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Archive of Previous Questions

How to Ask Faculty & Staff for Gifts

Tom Pool (Texas A&M) asks if there is a proper and effective way to ask faculty and staff for gifts? It’s important that they be involved and on board.  Their participation helps encourage all others to give. 

Answer: We asked Donald Gray to answer this question. We couldn’t have done better! He is vice president at the University of Wisconsin and considered one of the most significant in our field. Here’s what he says:

Each institution has its own culture when it comes to asking faculty and staff for gifts. This is what is important— the healthiest cultures make it clear that giving is a choice and not a mandate.

Here is a simplified outline of a faculty/staff system that worked at the University of Wisconsin Foundation. It resulted in $43 million from 3,700 gifts from faculty and staff. In addition, $30 million was added via two major emeritus faculty bequests. The process should be applicable for major campaigns involving hundreds of faculty/staff or for only a few.

1. Deans and department chairs made it clear they would not be involved in the asking process and the decision to give or not give would have no administrative ramifications. You should design a system that doesn’t give administrators access to the individual gift records. This should be told to everyone.
2. The Development staff visited each dean and asked for his/her own personal commitment.
3. Faulty and staff peer teams, comprised of respected individuals who already had given, were formed in each school and college. They were trained by the Development staff. They made individual calls on their peers. Again, they did NOT report the details back to the dean or department head.
   

– Jerry Panas