Private Philanthropic Trends in Academic Libraries

2012.

Introduction

Higher education today is a fiercely competitive environment – both within our universities and in the wider community – where many not-for-profit organizations are competing for private philanthropic support. For most of our libraries, fund-raising has become an absolute necessity and library deans and directors at all types of institutions are expected to be fund-raisers. Most of us have learned to be administrators by doing it, and by observing others doing it. We can learn to be fund-raisers in the same way – by acquiring the knowledge and the skills and practicing our craft. The library’s CEO, inexperienced in fund-raising, can learn its principles and practices through personal research and reading, through talking to experienced administrators, colleagues and development professionals, and through the careful examination of case studies alongside hands-on experience. The skills and personal qualities that are necessary to be a successful library administrator are the same skills that are needed to be a successful fund-raiser: a clear understanding of your university’s priorities and your library’s goals; a strong belief in the value of your library’s plans and programs; the ability to articulate your vision for the library; enthusiasm; a readiness to engage people and be interested in what they care about; the ability to listen; persistence and an entrepreneurial spirit; and being comfortable with risk taking.

My primary goal in developing this book is to assist library directors and deans, and those who want to become fund-raisers for libraries, to learn more about fund-raising and find answers to their questions. There is now quite a lot of good information available in the library professional literature on library development and the principles and practices of fund-raising. Although much of the literature covers the same basic information, good advice abounds, and anyone who wants to learn more about library fund-raising can profit from investment in a few key resources. For those who want to read more widely on the topic, several bibliographies in books and journal articles offer extensive coverage of the literature on library fund-raising (see Corry, 1982; Steele and Elder, 2000; Swan, 2002; Gerding and Mackellar, 2006; Landau, 2011).

Several years ago, as a library administrator new to fund-raising and faced with major fund-raising responsibilities, I needed the type of information and guidance I have described above. Now with some fund-raising experience under my belt, I decided to provide background and historical information on library fund-raising and present trends on how philanthropic foundations have been funding academic libraries in the hope that it would provide information that would be valuable to others. My goal is to assist library deans and directors and other librarians who need to raise money for their libraries and who want to learn more about how to do it. Nearly everyone who writes about fund-raising agrees that the primary reason that people do not give is that they have not been asked to give. But how do you ask someone for money? That is the question in the back of every novice fund-raiser’s mind, and it is the question that occupies experienced fund-raisers as well.

As many others have highlighted, the active interest and participation of the library’s CEO are essential to fund-raising success. This responsibility cannot be delegated. But the responsibilities of the library director or dean as administrator and the library director as fund-raiser are really one and the same. In both roles, the library’s CEO must be a strong advocate for the library and must work vigorously to increase the quality of the library and its visibility to internal and external constituents. The CEO must work with others to identify the library’s needs because all fund-raising programs begin with the library’s needs. But the successful director/fund-raiser is someone who can relate the library’s needs to the interests and desires of prospective donors. Finally, the successful director/fund-raiser must be skilled at networking and at cultivating friends, because only through the process of talking and networking and cultivating friends, and listening to prospective donors, is it possible to learn about their ideas and their dreams and to find a match between the donor’s interests and the library’s needs. Engaging in such networking and donor cultivation over time is how the library’s CEO builds a relationship with donors and builds a successful development program for the