The PAD Program from Plus Delta Partners

St. Joseph’s University
Joseph Kender
Vice President for Development and University Relations

Increased major gifts closed by $10 million in 2007 over 2006 and sustained that giving level in 2008.

With the PAD program we have raised the fundraising caliber of the Major Gifts team and it shows in their self-sufficiency and results. Just this past year alone we increased the number of major gifts closed by over 33% and the number of proposals opened has increased at an even greater rate. By formalizing our fundraising process and by weaving in a heightened awareness of donor psychology, our Major Gift Officers now understand more precisely where they are in a given solicitation cycle. This equips them to apply the correct approach and language in a timely manner to ensure shorter cycles and appropriate gift sizes.

The language tools that the MGO’s have gained allow them to strategically build lasting and unique relationships with the right prospects while maintaining a clear focus on results. Through PAD we’ve also gained a common language as it relates to managing and executing our fundraising efforts that contributes to highly efficient and effective operation.

Perhaps most importantly, the confidence level of the entire team has increased dramatically as each officer now has a greater sense of control over the process. By providing the officers with a strategic overview of the solicitation cycle, and by equipping them with a “tool kit” of sorts to move conversations forward, the officers are able to both analyze where they are with a given prospect at any time and apply proven methods to overcome obstacles to keep the conversation moving forward. The fact that they have all gone through the training together has also enabled them to help each other strategize internally. There is no doubt that this program has been a major factor in our success across the board.

Loyola Marymount University

Increased major gifts closed by 20% in 2008 over 2007.

Lehigh University
Christine Smith
Associate Vice President for Advancement

When all of our leadership, principal and planned giving officers completed PAD training, we entered a new era of fundraising at Lehigh. We knew with complete confidence that our gift officers were approaching prospect meetings in a thoughtful and focused manner. Moreover, we extended the training in a general way to our college deans to ensure that the gift officers and the academic leadership were “speaking the same language.” Our experience has been uniformly positive.

PAD training accelerates the learning curve for fundraisers in ways that have not been available before. Development operations that want to maximize the effectiveness of their gift officers will want to consider investing in PAD training.

University of Scranton

Pomona College