Beyond give and take: A Donor/Organization Integration Model for enduring donor relations in public higher education fund raising

Higher education is increasingly challenged in matching revenue to resource demand and growth. A significant source of outside revenue that public higher education increasingly relies upon is private philanthropic giving. Because competition for donor resources escalates annually, higher education organizations must develop a competency for obtaining private funds.; To address this funding dilemma, this research suggests that private philanthropic giving be more efficiently and effectively incorporated into an institution's funding mix. Specifically, educational leaders and institutional policy makers are invited to consider a more strategic fund raising endeavor that integrates a combination of strategies that promote both relational interactions and donor interactions with the organization's formal infrastructure.; The findings of this research suggest that developing a competency for building enduring donor relationships is an institutional activity that may be strategically evaluated and managed. By enhancing donor relationships beyond give-and-take, public higher education institutions may be able to improve the long-term commitment and involvement of their donors. In turn, this long-term involvement and commitment may also lead to greater institutional fund raising outcomes.; The Donor/Organization Integration Model (DOIM) presents two primary constructs: Relational Embeddedness Interaction and Formality of Structural Interaction. The model seeks to explain how increasing interactions within both personal relationships and formal organizational operation and structure may result in greater strategic integration within an institution, and ultimately an enduring donor relationship. Enduring donor relations are evidenced in the research by high degrees of personal relationships, economic interactions, social capital and personal commitment, significant personal integration into the formal structure and activities of the institution, and by high levels of trust.; Utilizing a three article format, qualitative and quantitative data are presented that examine the utility of the Donor/Organization Integration Model for identifying and classifying long-term donor linkage. Data from a quantitative survey is presented, based on a sample of 132 public higher education institutions, that utilizes the DOIM to classify an institution's interactions with top donors. Institutions with greater enduring donor relationships were found to be more likely to have greater fund raising success, particularly in terms of increasing their long-term linkage to donors, higher levels of donor focus and commitment, as well as total funds raised by an institution.