Building smarter advancement teams: A formula for strategic staffing ratios across diverse institutions
Abstract
Advancement leaders have long relied on staffing ratios as an indication of organisational health, yet benchmarks often fail to account for institutional mission, programme maturity or return-on-investment (ROI) expectations. This paper reframes ratios not as fixed formulas but as dynamic levers that shape how effectively advancement teams deliver on philanthropic and engagement ambitions. Drawing on published benchmarks alongside sector case studies and institutional analyses like Cambridge University Advancement’s Size and Shape project, the paper examines how fundraisers, alumni relations, communications and advancement services staff are balanced in practice. It argues that the smartest teams resist copy-and-paste approaches and instead calibrate ratios to their context, recognising that strong alumni staffing underpins pipeline growth, robust services infrastructure drives fundraiser productivity and communications capacity sustains engagement at scale. The paper highlights both the promise and the limits of benchmarking: while ratios illuminate broad patterns, they can obscure structural differences such as decentralised models or collegiate systems. To address this, the paper advocates coupling external benchmarks with internal experimentation, using pilots and hypothesis testing to determine where additional investment yields measurable returns. Ultimately, staffing ratios should be understood not as sector averages to emulate but as strategic choices that determine resilience, efficiency and long-term fundraising success. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
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Author's Biography
Bukky Gray is a coach, talent management and HR leader, and an advocate for equity, diversity, social mobility and inclusion. She is the Director of Talent Management and Human Resources for the University of Cambridge’s Development and Alumni Relations office, where she leads strategic workforce planning, leadership development, and people programmes aligned to both current priorities and long-term fundraising ambitions. At Cambridge, Bukky works closely with senior leaders to design and deliver evidence-based talent strategies that strengthen organisational capability, performance and sustainability. She also serves on the Ross Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, a senior forum representing the UK and Ireland’s top fundraising universities, contributing to sector-wide thinking on inclusive leadership and advancement workforce development. Before moving into higher education advancement, Bukky spent much of her career in the UK public sector, leading innovative HR approaches to recruit and retain hard-to-fill roles, researching and implementing equality and diversity initiatives to better support Black and ethnic minority staff, and delivering complex organisational change programmes. Bukky is a qualified barrister and solicitor, a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and a qualified coach, having completed her coaching training at the University of Cambridge. She also holds a master’s degree in international business and recently completed a master’s in industrial/organisational psychology at Harvard University. Her work sits at the intersection of talent, organisational design and coaching, with a strong focus on building inclusive systems that enable people and organisations to perform at their best.
