Advancement Staff Management
Prospect Research
Establish Strategies for Families of Wealth
High-net-worth households account for nearly 70 percent
of all individual charitable giving in the United States, so
if you have not established clear strategies for identifying
and cultivating families of wealth, it’s time to get started.
“Wealthy people are bombarded with gift requests
from charitable organizations and causes of all kinds, but
all wealthy individuals, couples or multigenerational fami-
lies are very selective about where they give their money
and offer their time and energy,” says Sophia Vandiford, di-
rector of donor relations and stewardship for Wittenberg
University (Springfield, OH). “Also, generational wealth is
another issue altogether, and cultivating multigenerational
donor relationships requires a consistent and expansive
focus.”
Bank of America’s annual Study of High Net Worth
Philanthropy revealed, among other findings, that
wealthy donors are more risk-averse in their philan-
thropic gift-making than they are with their personal in-
vestments, and Vandiford suggests that fact must be kept
in mind when strategizing to cultivate relationships with
wealthy individuals and families.
“Your donors are looking to make a credible and tan-
gible difference, they want to deeply feel the impact of their
giving, and they require competence and transparency in
how their gifts are utilized and reported,” says Vandiford.
Other key strategies for identifying and cultivating
wealthy donors include:
• Conduct your prospect research carefully. Very wealthy
people are also very private, so be circumspect and
sensitive in determining their philanthropic values
and interests, giving history and capacity, potential
interest in volunteerism, preferred methods of giving
and recognition and stewardship desires.
• Be flexible with your time and requests from prospective
donors. For example, wealthy people view the time de-
mands of their work or business differently and may
very well seek to meet with you on Saturdays or Sun-
days when they have more free time and are thinking
about their philanthropy. Also, business leaders are
often interested in experiencing how your organization
functions hands-on. They may wish to meet your line
staff, tour facilities and ask questions that are not ad-
dressed in your annual report or financial statements.
• Embrace the whole family. Multigenerational wealth
brings with it children, grandchildren, financial ad-
visors, attorneys and even life-long friends. All of
these people are resources in assisting you in chart-
ing long-term and sustainable giving relationships,
with adult children understanding and endorsing
their parents’ goals and advisors designing the finan-
cial pathways for those goals to become reality.
Source: Sophia Vandiford, Director of Donor Relations and
Stewardship, Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH. Phone
(937) 327-6405. E-mail: svandiford@wittenberg.edu. Website:
https://www.wittenberg.edu/
4 The Major Gifts Report © 2021 View this newsletter online at wileyonlinelibrary.com
Increase Productivity With Gallup’s
Employee Engagement Q12
By Thomas Schroeder
The Gallup Q12 is a series of employee engagement questions
that are helpful in developing key strategies to increase
employee and manager productivity and can be useful in
evaluating and managing your major gifts and other
advancement team members.
“It is more important than ever in today’s charitable giving
climate where all of us are expected to do more with less to
develop strategies to build and measure productivity,” says
Holly Wolk, executive director of talent management for the
University of Rochester (Rochester, NY). “The engagement of
employees in the process is key, and the Gallup Employee
Engagement Q12, with its premise that engaged employees are
productive employees, can serve as an effective framework for
increasing the level of engagement and enhancing and
measuring productivity.”
A group of peer institutions, including the University of
Rochester, have worked together to utilize the Gallup Q12 for the
past five years, and the lessons learned have shaped the ways in
which managers and employees engage with each other and view
their roles and responsibilities. The consortium’s findings include:
• Managing expectations is critical to increasing productivity
and the level of employee satisfaction. Do employees clearly
understand and embrace what is expected of them? Both
broadly and on a day-to-day basis, employees perform more
effectively and display more enthusiasm and passion when
they acknowledge and welcome their roles within the organi-
zation, its internal protocols and practices and the internal av-
enues for communication and guidance. Also, importantly,
employees must be equipped with functional and high-quality
materials and support systems needed to do their jobs.
• Recognition for work well done, both through formal and
informal channels, contributes to a productive environment.
It is extremely important that employees feel acknowledged
for quality work, are treated with respect and are provided
appropriate amounts of institutional credit for their
accomplishments.
• An organization’s mission must reflect the value and
significance of its employees’ work. Staff members at all
levels must align their principles with the organization’s
vision, and a process should be in place to thoughtfully
consider the opinions and ideas of employees in
institutional planning and decision-making.
• Professional growth is essential, both from the perspective of
an employee’s specific job and more broadly from a career
development perspective. Formalized programs should be in
place to encourage professional and personal growth, to
mitigate areas identified in performance reviews and to help
people build skills necessary for career advancement.
Learn more about the Gallup Q12 at https://www.gallup/
Search/Default.aspx?q=Q12/.
Source: Holly Wolk, Executive Director of Talent Management,
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. Phone (585) 276-3831. E-mail:
holly.wolk@rochester.edu. Website: https://www.rochester.edu/
DOI: 10.1002/MGR
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