Exchange ideas and advance your career Survey Report

Transcription

1 Exchange ideas and advance your career 2014 Survey Report

2 OVERVIEW The Annual Giving Network (AGN) helps fundraisers exchange ideas and advance their careers. As the world s leading resource for annual giving professionals, AGN provides access to training programs, research, job listings, vendor ratings, and consulting and recruitment services. Today the network has over 10,000 active members. In the fall of 2014, The Annual Giving Network conducted a survey of annual giving program leaders at more than 200 international educational institutions. Survey participants represented an array of institutional types including public and private colleges and universities, liberal arts colleges, independent schools, graduate professional schools, and community colleges. The results of this study are outlined in the following report and reflect outcomes from the most recently completed fiscal year. KEY FINDINGS #1 - Participation is a high priority One out of three institutions reported that alumni participation is a higher priority than annual fund revenue. The study also found a correlation between higher participation rates among young alumni (median = 7%), the senior class (median = 30%), and faculty/staff (median = 33%) and higher overall alumni participation rates. It also underscored that volunteers can be a key driver of alumni participation. The following chart compares alumni participation rates between programs that rely on volunteers and those who do not. Relies on Volunteers Does not rely on Volunteers 29.6% 18.3% 8.6% 4.8% 9.7% 13.5% Median #2 - Success is in the air Fiscal 2014 was a good year for many annual giving programs with 82% reporting an increase in annual fund revenue over the prior year. Additionally, 61% reported an increase in donor counts while only 46% reported an increase in alumni participation rates. 2

3 #3 - There s life beyond phone and mail Last year, annual giving programs allocated 43% of their operating budget to areas other than phonathon and direct mail. % Budget Spent on Direct Mail % Budget Spent on Phonathon % Budget Spent on Other 43% 28% 29% #4 - It pays to socialize - Programs are finding success in social media. In fact, those programs that implemented their own giving day or crowdfunding last year were significantly more likely to have secured more donors and increase alumni participation than those that did not. The following chart shows the percentage of programs that participated in various social media activities last year. 36% 32% 26% 21% 15% LinkedIn Giving Tuesday Giving Day Facebook Ads Crowdfunding #5 - Face time is important Programs that have front-line annual fund gift officers (57%) generated 60% more revenue per alumni than those programs without front-line gift officers. 3

4 Importance #6 - Home is where the ROI is - Phonathons that are managed onsite using paid student callers have a return on investment (ROI) nearly three times higher than Phonathons that are outsourced (i.e., managed onsite by a third party vendor or managed offsite using non-student professional callers.) #7 - Mobile 4-1-what? Mobile phone appends alone may not be the solution for waning phonathon programs. In fact, programs that conducted a mobile phone number append in the past 18 months reported a ROI for their phonathon programs more than three times lower than those that did not conduct a mobile append. #8 - There s low hanging fruit - Board Giving, Leadership Giving Societies, and Recurring Gifts are considered less challenging to implement but more important when it comes to generating annual fund revenue. In contrast, Crowdfunding, Events, and Student Programs are considered more challenging to implement but less important when it comes to generating annual fund revenue. 5 Board Giving 4 3 Crowdfunding Challenging LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS All participants identified themselves as the head of their institution s annual giving program. The demographic information they provided revealed the following profile: 71% are women, median age is 37 ranging from Median year of experience in their current role is 3, ranging from 0 to 30 Median years of experience in annual giving is 6, ranging from 0 to 36 48% have an advanced degree (i.e., Masters, PhD) 4

5 Participants were asked to identify the first word that comes to mind when hearing the phrase annual giving leader. The most common responses were used to create the following word cloud. The more frequently a word was mentioned, the larger the font was used. The most common response was strategic. There are significant career opportunities in the field of annual giving. In fact, 15% of program leaders hold the title of Senior Director, Executive Director, or AVP and 74% report that they view annual giving as a long-term career. The median salary for an annual giving program head is $70,000, ranging from $33,500 to $170,000. The following chart shows median salaries for program heads by sector. $75,500 $69,000 $70,000 $65,000 Independent School Liberal Arts College Private College/University Public College/University 5

6 OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENTS Individual opportunity assessments are customized benchmarking reports based on AGN s annual giving index. They include a detailed comparison of individual program performance to more than 30 key metrics and a summary of recommendations for improving resource allocation and productivity. For more information on how to request an opportunity assessment for your program, please contact dan@annualgiving.com. The following table shows some of the key metrics in AGN s annual giving index. Median OVERALL Revenue Per Alum $18.81 $65.16 $ Budget Per Alum $2.36 $4.57 $7.23 Return On Investment $4.50 $12.33 $24.34 Gifts Per Alum Average Gift $186 $386 $658 Alumni Per AG Staff 3,414 9,080 28,333 DIRECT MAIL Median Revenue Per Alum $3.11 $9.93 $36.47 Budget Per Alum $0.68 $1.49 $3.00 Return On Investment $2.86 $5.04 $12.99 Gifts Per Alum Average Gift $151 $253 $426 Pieces Sent Per Alum Response Rate 1.3% 2.5% 4.0% PHONATHON Median Revenue Per Alum $2.59 $4.36 $8.44 Budget Per Alum $0.71 $1.82 $2.76 Return On Investment $0.37 $1.76 $4.65 Gifts Per Alum Average Gift $71 $108 $146 Alumni Per Calling Station 1,621 3,122 6,517 ONLINE Median Revenue Per Alum $1.01 $4.51 $22.30 Gifts Per Alum Average Gift $169 $237 $320 6

7 DAN ALLENBY Dan Allenby is a writer, speaker, and consultant who has worked with education and nonprofit organizations for 20 years to develop and evaluate annual giving strategies. He is on the faculty for CASE s Summer Institute and is the Chair of its Successful Annual Giving Conference. He received a MBA from Boston College, a BA from James Madison University, and is certified in the Management of Communication Organizations by Tufts University. As a consultant and practitioner, Dan Allenby has worked with some of the world s leading education and nonprofit organizations including: American University Berea College Boston College Boston University Cambridge in America College of William & Mary Drury University George Washington University Georgetown University James Madison University Johns Hopkins University Oregon Health Science University Pacific Lutheran University Rush University Medical Center Temple University Tufts University University of Chicago University of Detroit Mercy University of Notre Dame University of Toronto Vanderbilt University For more information, contact dan@annualgiving.com or visit AnnualGiving.com 7