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Determining the Critical Elements of Evaluation for University Advancement Staff: Quantifiable and Nonquantifiable Variables Associated with Fundraising Success

As funds dwindle and costs rise university advancement staff have been given higher fundraising goals to meet the needs. In addition, university advancement staff have received pressure to review and lower the costs of fundraising to become more efficient (Drezner, 2011). To enable university advancement staff to attain goals, advocate for resources, or enhance processes, university advancement staff are challenged to measure their effectiveness. However, the process of measuring university fundraising success is unclear as there are many variables to consider and several ways to determine success. For this study the Delphi Technique (Hsu & Sanford, 2007) was used with 3 rounds of questionnaires. Seventeen experts of fundraising analytics were asked to identify both quantifiable and nonquantifiable variables that should be included in a comprehensive model to determine success in university fundraising. Findings include quantifiable measures such as return on investment, growth in giving reports, new and recaptured donors, and fundraiser performance and activity metrics. In addition, findings include nonquantifiable measures such as institutional and environmental forces were identified by the participants as critical components to comprise in a comprehensive model. Further findings include a variety of other metrics, both quantifiable and nonquantifiable, that were identified by the participants as critical components to comprise in a comprehensive evaluation model.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-3944
Date01 August 2015
CreatorsWilson, Krystal L.
PublisherDigital Commons @ East Tennessee State University
Source SetsEast Tennessee State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceElectronic Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright by the authors.

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