jobs equal gifts?

You may have seen some of the headlines from earlier today regarding the job outlook - in short for the first time since 2008, there are substantially fewer people looking for work and the general feedback from industry is that the orange is juiced - productivity capacity has been reached so the next step to increase revenue is to hire additional employees.

As most of us who work in Annual Giving know, jobs = income = confidence = disposable income = gifts. While I think that competition for dollars means that we will continue to see slides in participation, I do see that same formula continuing and overall giving at the bottom and middle of the gift pyramid picking up.

The opportunity that I see right now goes back to the career services sector. For the last couple of years many of us have been leaning on career services to provide us with "go to" people when we speak with folks who are out of work. The opportunity now is to get in front of the job opportunities with a proactive career services push.

I called the Associate Director of Career services that I work with today and asked her for some case studies - provide me with some stories to tell about folks getting jobs by working with them. Internally, I have been able to sell it as additional exposure and possible funding, externally, I am putting together a campaign of e-stories that will positively highlite what the university is doing and demonstrate what we might do for other unemployed or underemployed alumni. The key is to be relevant now. If jobs are going to be available, I want and need to be a resource. Helping someone find a job today provides real, current relevant value. That leads to gifts.

How cool would a microsite shared between Career Services and Annual Giving be - something that provides consistent updates on the stories and impact that the university is having on folks and allows your biggest fans (thinking folks you connected to a job here) to promote you on social media to the rest of your alumni. Simple, direct and immediate. Jobs will equal gifts if you make them.