For fundraising shops looking to grow, Delhousie University offers an inspiring case study. Over the course of 10 years, Delhousie tripled its advancement team, budget, and fundraising results. Peter Ferrari, who led the advancement team during this growth, shared how they achieved this in a recent podcast.
The first step was determining how advancement was actually performing. Ferrari analyzed 20 years of fundraising data to understand Delhousie’s historical growth and return on investment. Despite variability from year to year, he found that over the long run, Delhousie secured about $6 in new donations for every $1 spent on fundraising.
Next, Ferrari benchmarked Delhousie against other universities to see how their performance and resources compared. He found Delhousie was average in some areas but underinvested in fundraising relative to competitors. This data gave Ferrari confidence that with more resources, Delhousie could raise significantly more.
Ferrari then projected how much Delhousie could raise with higher investment, building a case for support with multi-year growth plans. The key, Ferrari argues, was grounding these projections in facts. By demonstrating a track record of success and relative underperformance, Ferrari convinced leadership to triple Delhousie’s advancement budget.
With more resources, the advancement team grew and invested in staff, technology, and outreach. Donations skyrocketed as a result. After the first five years, the new budget had generated over $70 million in new donations—far surpassing the initial investment.
View the full recording of this session in our Resource Library.