Rocket Fuel for Fundraising: Giving Development Officers the Communications Power They Deserve-Slides

Slides

Pdf Summary

This presentation by Eric Peters, VP of Marketing and Chief Communications Officer, addresses empowering development officers with enhanced communications to boost fundraising efforts. It outlines the challenges of creative fundraising ideas constrained by limited communications capacity across centralized communications, marketing, and development offices as well as school/unit communicators.<br /><br />The proposed solution is a centralized in-house agency model operating collaboratively among central communications, development/alumni relations, school units, central offices, and foundations. This model formalizes a request system for fundraising communications, pooling shared resources across schools and units such as Health Professions, Dentistry, Medicine, Public Health, Pharmacy, Nursing, and affiliated centers like VCU Medical Center and Massey Cancer Center.<br /><br />Key principles include providing services free to fundraising partners with support measured in service hours, modest funding for printing/distribution, focusing on stewardship communications that benefit overall campus messaging. The approach is simple, strategic, scalable, and involves ask/request planning, project agreements, creative development, delivery focused on fundraising and stewardship, repurposing across the university, and evaluation.<br /><br />Examples of communications include direct asks (e.g., School of Dentistry, Pharmacy corporate campaigns), individual donor stewardship, alumni relations, and government relations. Managing demand requires setting scope and timing limits, prioritizing equitable access, and resisting converting the agency into an on-demand shop.<br /><br />Impact measurement is conducted through partner surveys capturing quantitative and qualitative feedback, with a focus on contribution to funding outcomes rather than strict attribution.<br /><br />Overall, the model encourages seeking creative solutions through integration of development-focused projects into central communications and formalized request systems, leveraging shared resources and foundation partnerships to enhance fundraising communications and support institutional advancement.

Keywords

fundraising communications

centralized in-house agency

development officers

shared resources

alumni relations

stewardship communications

creative development

project agreements

impact measurement

institutional advancement