Tip of the Week: How to evaluate major gift fundraisers
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest feature on how US public television stations have built successful major gifts programs has been fantastic. So many great ideas. I thought would share how they formally evaluate their major gifts fundraising staff.
Many organizations seem to shy away from evaluation — after all fundraising is about relationship-building right? And that can be hard to quantify. Gifts can take years to come to fruition. Nonetheless, I think it is good for organizations and fundraisers to have very specific targets.
Here’s a summary of the system developed by Richard K. Dupree , Executive Director of Development at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and being used by public TV. Fundraisers are given a rating out of 25 on how well they perform in each of these four equally important areas:
1. Meeting a specific dollar goal of funds raised/pledged
2. Making a minimum number of formal proposals to major gift prospects at minimum gift levels
3. Making a minimum number of contacts and recording the details (the prospects for future fundraising)
4. Overall quality of work — this is a flexible criteria but could include things like how well the person engages volunteers in their work, their success rate with proposals, their ability to cultivate relationships, and their management of their budget
According to Dupree, the fundraiser should achieve at least 75 points to be considered “satisfactory.” Those who achieve 80+ points are eligible for a bonus. You can download a detailed PDF explanation of the system here.
Related Posts:
- Tip of the Week: Gift charts provide a reality check
- Fundraising is a sales job
- Tip of the Week: Handy tax credit calculator
- Nasty tricks being played on US fundraisers
- Conducting a Major Gifts Campaign workshop April 8
