Your donors don’t care about your dean’s priorities

It’s time for your fall appeal and you issue a request for your deans to weigh in.

They, in turn, send you a lengthy letter they expect you to reprint word for word highlighting a few priorities for the upcoming semester. A new laboratory. Funding for a new cross-curricular program. Etc. Etc.

The thing is: your donors and potential donors don’t care. At least, not in the way you think.

You might think that sharing a wishlist is effective. They won’t know what you need if you don’t tell them, right? Right. And wrong.

When it comes to giving, there are donors that will give to the institution. That’s a fact. They are your tried-and-true supporters. They might be longtime friends of the university. They might be alumni. But that’s the not the most effective to make your case.

People want to know exactly how their dollars will impact the university. What are the potential outcomes? And most importantly, who will their support potentially affect?

That specificity anchors your appeal to something that a donor can envision, rally behind. You’d do well to focus more on the who as opposed to the what.