The opportunity to bring the philanthropic, nonprofit and fundraising fields together again has a much-desired new leader—one who was with us before. It is with great enthusiasm that I offer heartfelt congratulations to IU President Michael McRobbie (a fellow Australian) and my good friend Chancellor Charles Bantz who selected Gene Tempel to provide essential leadership, as the founding dean, to what will be the great new School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.Over the past few years as the nonprofit world has struggled to align itself with its economic status, diminished governmental support, creation of many sadly underfunded and under-supported nonprofit management programs (70% of nonprofit masters programs don’t require a course in fundraising) and a general malaise about the future, it is past time to bring back the man who crystallized a unified vision of the future with optimism, humility and resolve: Gene Tempel.Gene, I speak for thousands of leaders in the nonprofit field: Welcome back.Gene and I have talked several times and as you can tell, I am excited about his putting together this School at IU. I hope IU’s commitment to philanthropy and growing it in America and worldwide can once again establish IU as the true Center on philanthropy. We have the only Gene Tempel Scholar designation in the country); our Growing Philanthropy Award (Gene was a 2011 recipient); our Days of Service helping small nonprofits throughout America; and our active application of fundraising research with now 30 beta sites with nonprofits all over America. Hartsook Companies, Inc., under the leadership of President and CEO Matt Beem, joins me in that commitment.We believe that the Hartsook Chair in Fundraising will have an opportunity to once again thrive in this new School. We expect to see The Arthur Frantzreb Lecture Series be reignited to address important fundraising issues and the Million Dollar Gift Report—developed by our now deceased Hartsook Chairman Emeritus Frantzreb and given to the School—continue to grow in its relevance and impact.I have told Gene that as the plans for the new school unfold, in some way I want to lighten his load with support.Congrats Gene . . .sorry, make that Dean Tempel.
Hartsook President and CEO Matthew J. Beem Earns Ph.D.
Beem family: Joe, Matt, Kate,
Tom (not pictured, Maggie)
(Kansas City) Matt Beem recently earned a doctor of philosophy in organizational behavior and higher education administration from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. He defended his dissertation, Performance-Based Fundraiser Compensation: An Analysis of Preference, Prevalence and Effect, in December 2018.
Beem examined the preference for and prevalence of performance-based compensation and the relationship between it and productivity within the sample population of professional fundraisers. He reviewed the history of fundraiser compensation and prevalence of incentive pay in the nonprofit sector and among professional fundraisers, including its correlation to performance.
The Fundraiser Compensation Survey, an original study, was emailed by the Mid-America Chapter of Fundraising Professionals to more than 3,000 individuals. Findings revealed respondents’ dissatisfaction with the relationship between goal attainment, performance and compensation in their jobs. The study also found significant compensation differences based on respondents’ gender and ethnicity – findings different from research discussed in the literature review.
Beem’s dissertation adds important knowledge about the prevalence of and desire for performance-based compensation within the sample population. It also sheds light on the effect performance-based compensation has on the amount of money fundraisers raise.
Hartsook continues to be available to support nonprofit organizations in compensation plan design for its fundraisers, executive directors, CEOs and other senior leaders.