Academic Library Fund-Raising: Organization, Process, and Politics

Library Trends, Wntr, 2000 by Susan K. Martin

The hybrid model can serve both the institution and the library well. The university provides, in one way or another, a development officer for the library. If the university is engaged in a capital campaign, this person will probably be full time and will have some staff. Once the campaign is completed, institutional inertia suggests that the library will retain all or most of the development support that it had during the campaign. Most significantly, the development officer can report to either the development office or to the library, but the communication links to both departments should be strong. In this author's experience, development officers reporting to central development but located within the library administrative office are extremely effective.

WHO AND HOW MANY?

How many people should be involved in development for an academic library? The answer is that it depends. It depends on whether the library is a priority in a capital campaign; the maturity of the library's development program; the size and activity of the friends' group; and the goal (annual or capital) set for the library, either by and for itself or by the university administration.

Development activities are not limited to those whose titles contain the word "development," however. In most academic libraries, librarians throughout the organization can appropriately be encouraged to become active in the development process. Special collections and gifts librarians are natural candidates for such involvement; one benefit is that donors see not only the library director as a figurehead but also interact with the people who are engaged, on a daily basis, in putting into place the programs that their gifts make possible.

Critical to a library's fund-raising effort is the position of director of development for the library, whatever organizational model is used. Experience shows that the director of the library's development process can be a librarian but does not need to be. As indicated by Hoffman, Smith, and DiBona in this issue of Library Trends, when a librarian takes on this role, there is a tendency for the organization to place additional responsibilities within the purview of the person, taking valuable time away from the business of defining a capital campaign, soliciting major gifts, or otherwise ensuring the success of the library's development program. Particularly in a decentralized or hybrid model, professional development officers bring to the library the knowledge of techniques for creating success, alternative ways of achieving it and, probably most importantly, an existing network of communication with other development officers. This author's experience suggests that professional development officers enjoy the multidimensionality of library fund-raising, often seeing it as more creative and challenging than raising funds for specific schools or academic areas (M. Bayers, personal communication, May 18, 1999).

The fund-raising activity must be vigorously supported by the library director in order to be successful. In addition, the director needs to take an active role in the development process, visiting potential donors with the director of development and participating with the team of development and library staff to create the best possible message for the library's constituency, both internal and external. It is not at all unknown for a library director to spend 50 percent of his or her time on development activities and, in the early phases of a capital campaign, this number can creep up to 75 percent. Obviously, the library still needs to be managed; having an excellent team applies not only directly to development but also to the everyday operation of the library.