As Development Director, you hear all these words describing your function. What’s the difference?
On the basic level, yes, your job is to raise money for your school. Your bottom line. Any activity that brings dollars to your institution is fund raising, and it comes in many forms—from your silent auction to your annual fund solicitations. But fund raising is really only one part of development.
Mark J. Drozdowski addresses this in “Development and Fund Raising: What’s the Difference?” in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
“To many people outside the advancement office, ‘development’ and ‘fund raising’ are synonymous. Casual observers equate the development office with raising money, pure and simple,” he writes. “In truth, fund raising is but one component of the broader term, development.”
Drozdowski notes that not all professionals working in the Development Office are directly raising money. They are managing data, conducting prospect research, recording gifts, working with volunteers, managing donors, and helping to manage events. He writes, “The time we spend cultivating or soliciting donors is fund raising; that spent aligning fund-raising goals with institutional planning is development.”
Development is the strategic process by which schools identify, cultivate, solicit, recognize, and steward prospects and donors to establish and nurture relationships and to raise resources. To meet and exceed your goals, you need to build a culture of philanthropy at your school. That means educating your donors and prospects about the benefits, value, and distinct nature of your school. Building that culture is is the basis is your fund raising efforts, with your annual fund as the foundation.
Through your annual fund solicitation, you will touch every member of your school community—parents, grandparents, alumni, faculty, and friends. For parents, sometimes it's hard for them to think beyond ‘I just gave you a big tuition check … and now you want more?” Thus, the education part, tied together with the values they hold dear, is the crux of moving to a culture of philanthropy.
Marketing and communications plays an essential role in development. It’s the strategic process by which schools develop and carry out integrated mission-based strategies that promote values and nurture constituent relationships with, commitment to, and investment in the school. You have to be able to communicate effectively to educate and to cultivate. Your marketing communications team knows the school’s constituencies, and to help you with your development efforts. The team can help you find your story that connects your donors to your mission, and formulate your case for support.
So what is advancement, then? Strictly speaking, advancement is moving forward, making progress. When your Board of Trustees puts together your school’s strategic plan, it is a plan to move your school from where it is now to what it wants to be for future generations. To bring that plan to fruition, it takes a solid development effort. So, advancement is the strategic process by which schools advance mission-appropriate constituent relations through the integration of the school’s admission, marketing and communications, and development programs. Yes, admission is part of advancement as well. The admission effort is to recruit, enroll, re-recruit, and re-enroll mission-appropriate students. At the same time, building the culture of philanthropy begins in the Admission Office, with new parents coming to the school.
What it comes down to is fund raising is a function of development, and development is a function of advancement. Do you work in the Development Office or on the Advancement Team? You are essential to both.
