Talking Shop

November 15, 2023

If you sell everything, is anything quality?

November 14, 2023

Episode 8: Are comprehensive campaigns meeting urgent needs?

Comprehensive capital campaigns: Much-needed strategy and structure? Or antiquated and artificial approach to advancing the mission? On the latest episode of the Talking Shop podcast, co-hosts Erin Moran and David Lively draw on their experience as former Campaign Directors (at DePaul and Northwestern) to explore the complexities of campaign planning and execution, what works well and what doesn’t work so well, and – gasp! – whether comprehensive capital campaigns are obsolete, altogether. Erin and Dave examine the upsides of comprehensive campaigns (they can align with long-term University strategic plans) and the downsides (temptation to focus on ever-larger fundraising goals instead of the impact of each and every gift). They consider issues like the impact of artificial timelines, donor acquisition and fatigue during long-term campaigns, and whether targeted micro-campaigns are a viable substitute. Tune in!

September 6, 2023

Episode 7: Optimal fundraiser portfolios

On this Talking Shop episode, co-hosts Erin Moran and David Lively tackle a big topic: What is the optimal fundraiser portfolio size? The answer is, as with most questions that Dave and Erin confront: It depends. When it comes to portfolio make-up, Dave quotes his friend Ben Porter, Chief Advancement Officer at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business: “If you’ve seen one university, you’ve seen one university.” Most organizations roughly follow the “Robert Dunbar” approach to portfolio size and stack major gift officer portfolios with about 150 prospects. At Northwestern, David and his team made the argument to shrink portfolios to about 40 prospects and have experienced excellent results. And at EverTrue, we partner with tech-enabled fundraisers to have 1:1 contact every year with 1,000 prospects. While thoughts about the number of prospects in gift officer portfolio varies (and depends on factors like business rules for assigning prospects, prospect rating criteria, logistics of assigning prospects to portfolios, etc.), when we dig into the data on portfolio health, there is a common theme that arises: The prospects in gift officer portfolios should be folks that will be solicited (like, actually asked for a gift) within the next 36 months. On this episode, co-hosts David Lively and Erin Moran discuss optimal portfolio make-up, criteria for a "managed prospect," and the foundational power of good data in building good portfolios.