Facing tighter budgets and often dwindling endowments, small and midsize colleges say that board members are not pulling enough weight in fund-raising efforts for these institutions, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

According to a new report, “Advancing Small Colleges: A Benchmarking Survey Update,” part of a 30-year longitudinal study of members of the Council of Independent Colleges, only 1 percent of the 274 college presidents surveyed believed that their board members were adept at fund-raising basics such as soliciting new donors and referring donor prospects, down from 13 percent satisfaction a decade ago. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education conducted the survey.

Wesley K. Willmer, the report’s author, said that small schools today — those with enrollments between 1,500 and 4,000 — often select board members “for reasons other than their wealth,” which may affect these figures.

Mr. Wilmer stressed that while every college “would like to have board members capable of doing more to help,” it was crucial for campus leaders to educate board members about raising money. “If college presidents and development staffs are unhappy with board members’ understanding of fund raising, they should take the initiative to get them trained,” he said.

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