Running head: FUND DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Fund Development Officer

Jeff Patty
Georgia Southern University

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Abstract

The following information will investigate the role of the Fund Developer Officer at GHC and
how the development of funds has changed over time, as well as how the same development has
impacted the institutions planning and delivery of their programs to the students.

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Fund Development Officer

Georgia Highlands College, formerly founded in 1970 as Floyd Junior College, has
expanded greatly since the early days of serving Floyd County as a two-year point of access
institution. GHC is now a limited-mission, four-year state college as of 2011. With over 5,700
students now being served at six different campus locations throughout Northwest Georgia, GHC
has expanded not only its enrollment, but also their reach into each of these communities: Floyd,
Marietta, Paulding, and Douglasville (Georgia Highlands College, 2013).
Over the years the college has had one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake. With all
the growth and expansion of both campuses and student enrollment, there were also extreme
budget cuts being forced from the state level. Opening new campuses requires a substantial
financial investment in the areas of buildings, rent, utilities, materials, personnel, among other
things. In order to continue doing business, expanding to new campuses, and at the same time
sustaining budget cuts, one has to get creative and find new ways to fund strategic priorities.
Prior to the arrival of the colleges first Chief Advancement Officer in 2008, John
Southwood, the college did not really have a formal Advancement office or officer. Previously,
there was a staff person that assisted the President of the institution in this capacity. After Johns
arrival, the college created a formal Advancement Office and started an Alumni Association as
well. The Chief Advancement Officer is responsible for Advancement, Alumni Relations,
College Relations, Marketing, and serving as the Executive Director of the Foundation. The
Chief Advancement Officer reports directly to the President and also serves on the Presidents
Cabinet. The college did however kick off its first capital campaign in 2005, the Legacy
Campaign, with the goal of raising $5 million dollars. Although it was originally viewed as a
long shot by for a two-year college to raise the money, the campaign did successfully raise

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approximately $5.6 million. The campaign relied on support from GHC personnel, private
donors, businesses, and foundations. The goal of the campaign was to raise funds, endow
student scholarships, expand the student success center, and provide additional funds for faculty
and staff professional development. At that time, 80 percent of students needed some type of
financial help. Also, over 65 percent of students needed remediation in order to be accepted for
admissions by the institution. Finally, with all of the budget cuts, faculty and staff were in dire
need of professional development opportunities since this was one of the first areas, along with
travel, to be cut. As a result of the campaign, 30 new scholarships were created, a new nursing
simulation lab was created, new health science labs were installed, the endowment for a student
success center was funded, and the endowment of funds for employee professional development
was launched. A total of 355 individuals, businesses, and foundations were responsible for this
great start (Georgia Highlands College, 2013).
During the successive years, efforts to increase fundraising and add additional
mechanisms have been utilized to bolster fundraising. A successful Charger Fund was started
that focuses on faculty and staff fundraising. This is known internally as the annual fund. This
allows employees the opportunity to give back to the college. The goal of the annual campaign
is to raise unrestricted funds for ongoing needs within the institution. These resources are able to
assist in support of student scholarships, student recruitment efforts, academic programs, and
college expansion. Likewise, these funds can be used to offset expenses for faculty and staff
meetings, recognition, and awards events when state funds cannot be used. In 2012, the Charger
Fund raised $18,000 (Georgia Highlands College, 2013).
Gifts to GHC can come in many forms, the simplest one being in cash. Other forms
include securities, real estate, personal property, matching gifts, memorials and honorariums in

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someone elses name, and planned giving (Georgia Highlands College, 2013).
The current Chief Advancement Officer for GHC started in the middle of 2013. Although
new to the college, Raymond Carnley brings a wealth of experience in fundraising and
advancement work. In discussing the current atmosphere when he arrived and upcoming goals,
Raymond found the culture and thinking from the previous administration and Chief
Advancement Officer less than ideal. The previous thinking was to not expect too much from
fundraising in a two-year access institution. Raymond indicated that he did not agree with this
assessment and rather had some very specific goals for fundraising efforts in the future. Some of
the specific goals are to: Create a culture of philanthropy for the college and make sure donors
understand their very important role, streamline areas of operation around a common purpose
(such as combining efforts around marketing, advancement, college relations, digital media
outreach), educating faculty and staff that they have a very specific role to play in participating in
meeting with donors to explain their requests, and finally an increased annual goal this next year
to raise $250 thousand, $100 thousand in unrestricted funds and $150 thousand to specific
endowments and operations (personal interview, October 1, 2013). Clearly there is much work
to be done when it comes to fund development at GHC. Basically a complete overhaul seems to
be underway in this department.
Additionally, when asked about the differences in public and private funds,
Raymond shared the following: Public and private institutions have to rely more heavily on
fundraising as state budgets have been drastically reduced over the last six years due to the
economy down turn. Statistics show that in 2008 across the 31 USG institutions, the state
covered 67% of costs, while students were responsible for 33%. Contrasting that to 2012, the
state covered 45%, while students covered the remaining 55% of costs. Furthermore, for the first

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time in history, in 2013 state and federal programs in public higher education will cover less than
one half the costs; students will be responsible for 51% of all college costs (R. Carnley, personal
interview, October 1, 2013).
Academic programs appear to be directly impacted by fund development. Externally,
Raymond felt that donors over the last ten to twenty years have begun to stipulate more and more
where and how their contributions are distributed or spent. This is a change the fund
development community has been experiencing for a while as it continues to increase. Donors
may have specific areas of interest that they would like their funds to go towards, which causes
them to tend to be more involved. This makes the challenge of obtaining unrestricted funds for
the institution, which is an area of great need, even more difficult to obtain. Likewise, this can
certainly have an impact on the direction an institution has to direct programs and majors around
at times (R. Carnley, personal interview, October 1, 2013).
When looking internally as to how fund development impacts the academic landscape,
Raymond agreed that more and more faculty and staff come every day looking for money for
programs, equipment, new laboratories, professional development, or help for a particular
student. Many times this is in an effort to keep an existing program from closing, as other
sources of funds have all but dried up (R. Carnley, personal interview, October 1, 2013). The
increasing costs associated with the cost of delivery in conjunction with decreasing funds
certainly changes the planning efforts around which programs to maintain, and which ones to cut
loose. There are simply not enough funds available to continue supporting every program.
Lower enrollment classes or majors end up getting cut if alternate funds cannot be identified.
Overall, the need for successful fund development is increasing exponentially every day.
The demands on the advancement office and of the fund developer are felt from every angle.

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There is great need for institutions to direct their marketing approach and planning efforts
towards maximizing fundraising efforts. Programs have to demonstrate a specific end goal that
can easily be explained. Planning efforts must be very strategic in nature. Priorities must be in
place throughout the institution in order to effectively navigate this close relation to fundraising
in coordination with all other college planning and academic efforts.

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References

Georgia Highlands College. (2013). About us. Retrieved from

http://www.highlands.edu/site/about-ghc
Georgia Highlands College. (2013). Charger Fund. Retrieved from
http://www.gahighlandsalumni.com/s/1181/index.aspx?sid=1181&gid=1&pgid=103
Georgia Highlands College. (2013). Legacy campaign. Retrieved from
http://www.gahighlandsalumni.com/s/1181/index.aspx?sid=1181&gid=1&pgid=335
Georgia Highlands College. (2013). Ways of giving. Retrieved from
http://www.gahighlandsalumni.com/s/1181/index.aspx?sid=1181&gid=1&pgid=321