▲Jim Hackney '79 MAR in front of the Lyman Beecher pavilion where he lived as a student on the quad.

By Ray Waddle of Yale Divinity School

The math can look daunting: Launch out into the competitive world of charity fund-raising in an unpredictable economy and bring back millions of dollars for Yale Divinity School.

That's the task of Jim Hackney '79 M.A.R. as Senior Director of Development at YDS, a position newly created to intensify fundraising for student aid and new projects that extend the school's far-reaching mission and profile.

It is, he says, the best job in the world.

"It's an amazing honor to be able to work with individuals who are willing to give freely of their wealth to have an impact on society – in this case, empower a place like YDS to do our mission in the world," he says.

"My job is to go out, deepen relationships with alumni supporters and others, meet as many people as I can. Now's the time."

Hackney joined YDS last month with 30 years experience in the field of non-profit fundraising, notably colleges and museums. In the last decade, as a consultant for the firm Alexander Haas in Atlanta, he has helped clients raise $800 million. He is also known as a fundraising workshop leader and strategist.

On YDS's behalf, he steps into a fundraising climate of seismic economic market changes, shifting religious identities and historic opportunity. In an era of epic concentrations of wealth at the top, the amount that Americans donated to all charities – $316 billion in 2012 – has doubled since 1996.

That sounds generous, yet Americans last year gave away only 1.9 percent of their disposable income. Hackney says there's still a lot of money out there to be claimed for the public good, Yale Divinity School included.

The aim is to appeal to a donor's desire to shape or participate in a public mission that's larger than any one person. Donations are rarely motivated by an available tax deduction. More important is the school's vision of public good and how a gift enhances it. Hackney hopes to excite would-be donors by conveying YDS's 21st-century ambitions for its students and for the church in a pluralistic world.

"Big money follows big ideas," he says. "YDS Dean Greg Sterling has an extraordinary concept for moving us forward and making sure this A-plus divinity school has the resources to continue to train leaders in ministry and be of service to church and world. That makes my job easier."

The school has declared a range of financial goals and needs to ease student debt, attract promising recruits, and enrich its educational task. Hackney's special focus is to identify donors who can make a major gift of $50,000, $100,000, $1 million, $10 million – or more.

"The good news is that there are people of great wealth who see this school and its work as incredibly valuable. We want to spend time with people who have the ability to help us enhance what we do."

YDS hopes, for instance, to add new faculty positions in evangelism, in Latino/Latina theological perspectives and in world religions.  It takes about $5 million to endow a senior faculty post.

There are other goals too. One is to increase giving to the Annual Fund, all of which goes to financial aid for students. More than 90 percent of YDS students receive some form of financial help and could not attend YDS without it. Currently the Fund raises around $450,000 annually.

This financial-aid aim connects to a larger one: YDS would some day like to be tuition-free. The scale of student debt nationally is reaching worrisome proportions. On average, students come to YDS with $28,000 in educational debt and leave with a total debt of $55,000.

"We don't want students to take on any more debt than they can handle," Hackney says. "Raising $40 million would go a long way to easing financial pressure. We'd like to raise even more than that in order to cover other student costs, including housing." As Dean Greg Sterling has said, "Students do not come to YDS for financial reasons; we do not want finances to control what they do when they leave."

Currently, YDS has an endowment of $311 million. To meet the school's $26.5 million annual budget, about $16 million comes from endowment revenue, $8.5 million from tuition and other earned revenue, and $2 million from annually contributed income, including funds from Berkeley Divinity School.

"By increasing our annual fund and increasing scholarship aid, we could take money out of the picture," Hackney says. "The way to do that is to raise as much money as possible. Several years ago, the Yale School of Music received a gift of $100 million that has enabled them to be tuition-free. Our alumni will not ever make the income of other professional school graduates and we need to enable them to choose how they serve church and world without being concerned about debt.  Imagine the impact we could have if we were tuition free."

Hackney grew up United Methodist in Lexington, N.C., graduating from Wofford College with a B.A. in humanities. Pursuing his M.A.R. at YDS, Hackney got some early exposure to fundraising by doing work for the Campaign for Yale. His divinity experience – with teachers like the late Henri Nouwen – gave him a lasting affection for the mission of the school, its place in American religious life and its importance to the future of world Christianity.

Looking at the school's current profile, he says he is especially gratified to see the relatively high participation rate of YDS alums – 30.4 percent of alums contribute financially to the school. That's higher than most of the 11 other professional schools at Yale.

"What's so powerful about the statistic is that it answers a big question that prospective donors have: Do people who go to school there care about the place? This is a way to show they do. It's crucial to let potential donors know that people here value their experience."

In a time of big financial dreams and needs for theological education, Hackney stressed that contributions of any size – small, medium or huge – to YDS's Annual Fund and other projects are crucial.

Meanwhile, he fixes his sights on the big horizon.

"I hope this doesn't sound overly bold, but the Protestant Reformation's 500th anniversary will be coming up in 2017. What a wonderful thing it would be to meet some of these financial goals and ensure YDS's place as a leader in 21st theological education and ministry across the globe. I can get very excited about that."