This article was originally published in USA Today by contributor William Mullane.
All around the world, nonprofits and their big donors are in the news almost daily. However, there is a little-talked-about industry that drives the progress these nonprofits make, just going about its business, quietly getting the work done.
While tucked neatly into the background, the professional fundraising arm of the nonprofit management services sector is reaping significant rewards by delivering big results. How big? Well, according to Giving USA, Americans gave $499.3 billion to charities in 2022. As the research suggests, if just 20 cents of every dollar raised was spent on the services that inspired these people to give, the result would be an investment of approximately $100 billion in professional fundraising expertise.
Despite the huge impact of the nonprofit sector on the US economy, many still identify the volunteer force as the driver of America’s generosity, rather than paid professionals. Historically, staff at nonprofit organizations were seen mostly as civic-minded volunteers entitled to a gas and meal stipend wishing to support their community. But even the strongest volunteer force would find it nearly impossible to achieve the extraordinary dollar amounts raised in modern day, professional capital campaigns. Few foresaw what has become an academic discipline dedicated to the study of philanthropy and nonprofit management. And, once considered a uniquely American enterprise, professional fundraising is now growing rapidly in countries outside of the US.
According to Craig Leach, Founder and CEO of Collegium Inc. a rapidly growing global holding company of professional services firms solely dedicated to advancing the nonprofit sector, one of his objectives in starting the company in 2017 was to help advance fundraising and philanthropy as an indispensable profession, attracting its share of the best talent and brightest minds. Having been in philanthropy for more than four decades, Leach has seen how much the industry has evolved and grown.
“Throughout my career, I have looked for ways to elevate philanthropy, fundraising, and nonprofit management to a station in our culture where many other great professions reside, such as law, business consulting, accounting, even architecture. These professions have always attracted top talent but over time the proliferation of many competing small businesses providing similar services led to fragmented and weakened markets. Each of these markets inevitably became even stronger by coming together, by consolidating. “From 1636, when Harvard University was established, to about the mid twentieth century I believe fundraising was framed more or less as an altruistic hobby, not a profession,” Leach says. Leach shares a story from very early in his career. He found himself in Manhattan sharing a long elevator ride with a woman who appeared to be in her 50s, who asked him where he worked. Leach said that he worked for a fundraising firm, and she assumed he was a volunteer. When he corrected her and said that he was a paid professional, she was taken aback. “She looked at me over her glasses in the most disapproving manner, appalled I would take a salary to raise money for charity,” he says. This encounter was a major inflection point in my life. It strengthened my resolve that society needs more people committing to careers that make a difference, that make our communities better. And yes, of course they should get paid. So, I doubled down on my newfound profession and started my quiet campaign to play a small part in elevating the industry. I think of the elevator lady almost every day. I am forever grateful for her words of inspiration, even if unintentional.”
According to Leach, professionalism is important when raising funds, as people are hesitant to give large sums of money to something they don’t think is well managed. To expect potential donors, especially high-net worth individuals, to give, there must be a strategy and a professional plan with a beginning, middle, and end. It must delineate a clear goal and business case for investing in a cause. And, importantly, it must instill a sense of emotional connection that animates most donors. Fundraisers must also provide data-driven evidence that the project can be successful, demanding rigorous research, data analytics, and feasibility studies. This all points to the indisputable reality that fundraising operates at the intersection of both art and science, requiring specialized skill sets and expertise.
In recent decades, recognition of professional philanthropy has grown in the US. While Leach majored in political science and “fell into” fundraising as a profession, many colleges and universities now offer degrees in philanthropy and nonprofit management as an academic discipline. In 1987, Indiana University established the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the world’s first school solely dedicated to the study and teaching of philanthropy, and Leach was invited to be a member of its Board of Visitors. Several other educational institutions across the US soon followed suit.
Leach says he founded Collegium to provide top-notch, diverse professional services for organizations’ philanthropy-related activities which often includes expertise in communications and technology as well as talent management and training. He explains that most large nonprofits, such as universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions, typically have an in-house professional or team in charge of day-to-day fundraising. However, when it comes to big campaigns, mostly involving hundreds of millions — or increasingly, billions — of dollars, their in-house resources are often not enough. Collegium offers them an integrated one-stop solution according to Leach.
By acquiring and consolidating the best, most respected firms across the industry and around the world, Collegium says it can deliver results exponentially larger than the sum of its parts. The interdependence and collaboration of Collegium’s partner firms enable each company to achieve greater results and deliver a stronger positive impact on society.
“For hundreds of years it’s been a part of the American culture to give back and help take care of our communities,” says Leach. “And now, thanks to technology and rapidly growing needs everywhere, it has spread far and wide and is having a transformative impact on the giving practices of people in other parts of the world.”
And then, of course, there’s technology. “Technology will continue to transform the nonprofit landscape, making the very idea of philanthropy more accessible to greater numbers of people around the globe than ever before,” Leach adds. “But innovation such as artificial intelligence and machine learning has some predicting harsh unintended consequences that could bring chaos to an ever-growing number of nonprofits and social causes competing for support. We intend for Collegium to help bring calm to that chaos.”
