time to have your staff recruited away," he says. "We all do it."

The next job does not have to be with a premier fund-raising operation, say fund-raising professionals. While some do aspire to be among the ranks of such powerhouses as Harvard and Stanford, many fund raisers leave for smaller institutions, where they can have loftier titles, carry more responsibility, and take on new challenges.

"Headhunters call me all the time," says Wendy Zufelt-Baxter, who is finishing a master's degree in philanthropy at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. "They tell me they usually don't speak to somebody so happy." That suggests to her that development offices need to work much harder to keep top people content.

Ms. Zufelt-Baxter, whose thesis is on the problems that American colleges have in retaining their top fund raisers, is also associate director of development at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Ontario. She has found that not much research exists about how organizations retain talented fund-raising professionals, but that colleges could learn a lot from the corporate sector.

"You see a lack of succession planning and a failure to recruit from within an organization in higher education," she says. "Compensation and benefits always seem to be the response, but there are more issues at play."

Frequent Turnover

Raising money is a full-fledged profession now, with more degree programs being offered in fund raising, nonprofit management, and philanthropy. Some institutions, such as the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, are also trying to interest undergraduates in the career path, by creating internships in their development offices.

It is a stark difference from 20 years ago, when it was typical to have retired coaches, emeritus faculty members, or volunteers soliciting most of the private donations. But as raising extraordinary amounts in private donations has become paramount in higher education, as well as in the health-care and other charitable sectors, career opportunities have grown faster than the talent pool. Institutional membership in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, which represents institutional-development officers, has doubled in the past 30 years.

According to CASE, 32 percent of fund raisers stay in their jobs for less than three years. Frequent turnover can be a bigger problem in fund raising than in other fields, because of the importance of the relationships that fund raisers build with donors, and the money that is lost as new staff members are trained.

According to research by the Foundation for Philanthropy of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, fund raisers base their overall job satisfaction — or dissatisfaction — on factors that include autonomy, chances for promotion, support of co-workers, and stress caused by unrealistic fund-raising goals.

College leaders are realizing that they must be flexible to keep their superstars. Some colleges are allowing top talent to share jobs or maintain their primary residences in other cities. Others focus on creating clear career paths within their organizations, so that moving to another institution is not the next logical step. Some reward top performers with bonuses.

Donald A. Hasseltine, vice president for development at Dickinson College, has learned to make sure that job candidates do not view the small, liberal-arts college as just a steppingstone. Asking candidates why they applied for the job has helped Mr. Hasseltine reduce turnover.

He recently needed to fill a position for major-gifts officer, and although he found a "very competent, capable" candidate from Ohio, something told him that the person was not going to last long at the college, in Carlisle, Pa., so he did not offer the job.

"I couldn't find a legitimate reason why this person would want to move here long term," he says. "Eventually the story didn't add up."

Dickinson ended up hiring a retired military person who had been working at another local nonprofit organization, and whose family lived in the area.

"When we find talented people, we've learned that we need to be open to their needs," says Mr. Hasseltine. He recently hired a young alumnus who lives in Washington and was not in a position to move his family. So Mr. Hasseltine has required him to be on the campus for only part of each week.

Dickinson has also allowed the position of annual-fund director to be shared by two women who did not want to work full time. "We get two talented people, both with reasons to be in Carlisle," he says. "It creates more stability."

Stability is never a guarantee, but there are junctures when it's harder to achieve. The University of California at San Diego finished a $1-billion campaign in June, and Rebecca Newman, associate vice chancellor for development, knows that this is a time when the university is vulnerable to losing its best people. So far, she says, she has lost a couple of junior staff members, while the senior-level fund raisers from her staff of 130 have stuck around.

"Development officers are looking for opportunities to grow their skills, enhance their areas of supervision, and advance their careers," she says. "If I want to keep my best people, I have to provide opportunities to broaden the scope of their positions."

Then there is the issue of compensation.

San Diego is one of only a handful of colleges that give bonuses based on fund raisers' performance. The idea of financial incentives for fund raisers has been controversial in higher education because often there are deans, faculty members, and other staff members involved in fund-raising activities. Officials wonder where to draw the line as to who is eligible to receive the bonuses, and if it is fair to offer them to only one department. But Ms. Newman says that the arrangement has worked at San Diego for the past six years.

Anybody who is an associate director or above is eligible to receive a bonus of up to 15 percent of his or her base salary for exceeding a set of individual goals, which are determined at the beginning of the fiscal year. These include quantitative goals, such as the number of visits made and the number of "asks" completed, and subjective criteria, like being a good team player. Nobody receives bonuses directly related to individual donations.

To ensure that everybody is evaluated equally, many supervisors are involved in the process, including the budget officer, who is not eligible for the program because she allocates the money for the incentives and manages the data related to decisions about bonuses.

The key to the success of the bonus program, says Ms. Newman, is to be sure that everybody feels that it's fair, that the rules are clear, and that the goals are articulated properly and measured accurately.

"If somebody's performance is satisfactory, they will not get a bonus," she says, "because they are doing the job they are paid to do. It's only for those who go above that or are exceptional."

The University of California system lags behind the market in terms of salaries for fund raisers, Ms. Newman adds. San Diego's incentives allow it to be competitive.

"If you have a superstar, every organization is making him an offer," she says. "And you don't want to be a training ground for everybody else's fund-raising office."

Mark Pankey, assistant vice president for development at the Florida State University Foundation is constantly courted by recruiters. But he has stayed in Tallahassee for 10 years now and has no plans to leave anytime soon.

Mr. Pankey has weathered campaign endings and a change of presidents. Florida State, where about 70 staff members work in development, has become exceptional at promoting people from within, he says, giving him a sense that he can advance his career without moving away.

"At least three other people started here when I did and we've all moved up," he says. "They invest in my career and professional development."

Marilyn Spores, chief operating officer of the foundation, says that kind of investment makes good business sense.

It takes as long as 18 months for a new gift officer to work at a productive level and get to know donors and prospects, she says. If the fund raiser ends up leaving in less than three years, a college gives up a potential $10-million or more, she estimates, not to mention the trust of donors and the cost of recruiting somebody new.

Fund raisers who move up from within the university can help their successors make smooth transitions into the job, filling them in on what the dean likes, which donors they should spend the most time with, and which prospects are ready to be asked to donate.

Such continuity and teamwork also help staff members see the career opportunities ahead of them, building morale as more people are given the chance to move up.

"The president has met with each of us to ask what our aspirations and goals are," Mr. Pankey says. "I know there is a long-term plan for me here. I can see my future here."