From Charlotte to Charleston: A Day at the Citadel

Emily Hinz, Prospect Research Analyst, UNC Charlotte

I often explain how I ended up in UNC Charlotte’s Prospect Strategy and Research (PSR) department as a “happy little accident,” as the great Bob Ross would say, and it’s true. Two years ago, I didn’t even know this field existed. I began exploring the non-profit sector in college as, having majored in an English major but feeling rather unsure of what I wanted to do post-graduation. After spending time with the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, I landed a Research Assistant position at the UNC Charlotte Foundation in May of 2017.

We have a rather small shop here in Charlotte, but my boss set me up for success by immediately activating memberships for me in both Apra and Apra-Carolinas. That fall, I received the Apra-Carolinas Road Trip Scholarship – a very exciting endeavor for someone with only six months of experience in the field. I wanted to pick a shop similar to our own, but with enough differences for me to find some achievable new ideas and projects for my team.

At UNC Charlotte, PSR is composed of me (the only prospect researcher on staff), my director, and a temporary employee who assists with data entry. We are in the public phase of a $200 million campaign, a figure we hope to reach by the end of fiscal year 2020. Due to our small size, I’ve been required to learn a great deal in a short amount of time, which I’ve really enjoyed. My experience, however, is still restricted to one phase of a campaign. How can PSR help reach our Foundation’s goals with so little time left for discovery work? What happens to a PSR team after a campaign closes? How does the team prepare for a new campaign? I sought to use the Road Trip Scholarship to answer these questions.

After looking into several schools in the Carolinas, I decided that The Citadel would be the best fit for what I hoped to learn. They recently exceeded a $175 million campaign goal, closing in May of 2018 at $225 million. Wow! This put them in the perfect phase for the focus of my curiosity: post-campaign no man’s land. In addition, their PSR shop consists of only two employees and supports about 15 Gift Officers, a setup that closely mirrors UNC Charlotte. 

After a few weeks of email correspondence, I set out in early May to meet Libby Davis and Lisa Ukuku of The Citadel’s Prospect Management and Research department. This dynamic duo was incredibly welcoming and friendly. We spent much of the day sharing stories of triumph and struggle within this business, and I took away some great advice throughout.

One of my favorite additions that Libby and Lisa have implemented at The Citadel Foundation (TCF) is the research request form. Fields on the form include requestor, purpose of request, format, and other criteria depending on the data being sought. The form can be completed either electronically or by hard copy. I think this would be a great idea for my shop because, even though we use a spreadsheet to document research requests and their completion dates, we do not do a very good job of tracking why someone requests research. If I receive a request for research I’ve already completed, I usually rely on my archived emails – or my memory – to assess why a new profile would be needed. If it was completed before my time, however, I’m plain out of luck. I have started to keep track of requests myself in hopes that we will soon have a form like The Citadel’s.

We also talked about several fundraising methods used at TCF. One I found particularly interesting was their utilization of fundraising challenges based on class. There is a huge emphasis on class at The Citadel; when Citadel alum run into each other, their first question is, “What’s your class and company?” To optimize this, the Foundation created “Class Campaigns.” These are mini-campaigns run each year that challenge a specific class to raise a certain amount of money during milestone reunion years – their 10^th, 25^th, 40^th, and 50^th anniversaries of graduation. TCF even has class reunion gift officers to focus on these efforts. They are currently challenging the class of 1978 to raise $1.75 million by the end of this year for their 40^th reunion celebration at Homecoming 2018. When researching new prospects for discovery, I typically pull alumni based on their school and have never really worried about class. UNC Charlotte is a much younger institution and there isn’t much importance placed on class year or class reunion. I think building a sense of class camaraderie would be a great practice for our Annual Giving team to implement with our younger alumni. Libby and Lisa explained how effective researching annual donors can be, especially when heading towards the end of a big campaign.

Annual Giving was also Lisa and Libby’s answer to my questions about how to direct research work between campaigns. Alumni who have given gifts consecutively over the years are the prospects that become major giving donors. Maintaining a healthy pool of dedicated supporters in anticipation of the launch of a new campaign can have a huge impact in the long term. TCF buckets their constituents in this pool of supporters based on giving level – annual, lead, and major giving capacity. Collaboration with the Annual Giving team and our lead gift officers will definitely be one of my main priorities for the next few years at UNC Charlotte.

Overall, I was very impressed by the way TCF and their Prospect Management and Research team operate. When an institution has exceeded their campaign goal by $50 million, one can’t deny they must be doing something right! Not only were Libby and Lisa brilliant prospect managers and researchers, they were warm and welcoming hosts – even giving me a tour of the Citadel’s beautiful campus despite the Charleston heat. I truly enjoyed the day I spent at The Citadel Foundation, and am forever grateful to Libby and Lisa for their fantastic advice, tips, and tricks for me as I continue to grow in this field.