New York University
NYU initially engaged Plus Delta Partners to help frontline fundraisers develop more effective and productive approaches that would create higher fundraising yields. Based on strong results from the first cohort of participants, NYU engaged PDP to run additional cohorts for new frontline fundraisers joining the team in following years.
Challenges
- Frontline gift officers were often asking for gifts at initial donor meetings, creating more transactional giving that frequently left money on the table.
- Gift officers were operating as independent silos, unaware of each other’s initiatives and not sharing best practices or a common language.
- There was not a shared discipline of qualification, leading to long-term cultivation of suspects.
Benefits & Results
- Dollars raised by the first PDP cohort increased by $500,000 over the duration of the DFF program, returning 4x NYU’s initial investment.
- From the first cohort, donor meetings increased by 36% and the dollars raised from gifts of $250,000+ increased by 52%.
- NYU committed to engaging ongoing annual cohorts to continue the momentum.
After two consecutive years of contracting Plus Delta to deliver a major gifts training program, NYU has seen its officers’ skills and rate of success in securing major gifts increase. At the same time, the university-wide approach to training officers has enabled stronger feelings of trust and greater accessibility to happen among colleagues that is resulting in an improved culture of collaboration. The Plus Delta Program provided a number of modules that could help NYU achieve its goals, and provided the advantage of being ready made and adapted to NYU, which eliminated the need for us to develop a program in-house.
Kelly Moody, Executive Director of Development, Global and Provost Initiatives
New York University