Maecenas Initiative: increasing individual philanthropy

Successful individual fundraising requires a combination of strong board leadership, trained professional fundraisers, and adequate resources to support the effort, yet professional development staff are responsible for the lion’s share of development work. A recent survey by the Urban Institute and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University found that, while nearly 75% of organisations report using volunteers for fundraising, 53% said volunteers are responsible for less than one-tenth of all fundraising. Staff bear the brunt of the fundraising burden, and, ironically, the survey found that organisations that characterize their staff, executive director, and board members as “highly involved” with fundraising have executive directors even more involved with fundraising than their development staff.