Proposal #31
Proposal Title: Savings in Development
Anticipated Savings/Revenue: $2M, probably more
Units affected: Development Office
Impacted Degrees/Courses:
Brief Description of Proposal:
Let all fund raisers in the Development Office earn more than their own salaries plus benefits or raise funds more than equivalent to the amount of their own salaries plus benefits, or else some combination thereof. Explanation of the "more than" in previous sentence: the amount raised by fund raisers collectively should cover the salaries plus benefits of all support staff in the unit as well as costs associated with the operation of the unit. That is to say, Development should, at a minimum, be self-sustaining. Moreover, the funds raised should include only funds that the University really can use (as a rule, e.g., not scholarships), and funds raised shall not include funds that are wholly or almost wholly attributable to the efforts of faculty and administrators in academic units, which is currently the case in a great many instances. It is common practice at many institutions that fund raisers earn their own salaries plus benefits, with any remainder supplementing the salaries of said fund raisers to a reasonable extent and/or the institutions' coffers. At places with mature development offices, development officers are expected to bring in at least 10 times their salaries plus benefits. It is not too much to ask that, at this moment in the University’s history, raising at least 3 times more funds than fund raisers’ salaries should be a minimal expectation. Following the proposed course would make fund raisers individually, and the Development Office as a whole, accountable, and doing so would incentivize even more vigorous exertions on the part of that unit to support SF State in these difficult times and in times when more robust State support is available.
Might such logic be applied, in some measure, to both ORSP and CEL?
Note: Proposals are posted as submitted, without editing other than to remove the submitter's contact information.
