I interview for my alma mater every year. Last year I got a note from the coordinator asking if I would be willing to have coffee with the “development director” for my school. I was not able to meet with him last year and they are asking me again this year. I expect this is a more personal call for a contribution - but I also can’t imagine that they are reaching out to every single person who went to the school. I’m not rich, and not in a position to give a gob of money to the school at this time. Should I continue to politely decline? Would there be any other reason that they keep asking to meet?
Thanks for your input on this! I’m a passionate supporter (even though not so much financially) of my school, and I have been interviewing a long time, but I don’t want to waste this guy’s time.
I’ve gotten those calls, and had always been too busy. I’m a consistent donor to my college, but not wealthy. I have served as an interviewer and on alumni council. This year I accepted the invitation. It was very low key. I think he really just wanted to hear my views about the school, how I felt about my service to it, and to tell me about some big initiatives (for example a new engineering building-- I was an engineering major). Of course there is a very subtle thread that the college is doing great things with the money it is getting, but there was absolutely no request for money. Your school probably just thinks you are a good, engaged, alum that they want to keep in touch with so that perhaps in the future you might give a bit more. They care a lot about percentage who contribute, as well as the $ amount.
I would be surprised if there was a big “ask” involved. I’ve done 3 different events in the last 24 hours for my alma mater and financial stuff never came up. It was about taking care of the care and feeding of enagaged alumni
My first thought would be that the development director wants to talk with you about working with development admits. If you are known to be a “passionate supporter” and have been handling interviews for a long time, you may have reached some kind of expert level where they’d like to add you to the list of interviewers who handle part of the development admit process.
Another possibility is that he may be trying to recruit you as a fundraising volunteer - for example, if there’s a capital campaign planned, they may want a chairperson or two from each class, etc. Some schools involve alums in annual giving campaigns, there may be a major-specific campaign coming up, etc.
It’s about money. They’ll ask you for your “ideas,” but what they really want is your ideas written on the back of hundred dollar bills. Development director ask for money. That is their job. They do it in a subtle way, but a meeting with a development director is a meeting about you giving them money.
@Cardinal Fang I respectfully disagree. I was NOT asked for money in any way, shape, or form. Not even a tiny bit. I wasn’t even THANKED for my consistent giving. I’m not saying that they are not hoping that the interaction will lead to more money, but there was absolutely no twinge of that. And I’ve got good radar.
I’ve had “previous commitments” the couple of times this has come up, mostly because I feel a development staffer’s time would be better spent meeting with someone – anyone – else. While I’m a consistent supporter with both time and money, I know that my strength is not in fundraising
Good development directors do stewardship, which are ways to make people feel like they not constantly being badgered for money. It’s about building relationships. I think there’s a decent chance that it relates to money, but that could just be about you feeling the goodwill and remembering that lovely meeting you had when you get an appeal letter in six months, or about you getting that college into your will, or as someone else suggested, you helping to fundraise for a class reunion. The goal being that you know what’s going on, feel like you have a relationship with the school, and know what projects they are working on and looking to fund - so that when you have some money, that’s all already there and you know you want to help the school out and don’t feel like they’re vultures swooping in.
I think it also depends on the size of the school. I just looked up Yale’s Advancement Office and they have a VP of Development in charge and three AVP’s under them. That VP of Development is probably mostly having meetings where there is serious money potential. At a smaller school, the position in charge of everything might be called the Director of Development (I think Yale has a few Directors under the AVP’s) and might have some time to meet with most alumni, and not just those that they think are potential major gift prospects.
We were completely turned off by an invitation to meet with a member of the “leadership giving” staff that arrived on D2’s first day of classes. You would think that they could wait until parents had heard how the first day had gone.
From my experience, such a meeting was preliminary to suggesting/requesting an irrevocable charitable trust or a charitable gift annuity at some point in the future. After a couple of meetings, I called off discussions because I wasn’t ready to make any commitments at least until I had retired and sorted out my financial plans, the situations of my children, and other matters.
I’ve done those meetings before- they’re just “get to know you” meetings, with thanks for being involved–kind of relationship-building, which maybe could lead to a gift in the future, although there was no direct pitch for a gift at the meeting.
“Good development directors do stewardship, which are ways to make people feel like they not constantly being badgered for money. It’s about building relationships.”
Yes. The ultimate goal of the “development director” is about fundraising, which is no secret; otherwise the position would have a different name. But long-view development is a relationship business. The people who are good at it are those who will build genuine connections with the potential donors.
I’ve been invited to a number of planned giving events, which was an interesting experience. It must have been due to my consistency as a donor, because my amounts are deliberately token. Anyway, they hold a (free) fancy dinner for lots of high rollers in each of several different cities and the big fund managers give a talk about their investment strategies for the endowment and types of structured giving. The last one I went to was at the Peninsula in Chicago.
Here’s a thought. My DH’s grad school contacted him and said the development director was going to be in town and wanted to have lunch with him. DH said sure. It wasn’t about giving money(which was a good thing since we aren’t going to give any.) It was about trying to develop a business partnership. (DH works for a large corporation.)
The institution where I used to work produced a lovely video where they interviewed alums and talked about the difference their educational experience made in their lives. The video in turn was used in fund raising. I’m sure they talked to lots of alums to determine who might make a good story.
