Fundraising Talks
News and updates from the USM Office of
Advancement Research
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Traditional direct-response fundraising requires different performance metrics than fundraising activated by AI. According to NonProfitPRO, "Artificial Intelligence can now be used to enable behavioral economics modeling (BEM), the well-established field that combines economics and psychology to comprehend how and why people behave the way they do when making financial decisions." This article outlines five metrics that can give fundraisers tools to understand the unique value proposition of behavioral economics modeling activated by AI.
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In this blog post by Janet Weimar, Manager, Prospect Management, University of Iowa Center for Advancement, Weimar describes the path she took to produce her two-page report, "Prospect Management Highlighted Accomplishments and Key Impact Indicators." Weimar notes that she stopped thinking of metrics as targets to be reached, but rather as ways to reflect on past work and as a way to map a path forward. Reading about her journey may help your prospect management team create something similar. | | |
Many who have worked in the nonprofit sector for decades can remember when the work of development and financial offices was done on paper and stored in filing cabinets. Now, technology has replaced the majority of this work and nonprofits must be sure that they are leveraging the full capabilities of modern technology. According to npEngage, the five tech-driven changes here to stay for nonprofits are:
- Business intelligence dashboards provide an easy access point for all kinds of data.
- Integrated platforms that communicate with one another replace disparate systems for development, accounting, online donations, and even email communications.
- Key information and processes are immortalized within technological systems, providing stability to organizations in the case of staff turnover, reorganizations, or other disruptions.
- Access to real-time data allows organizations to be proactive, rather than reacting to 30- or 60-day-old data reports to make critical business decisions.
- Tools for frontline fundraisers not only put data into the hands of the people who can use it to raise money for your organization, but also allow development staff to update donor records and perform other key tasks without adding to the CRM administrator’s workload.
How can your office evolve its technological systems from better to best? Click here to read npEngage's strategies.
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As you have most likely heard, hiring and retaining talented staff has been a struggle within most industries for the past few years. To understand this phenomenon, EAB conducted a survey of more than 120 higher education advancement leaders about their hiring and retention experiences from June 2021 to May 2022. Some key findings from the survey include:
- EAB's analysis found the median vacancy rate among surveyed institutions was 14%. In contrast, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a nationwide vacancy rate of 6.9% for May 2022.
- Online job postings for advancement professionals in the education sector increased 40% from June 2017 to June 2022, reaching a five-year high of 2,333 unique listings in June 2022.
- Among advancement staff, fundraisers are leaving their positions at an outsized rate. While frontline fundraisers constitute 28% of staff at small shops and 30% of staff at large shops, they account for 50% and 39% of departures at small and large shops, respectively, from June 2021 to May 2022.
- Eighty-two percent of advancement shops surveyed now use a remote or hybrid work policy to promote retention.
- Only 45% of respondents provide career pathing and only 35% of respondents conduct employee engagement surveys at least annually.
Read more here.
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According to the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, fundraising is increasingly in the job descriptions of deans, department chairs, and center directors. Fundraising is trickling down to faculty as well - which makes sense, given many faculty member's strong relationships with students, parents, alumni, and industry leaders. They are uniquely positioned as story tellers who have first-hand experience with the students and causes that donors aid. However, faculty members often hesitate to step into a fundraising-engagement role because they lack time, have negative misconceptions about fundraising, and do not have a large understanding for the development field. In order to address this with faculty, fundraisers should appeal to them as teachers and explain to them that they can tell the stories of their programs in ways that inspire donors. Click here to read more, including real-life implementations of the strategies mentioned above. | | | | | | |