Fundraising

I read in the Durham Herald-Sun this week that one of Duke's long-time fund-raising staff is retiring. Susan Cranford Ross has been raising money for Duke for 30 years. The article said that she has raised over half a billion dollars. One campaign she helped to lead exceeded its goals by $308 million.

The differences between raising money for Duke and raising money for Shaw are too great to list here. But the thing that stuck in my mind from this article described the changes in the development office at Duke over the past 30 years. In the 1980s, the development staff would gather around a table on Fridays. Then they were "were raising millions of dollars and now it's hundreds of millions." They can't have those kinds of gatherings any more because "now there are more than 200 development staff members."

Two hundred development staff! I don't think Shaw needs to add that many staff by any means. But the fact that well-funded schools understand the necessity to put out some funds in order to bring in more gifts and larger gifts is a lesson we need to learn. Seven years ago I had a conversation with a veteran fundraiser who lamented that Shaw's administration had not grasped the kind of effort that fundraising requires. We still find ourselves living with that legacy. I was shocked to hear an administrator a few years ago refer to a $25,000 donation as "a major gift." We must think bigger, expect more of our benefactors and alumni, and not be timid or embarrassed to ask those who are able to invest in the good work of this institution.

One $10 million gift and one $5 million gift are great landmarks in Shaw fundraising. But one or more gifts of that size every year would merely be a start toward building a strong financial foundation for Shaw University. Some schools are doing this very well. How can we learn from them? Even if Duke is not a good comparison, I believe that there are other peer institutions which are succeeding in this critical aspect of being a university.

Mike Broadway