The Office of Philanthropy hired three people to equal two full-time positions.

Mike Murray, Kim Hacker and Tim Davis started Monday as directors of philanthropy.

Two of the individuals will be at 60 percent and one person will be at 80 percent, said Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations.

“Each of these individuals had reasons for not wanting to work full-time but their experience was really important to us,” Nilsen said.

She said they all come with experience in major gift fundraising.

“Although probably the greatest skill that is needed in the area of philanthropy is the ability to work with people and to listen to donors, it also helps if our staff is experienced with the types of ways that folks can make gifts, and these individuals will actually come on board knowing about different vehicles of gift giving such as trusts, requests, stock,” Nilsen said. “It also will really allow them to start full speed.”

As directors of philanthropy, Murray, Hacker and Davis will serve as major gifts officers for the university, and will actively seek major gifts on behalf of Eastern.

Nilsen said the office is currently identifying alumni and friends for the new directors to visit.

“The larger our staff, the more alums and friends that we can visit,” she said. “So they’re going to enhance our ability to make contacts with more individuals.”

Karla Evans, executive director of philanthropy, said the more people the office has raising money, the greater amount of money can be raised.

“By adding additional professional staff, we will have the opportunity to raise additional money for the institution,” Evans said.

The addition of the staff will also help move forward with campaign planning, she added.

“We now have the effective team in place to advance philanthropy at EIU during this next campaign,” Evans said.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.