Our reason for this study is to research how non- profit organizations focused on fundraising, market themselves to create and keep the relationships with their potential and existing contributors. With this study we also want to create an image of the meaning of marketing, applied to non- profit organizations focused on fundraisings, struggle towards attracting more contributors. We also aim to research what our respondents believe will be the outcomes of marketing on nonprofit organizations in the future. For this essay we have chosen a qualitative method which consists of six interviews with respondents whom have different knowledge and experiences of the non- profit sector. We chose this method to be able to view our main subject from different aspects and through the interviews also form a more profound picture of the non- profit sector and also, finally, se what the respondents think about the issue. We have further from our analysis formed a discussion which has later brought us to our conclusions. We can therefore with this state that the marketing of non- profit organizations focused on fundraising is essential to be able to form relationships with potential contributors. We also find that these organizations trough marketing communications can enhance their brand and attract the attention of the people. Our conclusion also shows that the marketing of non- profit focused on fundraising can result in both positive and negative effects. Ultimately we find through our discussion that, the non- profit organizations focused on fundraising lack different aspects of their planning and we therefore find that the primary improvement is not only by feedback to the contributors but also by making different activities to further create strong relationship with their contributors and partners.

In an atmosphere of declining support, rising costs, and an increasing emphasis on quality education, the need for effective fund-raising is important to American higher education. During the past decade, institutions of higher education, both public and private, faced difficult financial problems with no apparent end in sight. A growing number of colleges and universities have been threatened by the unstable economy and shrinking applicant pools and are faltering under this threat. Private higher education seems to be especially vulnerable to financial difficulty and has been historically dependent upon philanthropic support to complement traditional revenues in an effort to remain financially viable. As a result of this changing environment, the identification and development of enhanced and more diversified fund-raising strategies have emerged as one of the most significant and far-reaching needs presently confronting American higher education. This study investigated and analyzed academic leadership and management of advancement activities in American higher education with particular attention given to schools of dentistry. It focused on how American schools of dentistry may organize and manage their fund -raising programs to maximize voluntary financial support. With the prospect of declining support and rising costs, an aggressive and effective fund-raising program is arguably crucial to their survival. The study addressed the predominant organizational structure and management practices in the area of fund-raising at American schools of dentistry; the perceptions held by the deans and senior development officers in these same institutions as to the effectiveness of certain practices relating to fund-raising sources and constituencies, and methods and techniques used in their fund-raising programs; and the emerging pattern which might serve as a model for development programs at American schools of dentistry or other institutions of higher education. The study is composed of the entire population - a census of American schools of dentistry. Forty-five institutions (45/55) in thirty states, including Puerto Rico (30/34), participated in the survey and thirty-five deans (35/55) and thirty-five development officers (35/55) responded to the survey . The questionnaire is the principal means of data collection with a structured personal interview limited to the deans and development officers of the five California schools of dentistry. The deans and development officers cooperating in this survey give evidence that their major development-related functions are consistent with trends toward greater specialization in fund-raising. A high percentage (87.5 percent) of the dean respondents acknowledge affirmatively to making use of strategic planning as a management tool for the school's advancement activities. The dean respondents characterized the alumni as the most important giving constituency and the annual fund as the principal funding source. They also regard personal visits as the most effective method of soliciting funds for their institutions. The development officer respondents emphasized ideas, goals, and directions of their school's advancement program while being most aware of the specific mechanics of fund-raising. The guiding outlines of a model development program for American schools of dentistry appear to emerge from this exploratory study.

A contingent valuation study was done to investigate the value of Fijian reefs by households in the Metro Atlanta area. Individuals were surveyed and asked questions about their Willingness-to-Pay for coral reef conservation, personal views on the scope/magnitude of coral reef problems, and experience around ocean related activities as well as knowledge. Results from this data, find individuals would donate on average $0.18 taking into account sample and response bias. Less conservative estimates calculated contributions per person to equal $13.9 for the conservation of Fijian reefs. These results imply Atlanta, which is very distant from Fiji, has the potential to contribute to Fijian coral reef conservation programs. Although little empirical work exists on valuation measure for reefs of non-users and groups distant to reefs, this study suggests nonprofits and developing countries could benefit from the inclusion or previously excluded (due to distance to reefs) participants. The study discusses donor characteristics as well as possible market strategies these organizations could utilize to maximize revenue. Findings from this work highlight two important issues rarely discussed in the policy literature: 1-the use of non-market valuation methods to identify stakeholders and 2-the effects of distance on use and non-use value ultimately impacting conservation.

A social navigation system collects data from its users--its community--about what they are doing, their opinions, and their decisions, aggregates this data, and provides the aggregated data--community data--back to individuals so that they can use it to guide behavior and decisions. In this thesis, I document my investigation of the user experience for social navigation systems that employ activity data. I make three contributions in this thesis. First, I synthesize social navigation systems research with research in social influence, advice-taking, and informational cascades to construct hypotheses about the social navigation user experience. These hypotheses posit that community data from a social navigation system exerts informational influence on users, that users egocentrically discount community data, that herding in social navigation systems can be characterized as informational cascades, and that the size and unanimity of the community data correspond to the strength of the community data's influence. The second contribution of this thesis is an experiment that evaluates the hypotheses about the social navigation user experience; this experiment investigated how a social navigation system can support online charitable giving decisions. The experiment's results support the majority of the hypotheses about the social navigation user experience and provide mixed evidence for the other hypotheses. The implications that arise from the experiment's findings compromise the final contribution of this thesis. These implications concern improving the design of social navigation systems and developing a general framework for evaluating the social influence of social navigation systems.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Dwight F. Burlingame, William M. Plater, Leslie Lenkowsky. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-95).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The thesis made a comparative study of two university foundations, namely Indiana University Foundation, the United States, and Peking University Education Foundation, China, from a historical approach. Many theories influenced the author’s thinking about the issues, such as nonprofit organizations, elite philanthropy, and civil society. The paper seeks to: (1) make an overview of the development of the two foundations; (2) analyze and compare their differences in nature, structure, and fundraising practices, etc.; (3) examine the underlying reasons which may involve social, political, economic and legal factors; and (4) explore the future development of university foundations in China. In an era of accelerated globalization, the boom of diaspora giving and growth of nonprofits set the stage for the development of philanthropy in China. While continuing to draw from the extensive experiences of its American counterparts, the Peking University Education Foundation needs to reflect on its own actual situation and explore a road tailored to Chinese-style university foundations.

The comprehensive computerized decision support system developed in this research employs two techniques, computer modeling and goal programming, to assist top university financial officers in assessing the current status of funds sources and uses. The purpose of the DSS is to aid in reaching decisions concerning proposed projects, and to allocate funds from sources to uses on an aggregate basis according to a rational set of prescribed procedures. The computer model provides fast and easy access to the database and it permits the administrator to update the database as new information is received. Goal programming is used for modeling the allocation process since it provides a framework for the inclusion of multiple goals that may be conflicting and incommensurable. The goal programming model allocates funds from sources to uses based on a priority structure associated with the goals. The DSS, which runs interactively, performs a number of tasks that include: selection of model parameters, formulating goals and priority structure, and solving the GP model. It also provides on-line access to the database so that it may be updated as necessary. In addition, the DSS generates reports regarding funds allocation and goal achievements to allow analysis of the model results. The decision support system also provides a framework for experimentation with various goal and priority structures, thus facilitating what-if analyses. The user can also perform a sensitivity analysis by observing the effect of assigning different relative importance to a goal or set of goals. / Ph. D.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Trudy Salsberry / Institutional advancement is a constant challenge for leaders at institutions of higher education. The continued threat to historically black college and universities (HBCU) survival, due to the lack of resources they need to operate and compete, is at the forefront of concerns for many HBCU presidents and supporters. Research suggests that to have success in acquiring more resources, universities will need to work with their alumni associations and foundations. The purpose of this qualitative, multi-case study was to contribute to the limited research on the relationships among HBCU leaders responsible for growing resources. Numerous aspects contribute to increasing alumni giving and this study will contribute to that knowledge. The discussion of inter-organizational relationships and how the processes of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration transpire should be a part of the dialogue. Exploration of these relationships and processes can highlight possible solutions and deficiencies in the success of institutional advancement. Sites for this study were purposefully selected to examine these inter-organizational relationships. Data included in-depth interviews and related documents and artifacts. Thirty patterns and three themes emerged from the data analysis. The three themes include an understanding that (a) “working together” enacts cooperation, coordination, and collaboration; (b) human capital and organizational structures affect coordination and the ability to reach goals; and (c) the goal for increased resource capacity focuses the efforts of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. This study extends the discussion to looking at inter-organizational relationships as another perspective to enhance resources. This investigation also introduces dialogue about alumni association and foundation volunteerism as an important component in developing effective solutions. The understandings portrayed in the identified themes will help university officials, practitioners, advancement volunteers, and supporters of higher education enhance their institutional advancement strategies and help set forth norms for productive behaviors.

Past higher education fund-raising studies examining alumni giving across several institutions have had two main limitations. First, the multitude of independent variables used in these studies has made it difficult to determine whether past studies have discovered many different factors that influence levels of alumni gift revenue, or whether they have discovered a few common factors that have been represented by different sets of variables in each study. Second, past studies have failed to adequately describe causal mechanisms through which variables significantly related to gift revenue influence levels of gift revenue. The current study addresses the aforementioned limitations in creating an aggregate model of donor behavior for law school alumni. The study examines alumni giving at 41 ABA-approved law schools. The results indicate that four basic factors account for most (87 percent) of the variance in amounts of alumni annual fund revenue among different law schools. The four factors, listed in order of importance and shown with the variables that load highly on each factor, are the following: Factor l--"Institutional Quality" (variables are average LSAT scores of accepted law students; reputation of law school among professors at other law schools; reputation of law school's graduates among judges and practicing lawyers; average starting salaries of new graduates of the law school; total number of volumes in law library; number of volumes in law library divided by FTE enrollment;). Factor 2--"Institutional Size" (variables are: FTE law school enrollment; number of living law school alumni; number of FTE law faculty; total number of law school advancement staff people). Factor 3--"Relative Advancement Effort" (variables are: number of law school advancement staff people divided by number of living law school alumni; number of law school reunion classes solicited for special gifts each year). Factor 4--"Institutional Age" (variables are: age of law school; age of law school's parent institution). Differences between the factor structures for public and private law schools are examined. The study suggests possible causal mechanisms through which these four factors influence the amount of alumni gift revenue raised by each law school.

The primary focus of this study was to discover the depth of involvement with fundraising by student affairs professionals in Texas. It sought to determine the predominance of chief student affairs officers trained in development and the types of training that they received. Cooperation between student affairs divisions and development offices was also studied and whether there was a correlation between a cooperative relationship and the number of successful fundraising goals. This study includes a review of related literature on student affairs fundraising, a description of the methodology, results of the survey, conclusions, implications, and recommendations that may assist in future decision-making concerning future involvement in fundraising. The surveys were mailed to 149 four-year (public and private) institutions and two-year public institutions in Texas. The senior staff members of both the student affairs office and development office were asked to complete a survey. There was a 60.7% return rate consisting of responses from 72 development offices and 95 student affairs offices for a total of 167 usable responses. The study found that 59% of the student affairs officers had some formal training and/or on the job training. Involvement in fundraising was reported by 62.1% of the chief student affairs officers. Eighteen percent reported that they employed a development officer exclusively for student affairs fundraising, and another 30% had a development officer assigned to student affairs. Most development officers and student affairs officers perceived the other officer as cooperative rather than competitive in raising funds. Recommendations from this study include studying community college fundraising structures separately for more depth, conducting qualitative interviews with student affairs development officers, making a comparison of student affairs offices that have full-time development officers, and comparing the differences in fundraising success between development officers and chief student affairs officers. Recommendations for the professions include resource development training for student affairs officers and student affairs education for development officers.