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E-mail UsIt’s Good To Specialize
July 21st, 2010When my neighbor told me that he and his wife were expecting their fourth daughter, I jokingly asked him if he’d been hoping for a boy. He just smiled and said, “No, it’s good to specialize.”
Annual Giving was once considered a good way to get your start in development. But, if you were good, you moved on to major gifts within a few years. If you were still good, you were on your way to being a VP. That, however, is no longer the case.
Annual Giving isn’t a stepping stone. It’s a destination. Six figure salaries and a seat at the management table await outstanding annual giving professionals.
Annual Giving is a complex business and a valuable specialty.
After all, it’s good to specialize.
Dan,
Totally agree with you. I’m amazed when I come across organizations and individuals who still treat AG as a “stepping stone.”
But you’re right. It takes a considerable amount of skill, knowledge and experience in the field to be good at this – just like any other area of fundraising. You’ve got to understand analytics, creative, offer development, middle donor strategies, and in many shops even things like event management, etc.
As you pointed out though, if you’re good at it, there can be significant rewards. Whether on the client or agency side, a top annual giving officer can really go places.
Cheers!
Thanks for the endorsement!
Being a vendor, and working with a variety of different universities, I find it surprising the wide range of expertise and respect the position of director of annual giving varies. In some alot of cases it seems to be a revolving door, and in other, it gets the highest priority. Its good for me when I come into a situation where someone doesnt have much experience, and I can add value. However, in one case in particular, I met someone who when I met and presented to her, I could have been speaking greek. Nothing I told her about what we could do for the university made any sense to her – and she had just been put in charge of their direct marketing efforts. Allow me to add…this was a very large and popular school in the midwest, so lets just say that I agree that its good to specialize, just be sure before you land somewhere that you do due diligence to make sure that you will have the resources available to you in order to be successful.
Hi Dan,
I couldn’t agree with you more! Annual Giving is the only level playing field, where participation is a significant measure of success. Whether the donor gives $5.00 or $5000 s/he counts as one participant.
I’m proud of my specialty and of building both partipation and dollars. Recently I worked on an alumni challenge focused solely on participation. In the course of talking with previous non-donor alumni, I was surprised how many had never given because they thought that $5 or $10 didn’t matter.
Annual Giving forms the habit of giving, creates and expands community and is a great service to both the institution and the constituents. Some will rise to the top and be both able and willing to make major gifts, AND continue their annual giving too. Most will remain as loyal Annual Fund donors, possibly becoming Planned Giving candidates. But the majority will remain as Annual Fund donors, and when you consider that today’s graduate has a potential “giving life” of 75 years or more — well, that’s all that needs to be said. Regards,
Diane