With added pressure, colleges turn to more donors

A million dollars a day, every day for four years. That’s what Brown University’s current fundraising goal boils down to.
In surveys conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, college and university presidents consistently rate fundraising and budget management among their top challenges, and in recent years, fundraising in higher education has taken on increased importance.
In 2006, charitable giving to higher education totaled $28 billion, up 9.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Council for Aid to Education.
For most colleges, the stepped-up fundraising is driven by a desire to increase the quality and breadth of academic offerings, expand facilities and faculty, and boost financial aid. In some cases, it’s also about making ends meet, as with the University of Rhode Island, which has seen an ever-shrinking share of its budget covered by state funds (it’s now 15 percent).
“We had to build a culture of philanthropy to show our constituencies that private fundraising was essential for a public institution,” said Robert Beagle, vice president for university advancement at URI, which has just launched the public phase of a $100 million campaign called “Making a Difference.”
In that context, pursuing major gifts has become increasingly important, college officials say, because they can make such a big impact.
“Institutions usually grow in quantum leaps,” said Dave Wegrzyn, vice president for institutional advancement at Providence College.
The rule of thumb used to be that 80 percent of contributions received by an institution came from 20 percent of its donors. Now, some fundraisers estimate a mere 5 percent of a school’s benefactors will account for 95 percent of dollars raised. One reason for this trend, some fundraisers suggest, is that bold requests convey strong institutional vision and leadership, and high-profile gifts, in turn, help attract more donors.
Still, fundraisers caution, it’s critical not to forget small donors. Schools – and college rankings such as those in U.S. News and World Report – measure the number of donors, not just the amount of donations. What’s more, donors tend to give more over time, as their relationship with the school grows, and as they build their personal wealth.
At the same time, colleges and universities have also been broadening their thinking about whom they ask for support looking beyond alumni to outsiders with common intersets.
That approach really paid off for Brown this year, when local entrepreneur and philanthropist Warren Alpert – who had never attended Brown but had set up a foundation to support medical education, research and clinical care – donated $100 million to Brown Medical School as part of university’s $1.4 billion “Boldly Brown: The Campaign for Academic Enrichment.”
As gifts have become more generous, however, so have the donors’ expectations. Increasingly, fundraisers say, donors want to define how their contributions are used and become active partners in shaping the future of the school.
“We see donors as investors, like stockholders in a company,” said Beagle.
“Getting our arms around all of these different constituencies and providing them with targeted and meaningful opportunities to become engaged is really a challenge and an opportunity,” said Kassandra Jolley, vice president for advancement at Roger Williams University.
Neil Steinberg, vice president of development and campaign director at Brown, said the heightened interest in “targeted” gifts has created new opportunities for schools willing to put in the effort to identify donors to support specific endeavors. But at the same time, he said, large donors are encouraged by a strong and visionary plan to provide context for their gifts.
That has been Brown’s approach. President Ruth J. Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment set priorities – from expanding and improving Brown’s faculty, to promoting multidisciplinary inquiry and collaborative learning, to advancing medicine and public health – that, in turn, have created opportunities for donors to invest in specific areas.
Yet as important as major campaigns are to the local colleges and universities, most say they want their development efforts to be continuously strong. “One of our goals is to build a fundraising capability that is sustainable beyond the current campaign,” Brown’s Steinberg said. •

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