The role of the chief development officer as perceived by presidents and chief development officers at selected institutions of higher education

Abstract

The central purpose of this study was to identify the duties, characteristics, scope, i .e., the role of the chief development officer in educational fund raising as perceived by presidents and chief development officers at selected institutions of higher education in the United States. To achieve this purpose, the following objectives were developed: 1. To identify selected characteristics of chief development officers-age, sex, educational level, field of study, employment in field s other than higher education, types of experiences in higher education, number of years experience in development work, number of years experience as chief development officer, and supervising administrator. 2. To determine the length and type(s) of experience (if any) which presidents have had in educational fund raising. 3. To analyze the amount of time presidents devoted to various fund raising duties. 4. To determine areas of agreement and disagreement regarding the role of the chief development officer in educational fund raising as perceived by: a. The presidents at public and private colleges and universities b. The chief development officers at public and private colleges and universities c. The chief development officers and presidents at public colleges and universities d. The chief development officers and presidents at private colleges and universities e. All presidents and all chief development officers included in this study. Procedure. Data were received from 81 per cent of the 384 presidents and chief development officers who were asked to participate in the study. Multiple analysis of variance was used to test the five null hypotheses which were formulated from the objectives established for the study. The .05 level of significance was set for accepting the null hypotheses. Data pertaining to the research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics..