43 The library does not have a development officer, nor is there a dedicated person or team at the central development office focused on the library. The library is a small unit, so larger colleges receive more attention when it comes to fundraising. The regional gift officers do not often think to bring up the libraries/archives/press when they are speaking with donors, as they might with the schools and colleges. There is no direct pipeline to library donors other than previous donors to the library. As such, our donor numbers fall each year and will continue to do so until a solution is developed. This “no” is qualified in that the university is adjusting its level of support for the Libraries through central advancement and principal gifts and the chancellor’s involvement. The Libraries come from a perennial condition of lacking in number and quality of major gift prospects. Unlike the colleges and other units, I have no support staff and receive only a small fraction of the annual financial support provided by university advancement. We are certainly supported, but in no way at the level of the colleges. We are growing our program. We do get easy access to good major gift prospects. Often we are given a prospect once the school feels they are done with them. We do not have a clear constituency and often suffer from the fact that the university-wide traffic patterns in development favor organizations with alumni. Non-degree granting units have a more uphill battle to develop a donor pipeline and have to use creative methods to determine constituencies that have opted in. We don’t have the support staff of other units, which pulls development staff away from primary roles. We have a very limited number of LIS alumni and are not filling the pipeline. We work regularly with some groups like alumni relations and the Parent Program. We need to break through to other department units and build more support since we have librarians and staff that support all academic units on campus. Additional comment N=1 We are unable to solicit those who haven’t given to us previously, which puts us at a disadvantage to schools who are allowed to solicit all alumni. 27. How often is the chief/most senior LDO invited to participate in institutional-level meetings about major prospects? N=51 Occasionally 31 61% Always 11 22% Never 9 18% 28. How often is the library director invited to participate in institutional-level strategy meetings about fundraising? N=51 Occasionally 34 67% Always 9 18% Never 8 16%
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