Fund- and Friend-Raising
a Primer for College Faculty and Staff

The staff of the Office of College Advancement – Alumni Relations, College Relations and Development and Foundations – are prepared to provide you with fund- and friend-raising assistance and advice, on department-wide or individual program or project bases. For those of you who don’t know who we are, or where we’re located — we are the college’s external relations arm, and you can find us in the former Eyebeam Building at 512 Brickhaven Road (at the intersection with Beryl Road, beside the JC Raulston Arboretum).

One of our goals is to increase private gift support of our students, faculty, centers, programs and departments, especially in the areas of individual, corporate and philanthropic foundation gifts. We’ve launched a comprehensive web site that houses information on private fund and friend raising, in an easily-viewed and user-friendly format. (http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/advancement/resource.htm)

Some of the services we aim to provide you are:

• names, addresses and areas of interest for North Carolina’s philanthropic foundations and corporate entities with links for researching foundations and corporations outside of North Carolina as well.
• more intensive prospect research when necessary.
• initial contact and follow-up calls and visits with prospects.
• proposal preparation assistance.
• registration of departmental prospects on the university’s prospect tracking system — designed to eliminate conflicts when approaching prospects that have a variety of interests within and outside CALS.
• alumni, donor and prospect lists for your mailings and events.
• speaking to your faculty, alumni, emeriti and friends about fund- and friend-raising.
• financial assistance for approved alumni and other special events, mailings and publications.
• continued cultivation and stewardship of giftmakers — receipts and acknowledgments, endowment signing ceremonies, invitations to CALS and University-sponsored special events, holiday remembrances and more personal thank-you gestures as appropriate.

CALS faculty enjoy strong partnerships with corporations and agribusinesses. Many times there are opportunities to approach these entities for philanthropic support independent of grants and contracts that may exist. We’d like for all faculty to have this idea in the back of your minds, and bring projects and prospects to our attention.

For many of our departments, starting a fundraising program has meant taking a critical look at departmental priorities and strategic plans. We know that marketing our departments to potential funders means that we need to be able to state a strong case for support. Without a departmental strategic plan, we can't begin to state a case for funding. We are certain that:

• our programs are worthy of support
• the educational, research and extension activities we offer are unique, necessary and important

We also realize that marketing our departmental priorities to prospects both within and outside our current roster of supporters involves devising new strategies:

• Departmental development committees are working to design and implement these new strategies.
• We're creating exciting marketing materials -- brochures, newsletters, invitations.
• We’re planning interesting, unusual events.
• Working with faculty emeriti, alumni and current faculty, staff and students, we are formulating far-reaching plans to enhance our programs now and into the future. And bringing these diverse people together in volunteer Advisory or Steering Committees ensures that our strategies are indeed "marketable" to new and existing constituents.

Additional strategies for increasing internal and external awareness of fundraising techniques and departmental needs:

Departmental Events, including:
1. Retirement and Estate Planning Seminars

a. Faculty and staff invited to participate.
b. Faculty emeriti and retired extension also invited.
c. 50-and-over alumni and friends may be invited.
d. Goals are to provide expert information on ways to maximize retirement benefits, reduce taxes on retirement and estate income to increase awareness of charitable gift opportunities and motivate deferred giving to enhance endowments.

2. Receptions for retirees, alumni and friends

a. Keep everyone feeling part of the family.
b. Updates on students, research and extension activities.
c. Tours of labs, research stations, new or renovated areas.
d. Discussion of departmental strategic plans, funding needs, volunteer opportunities.

3. Reunion activities

a. Bring alumni together with former professors (current and retired) and students.
b. May focus around athletic or Arts NC State events, seminars, lectures, seasonal parties and picnics, etc.

4. Establishing departmental alumni and friends societies (working with the CALS Alumni and Friends Society).

5. Creating departmental advisory committees of industry, commodity and community leaders; alumni, emeriti, faculty and staff.

6. Inviting current donors/endowment holders and prospects to departmental awards ceremonies and thanking donors publicly for their support. Your best future supporter is a current donor. And seeing donors recognized at events helps motivate others to give.

Click here for a Pledge Form to Make Your Gift!

Looking for the BA-151, Gift-in-Kind Notification Form? Click here.
(Just right-click on this link and save the file, then open in MS Word)

Back to top

Additional Links:

Private Fundraising in CALS and links to Corporate and Foundation Information

Definition of a Charitable Gift

Ways of Giving to CALS and NC State

Student Support Options in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Faculty and Staff Support Options in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

The Foundation Center's Proposal Writing Short Course

The Foundation Center's Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy Search

Community of Science's Funder Search

North Carolina Grantmakers' Websites