HE sector must recruit at least 1,800 new fundraisers over next eight years
Howard Lake | 5 May 2014 | News
The number of fundraisers currently working in higher education needs to double, at least, by 2022 if the sector is to meet its “ambitious” income targets.
A review of higher education philanthropy in 2012 (the Pearce Report) set an “ambitious goal” that by 2022, universities and colleges would be raising £2b annually from 640,000 donors.
A report published today by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) – An emerging profession: The higher education philanthropy workforce – explores the state of the HE fundraising profession and makes 20 recommendations how those targets could be reached.
It says that for HE fundraising to fulfill its potential, the number of higher education fundraisers “will need to double, if not triple” from the current “modest” establishment of 1,842 HE fundraisers.
One of the chief recommendations in report – produced jointly by fundraising consultancy More and recruitment consultants Richmond Associates – is to develop a “learning route” providing training, job experience and peer group support.
But because of the “shortage of available talent” it has rejected the notion of a mandatory professional qualification as an “unhelpful barrier”.
The report says:
“It is in everyone’s interests that barriers to entry are avoided, and that a flexible approach is taken to recruitment, focusing on competencies, skills and behaviours and ensuring that the door is open to people from different sectors and backgrounds.”
Other findings and recommendations include:
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- Institutions should raise the profile of fundraising as a career in HE whenever they can, for example by encouraging AGCAS (Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) to promote fundraising in HE as a career choice.
- HE fundraisers considered themselves first and foremost as fundraisers, and secondly as HE specialists, which the report described as a “new perspective”.
- There are “early signs” that senior HE fundraisers are progressing into more strategically important roles within universities, and that vice-chancellors increasingly recognise the value of the skills they bring.
To accompany the report More and Richmond Associates have devised a ‘toolkit’ for recruiting HE fundraisers.
Professor Dame Shirley Pearce, the HEFCE Review Group chair, said:
“I hope that higher education fundraising becomes one of the careers of choice for our very best graduates. Our work has proved that investment in fundraising brings results whatever the size or type of university or college.
“If this success is to continue we must have a strong and growing group of educational fundraisers who are skilled in leading development teams and working with academics and institutional leaders.”
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- HEFCE report: An emerging profession: The higher education philanthropy workforce
- HE Education Fundraising Toolkit
- More/Richmond Associates press release
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Photo: mortarboard full of money by Ken Drysdale on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.