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Development tightens focus in tough times
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“We want to align our resources to the very best opportunities that we have in front of us across the university.”
Despite the nation’s flagging economy, Marsha Henderson, vice president for external affairs, remained upbeat yesterday while updating the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on UB’s philanthropic prospects.
“There’s still money out there,” she said, pointing to UB’s announcement earlier this week of a $500,000 gift from the Prentice Family Foundation to establish a new scholarship program. “We’re still getting some wonderful gifts.”
Overall, however, she said collection and commitment totals remain low compared to 2008.
“We’re running about 30 percent below our collections and commitments at the same time last year,” she said. “The largest drop is in our corporate, foundation and planned gifts. People are just not thinking long term right now when they’re worrying about their current portfolios and incomes.”
In response to the changing economic climate, Henderson said the offices of Development and Alumni Relations are focusing on “increasing results and maximizing returns” by working more efficiently, including using data mining techniques to whittle a contact list of 185,000 prospective donors down to 15,000 “high-profile” alumni.
She added that about 80 percent of all gifts stem from individuals—and about 90 percent of a campaign’s funds come from the top 15 to 30 donors.
Development and Alumni Relations are being reorganized, she said, to ensure that their approximately 100 employees—from major gift officers and corporate foundation staffers to student phone operators—are targeting alumni from schools and departments most likely to yield major returns. For example, Henderson pointed out that the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences—founded in 1846—has had much more time to generate a pool of potential alumni donors than the School of Public Health and Health Professions, which was established in 2003.
“We want to align our resources to the very best opportunities that we have in front of us across the university,” she said. “Clearly, in the current budget environment…we’ve got to strategically deploy our development officers and resources.”
A feasibility study on the potential benefit of launching a new fund-raising campaign also is taking place, Henderson added. Many factors seem to suggest that UB is in a strong position to consider such a project, she said, including positive public opinion about the university’s clear vision, focus on strategic strengths and “strong momentum.”
In other business, Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, discussed his participation in a gathering of presidents and provosts from colleges and universities across the region at Geneseo State College on Tuesday.
The focus of the meeting was collaboration, he added, noting that although UB already engages in much collaboration with neighboring institutions, it’s never a bad idea to consider additional projects, “especially during this time of [tough] budget scenarios.”
Tripathi said suggestions for further collaboration included creating a formal system to accommodate spousal or partner hires at geographically adjacent institutions; collaborating on expanding online course offerings; sharing foreign language instructors, especially in Arabic and Mandarin; preparing for an increase in veteran student enrollment; and cross-campus professional development activities.
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