Donor Stewardship While Waiting for a Development Officer at the UConn Library

Abstract

The University of Connecticut (UConn) Library faced a series of budget cuts in recent years, which resulted in the loss of a dedicated development officer in 2017. Understanding the importance of continuing to build new relationships that could result in donations, and the need to maintain relationships with existing donors, members of the staff took on various development roles in addition to their existing job descriptions. Core development officer activities including monitoring gifts, communicating with donors, and fiscal tracking and reporting, were now dispersed. In addition, active outreach opportunities became a focus: including introducing electronic newsletters on behalf of the library and Archives & Special Collections, event planning, and oversite of donor related projects. Even with the success of individual staff members performing these activities on behalf of the library, more was needed to coordinate, communicate, and lay the groundwork for optimally supporting the reinstatement of a development officer in the future. In response to this dispersed and uncoordinated approach, the dean established the Library Advancement & Donor Stewardship (LADS) group to bring cohesiveness to the work, and to audit and account for the effort involved in development activities. In this article, LADS members share history, recent achievements, future expectations for LADS, and presents a case study for supporting a coordinated development approach.