Roy Jones is director of development for Liberty University, a 10,000 student university with nearly 120,000 alumni nationwide. Previously, Jones served as vice president for development for the Cancer Recovery Foundation of America. Prior to this position, he was vice president of business development for USA Direct, a national direct marketing company. Jones has a background in political campaigns, having served as a consultant and staff member on national senatorial and presidential campaigns. Jones can be reached at rcjones3@liberty.edu.

What do you like best about your job as director of development for Liberty University?
I am a competitor. I like being challenged to grow. I like to be measured. Working in university advancement and development is a constant challenge. I wake up each morning, ready to go to battle. I walk out the door each day with two words on my mind, "bring it."

Where do your ideas come from?
Nine times out of ten the new idea comes from a program I managed in the past. Since this is my first job in university development, I am usually pulling a program from political or not-for-profit fundraising and applying it to the university setting. For example, this year we implemented a lapsed donor program designed to target donors who had given last year, but not this year. Of course, this strategy is not unique to nonprofits, but it had never been done before in Liberty's 37-year history. New idea, not really. New to Liberty, you betcha.

What has been your greatest challenge in your current position?
Training other employees to think like a fundraiser, not only in the university advancement division, but in every department university-wide. Everyone from the cafeteria lunch worker to the professor and dean to the financial aid officer are all involved in fundraising. Remember, fundraising is not about the money-it is about the relationship.

What are some of your major accomplishments as a development officer at Liberty?
The last three years have been filled with crisis and growing pains. Our founder and president for our first 36 years died in May 2007. Of course, it created great concern for our future.

We launched several initiatives to pull the alumni and donor files together and double our efforts in recruiting new students. The results, in this economic downturn, have been unbelievable. We have doubled our residential enrollment from 6,000 students in 2003 to 11,500 students in 2008. Our distance learning programs have skyrocketed from 15,000 to 37,000 students in the same time period.

On the fundraising side, big things are just on the horizon. We were a bible college in the 1970s, so most of our students from that era were in full time ministry. Of course, this means most do not have the income or savings to help Liberty. In the 1980s, we became a liberal arts college. Our graduates from the '80s are just now beginning to rally to the cause. During the last 36 months, we have placed more than 1,000 planned gifts in place. The majority were charitable gift annuities for more than $30 million. In addition, we have doubled our donation review by raising nearly $20 million a year during the last few years.

You have 10 years of experience working on political campaigns. How has this background helped you in your job as director of development?
Development is about one thing: cultivating relationships through building trust. Working in politics is no different than working in higher education. Donors, especially in this economy, expect their gift to matter. They want their gift, regardless of the amount, to have significance. They expect you to use their gift exactly as you've said you would. They expect to be thanked and sincerely appreciated. Most importantly, they want to believe that the relationship they share with you means more than the money.

Most donors use the mail program to test an organization, just like they test a candidate. Every five, six or seven figure gift begins with a $25 or $50 donation. They will write that $50 check and then wait to see how long it takes before it is acknowledged. They will attend an event, write a little larger check, and see if the candidate remembers their names. They will make a larger gift for a specific purpose and see if the candidate uses it for the purpose they gave. It is a relationship.

Not a week goes by at Liberty University without us hearing of some special story-a connection to a donor by a member of our alumni, major gift or planned giving team. It might be that someone from our team helped a retired supporter by taking an afternoon to paint her house or fix a door hinge. It might be that they took the time to be the last one to leave an event and to shake every hand in the place. (Have you ever spent an hour shaking 300 or 400 hands? Your hand aches for days.)

What are some of the differences between working for an institution and working for a large corporation?
It is frustrating at times. Dr. Henry Kissinger once said, "University politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small." While Kissinger said this tongue-in-cheek, the fact is succeeding in higher education is about doing the little things right. How did you handle that graduating senior who still owes a $20 library book fine? How did you treat that alum at homecoming weekend who forgot to register in advance? How did you acknowledge that first $1,000 gift from an alumnus?How did you help that alum family who are planning for retirement?

It all matters. It is the little things that really communicate what kind of relationship you have with your donors and alumni.

You recently worked with CASE to establish a listserv for advancement professionals at faith-based educational institutions. Can you talk about why you led the effort for this listserv and its importance?
Faith-based schools face special challenges. Most are private, receive very little government support and are much smaller in comparison to public and secular schools. However, the most important reason for leading the listserv project for faith-based educational institutions is to focus on the advantages we have because of our faith. I truly believe that faith-based schools have a huge advantage over other types of schools because we have an added connection to our alumni and supporters. We must work together to develop unique methods to maximize the impact of our faith in fundraising and development. Faith compels people to care. Faith compels people to act. Faith compels people to give. Higher education must position itself for the faithful.

How has CASE membership influenced your career?
I get more support and successful ideas from CASE than the six other membership associations I've joined combined.

When I have a fundraising question or run into a "brick wall," I simply send an e-mail to the CASE listserv and within minutes, I have "options." The friends I have made through the CASE listserv are absolutely amazing.

I could give you a dozen examples but the one that jumps first to mind is from Wake Forest University. Liberty was in the middle of a massive database conversion and retooling the entire development program under one department. I picked up the phone and called James Bullock at Wake Forest, who is now the vice president of advancement at Queens University in Charlotte. I explained to Jim the data issues and the process we were going through to integrate university fundraising. He said, "We have been there... why don't you come down and bring your team?"

I was dumbfounded, but within a few days, we loaded up more than a dozen managers and spent the day at Wake Forest meeting with our counterparts at each position-major gifts, planned giving, alumni, donor services, athletics development. They met with us all.

My goal at CASE is to "pay it forward." What Jim Bullock did for me, I want to do for others. Helping others is what CASE is all about.

This article is from the May 2009 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.