This month, ISM Development Consultant Paula Schwartz and Adjunct Development Consultant Michael Christopher, Assistant Headmaster-School Advancement at Lausanne Collegiate School (TN), tackle the following question submitted by an e-Letter reader.
Q: I am trying to figure out (and defend!) the size of my staff based on metrics. For an organization over 125 years old that has only 350 students, and also has nearly 6,000 alumnae and 4,000 other constituents including parents, past parents, parents of alumnae, Trustees, past Trustees, vendors, grandparents, etc., what size Advancement Office is “typical?”
With three full-time professional staff and one support person, who have all only been here less than a year, we currently raise about $370,000 but the Board seems to think we can and should raise closer to $555,000. Is there any guide about office structure and size relating to fund-raising yield?
A: Michael Christopher: Informal studies have shown a clear correlation between the size of an advancement staff and the amount of money that can be raised on a yearly basis. The reason is clear: Since advancement is primarily built on the personal relationships that donor/prospects have with the school, the more people in your office that are engaged in building those relationships, the more will be yielded from your efforts.
One way to justify staff size to a cost-conscious Board of Trustees is to compare your operation and yield to other schools of your kind and size. Such comparisons are easily done with data mining through the Voluntary Support of Education Survey (VSE) distributed by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE) or by personally surveying schools of your type.
Paula Schwartz: A development assessment gives you an opportunity to really see what you need in staff. Because, depending on your Board, leadership, and your financial viability, you will find your staffing patterns differ. You do need staff that can cover all points of the donor-cultivation compass—identification, cultivation, solicitation, recognition, and stewardship. You don’t always need one for each, one but the functions need to be covered.
Nonprofits in general try to make 7x what the development staff costs. In independent schools it’s different—generally, 25 cents to 30 cents on the dollar is a good target. When building an offic,e you will spend more than that, and often it will take three years to see a return. But, frankly, if you have a great database, and stay focused on the annual fund, you will see an immediate bump in gifts raised.
You have a unique opportunity to learn from Paula, Michael, and a faculty of private-independent school development experts this summer at ISM’s Advancement Academy, July 25-29, at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Colorado Springs, CO. You will be mentored by one of our experts, and can take courses in tracks that best fit your specific needs. For more information and registration, visit isminc.com/events/advancement-academy.
