How to Enhance Efficiency of Major Gift Officers (part 2 of a series)
By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru
Question: Any particular advice on operations to enhance efficiency of the gift officers and to ensure prospects don’t fall through the cracks?
Why track & monitor ROI?
As you’ll notice on the chart above, there is an ROI (Return on Investment) column (header in green) so that you can sensitize your staff on how your program will be monitored by your boss, the institutional leader, the institutional board, and the nonprofit community.
As supervisor you will need to enter in the denominator in the ROI equation – the person’s fully loaded salary and benefits. For example, let’s assume a salary of $65,000 with a 35% benefit package (check with your HR department to see what your institution’s rate is for this level of staffing) which equates to $87,750.
This example shows a history of 2 years ago achieving salary and benefits coverage – your basic expectation is after a full year your major gift officer is at least paying for themselves (hopefully better, but that’s the minimal expectation) – ROI of 1, $1 raised for every dollar invested
Last year, this person geared up, raised $275,000, and hit their target ROI of 3 – $3 raised for every dollar invested.
This year’s target is an ROI of 5 – $5 raised for every dollar invested. This should only be measured on cash and pledges not planned estate gifts as they expectancies will come in 3, 5 or 10 years. Planned estate gift expectancies secured 10 years ago that mature this year should be counted in the MGO’s cash and pledges. This encourages everyone to work with older, more mature people on their estate plans.
So, the ROI expectations for salary and benefit recovery (which doesn’t count expenses, support staff, materials, etc.) need to be clearly stated to your major gift officer staff, your supervisor, and your board. They need to know the basic expectations of ROI’s of 1, 3, and 5 over their first 3 years of a major gift officer’s time in your office. If you hire someone highly experienced, they should beat these ratios, but then their salary is usually higher.
If a major gift officer wants to surpass expectations, they can certainly aim for an ROI of 7 or 10. And, if they hit it, you’ve got a star that you need to promote, retain, and treat like the royalty they are.
More to come – Before measuring dollars, measure activity
Permanent Link: How to Enhance Efficiency of Major Gift Officers (part 2 of a series)
http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/07/how-to-enhance-efficiency-of-major-gift_27.html
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