Gift fund compliance: Tackling underutilised funds

‘Millions of philanthropic dollars found unspent in university coffers!’ A headline no one wants to read on the front page of a newspaper. For fundraisers, telling a donor that their donation has not been utilised to fulfil the intended purpose is detrimental to soliciting further support. For university leaders, institutional reputation not only drives enrolment but is also political capital to influence legislation and unlock government funding. If the cost of higher education becomes insurmountable, how can it be that scholarship support does not reach students? If cancer has not been cured, why is research funding not being spent? Is it greed or is it a systematic disconnect between advancement services and the fund managers that they are working so hard to support? This paper describes how we are tackling the all-too-common problem of underutilised or untouched gift funds through a multi-layered approach, combining data, training and conversations to unlock these funds given for the common good.