17.1 Messaging fundraising internally

The development officers working in the academic library cannot be successful if they work in solitude. No other environment would expect this kind of scenario, but it is a very common situation. As we discussed at the beginning, it is not the norm to find the kind of development team in the library you might find in the business school or college of pharmacy. More times than not, there is only one fundraiser in the library, and he or she may have a small team or none at all. In our library, the team is unofficial. We have access to marketing and event support through the library, but development is not the main role. We have access to other development officers who work in offices that consult across campus, but their priority is not the library.

Cultivating a strong relationship with faculty and staff is important for any development officer working in the university environment. The library message to donors is not straightforward, and the cases for giving are a little outside the box for the typical higher education donor. At the same time, because of the nature of the library, staff and faculty interact with stakeholders more often than other faculty do. They work across campus and spend their day in, arguably, the most highly trafficked academic building on campus. Resourcing colleagues in the library with the fundraising message extends your reach as a development officer. Staff and faculty can be empowered to identify opportunities to put before donors and to be a part of the development process.

The first step is communication. Now that we have discussed library culture and working with faculty, it is important to apply that knowledge when communicating with them and educating them about development. The more they know about what you really do, the more comfortable they will be with it. The more they see how philanthropic dollars allow the institution and their colleagues to do the kind of research and programming they want to do, the more excited they will become about what you do. The more examples they see of the cases for giving that resonate with donors, the more likely they will be to reach out to you with ideas. Take advantage of any opportunity to participate in internal communication. Staff newsletters are actually read by librarians! Ask if you can have a regular column to talk about development in a way that educates and empowers. Ask if you can be a regular presenting at all-staff meetings or if you can be of assistance on committees.

Getting fundraising to be a major element of the strategic plan in the library is an opportunity to be a part of meaningful and informative discussions with library leadership. Integrating development into top-level discussions about mission and priorities helps you to better understand the complex structure and diverse initiatives, and it helps you become a true colleague. Working together on fundraising strategies gets buy-in and understanding. No longer should you be the lone development officer coming in and out, leaving everyone wondering what you do all day. Your mission will be understood, and you will be considered part of the team out there trying to get support for all the things the university does.

We felt we achieved something fantastic when we were asked to present at a conference with members of the library faculty. It blew us away when we were asked, because they truly understood that funding is essential to their work and that, without it, they might not have anything to present. It has been humbling to find ourselves embraced as team members, and the opportunity to present to faculty in other academic libraries helps change the culture of confusion about fundraising and creates a model for collaboration.

The ultimate connection to philanthropy is giving, yourself. Research shows that giving creates more giving. Believe it or not, this doesn’t happen because giving once suddenly puts you on the radar to receive more asks (though being asked is a top reason that people give!), but giving feels good. It is powerful to contribute to something you care about. It builds passion. Giving also brings change, and it can make faculty and staff feel less powerless in a large, complex institution where they individually have a small role. Cultivating faculty giving is something that should be done with great care because the wrong approach can backfire, but the team-building for development that can be fostered is priceless.

17.2 Messaging fundraising externally

Without a compelling brand, the academic library is a tough sell to donors. Left to their own devices, they are going to have a very outdated idea of what goes on in a place they would hardly recognize. The academic library has changed dramatically in the last 40 years, but all the changes are fantastic. The brand should provide a portal for donors to walk from their comfort zone of an old concept into the new reality that is so varied and exciting. It’s so exciting and diverse, in fact, that messaging gets too complex to work well. Creating a brand and a message takes expertise, and investments must be made in the talents and resources needed to create and maintain a strong and compelling brand.

A brand and a message for development is very different from the library brand for users. That is the first thing to clarify when talking to leadership and to the marketing team about your needs. So let us stop the discussion for a moment to make possibly the most important recommendation regarding the library brand when it comes to donors—do not abbreviate the name of your library or use acronyms! No one will know what you are talking about. As with any process in the university environment, changes to brand and messaging are a process, and you don’t want anyone thinking you are talking about a complete overhaul. Donors are not going onto the website, for the most part, and are certainly not searching the library catalog. The brand and message for development can and should be a stand-alone campaign and effort. The audience is donors, not users, and design and copywriting need to be appropriate for that audience. The goal is to inform donors of opportunities for giving. That means no copy-heavy articles about specific research projects! Such treatises actually discourage prospects who are typically not from the academic environment and don’t understand the rhetoric or even the value. Messaging needs to speak to matters donors care about.

Much-needed elements are a development page on the library website that includes simple instructions for giving, highlights strategic initiatives, links to the online giving portal, and features donor stories. Important collateral pieces are image-heavy one-sheets to leave behind at visits related to specific funding initiatives and simple informational items (not brochures!) in strategic units like the archives. They give readers information on how to provide support. These smaller, highly designed pieces are well suited at event place settings.

The various social media accounts in the academic library can be made more robust by including development messaging. It is crucial to have a strong following and interaction on these platforms in order to be successful in emerging fundraising models like crowdfunding. The other thing to consider is that even though the current generation with the highest potential is not the most highly sophisticated group out there in the social media universe, the next generation of major gift donors sure is. Expertise and strategy with social media is part of cultivation for the next generation. And when we say “next generation,” we are not talking about millennials, we are talking about GenXers who are coming into their fifties now and who need to be cultivated if they are going to meet the funding needs when it is their time to be the major donors.

Nothing is more powerless than a social media account that sits dormant. Lending a name to a dead, hardly updated account may be worse than not having one at all. However, we cannot risk potential donors searching and not finding us. We cannot underestimate the powerful communication inherent in social media not being nurtured. Such neglect reflects poorly on the entire institution to some demographics. With all the resources and the rich diversity of service in the academic library, using social media represents a powerful opportunity to take the lead on behalf of academics at your university. Cultivating an image that represents the value of the library can change the way people understand the library and then encourage them to support it.

17.3 Finally…

We hope that the scholarship, information, success stories, and discussions in this book help you make a case to donors for the library. We hope we have shed new light on fundraising techniques, and that by doing so have ignited your passion to work collaboratively across campus and with other units to increase your fundraising success.

The word passion is thrown around a lot in the world of development. We talk about the passion for giving and the passion that we, as fundraisers, have for the mission of our institution. The passion behind the services and resources in the library is palpable. It creates meaningful cases for giving and powerful partnerships in the fundraising effort. If, as a development officer, you can connect to this passion and leverage it for donors, fundraising for the academic library can be a successful and satisfying endeavor.

Our passion for this book is that, despite having worked as development officers in many sectors of the nonprofit world, the library has inspired our work the most. The cases are powerful, and our partners in the library have been true partners. We continue to advocate for the connection between the library and every facet of the university environment. We see the library as the generator that supports academics, the student and faculty experience and the culture of the university. That inspires us and motivates us to push harder to communicate the library mission and fight to be included in the effort to bring philanthropic dollars into the university.

Philanthropy is about giving in order to make life better for others. The literal translation of the word philanthropy is “love of man.” Everything that happens at a university has value that is worth supporting: students, athletics, academics, or the grounds and buildings. But the library is special because the mission is fundamentally about equal access, knowledge, and support. We feel sure that fundraising will be more successful when this mission is positioned to donors. At its core, giving is about the heart, and there are so many ways to connect the library to donors representing all facets and elements of the university and beyond. We wish you well connecting the mission of the academic library and the meaningful work of its faculty and staff to the hearts of your donors.