From the Nominator

"Building donor and internal talent pipelines are issues for higher education fundraising shops nationally. Emory University is taking a unique approach to remedy both: a donor experience academy (DXA). This innovative approach to build our donor pipeline while enhancing our internal talent pipeline has led Emory to embrace a new way of onboarding/training/mentoring and developing our frontline fundraisers. 

Emory strategically aligned the new DXA team under our current individual giving teams. The DXA hires donor experience officers (DXO) in cohorts to progress through an intensive training curriculum while they serve in the role of front-line fundraisers. The DXA training focuses on fundamentals of fundraising, nuances of working at Emory, and leverages technology to power high-volume, personalized outreach to thousands of constituents who have had limited 1:1 engagement with Emory. This new, central fundraising team has reinforced our divisional goals of collaboration and donor-centric relationship building practices for our fundraisers across the division.  

The initial cohort of three gift officers yielded 75 virtual meetings and 225 donor conversations in the first two months of prospect outreach. These early-stage efforts have led to the closure of five and six figure gifts from prospects that were unmanaged and beneath the radar of major gift officers. Through the DXA, Emory's DXOs are gaining experience to emerge as the industry's top tech-enabled fundraisers, but they have a clear promotional pathway to launch their major gift fundraising career here at Emory. Current participants self-report gratitude and commitment to Emory due to this program."

From the Judges

Emory's method is clear and measurable. The plan could be adapt to fit a number of size staff programs.  It is nice to see a clear pathway for career growth created.