2008 Woodie Awards
Fundraising goals lag behind peers
Kevin Robillard
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: News
On Saturday, the mess of students, alumni, employees and visitors gathered for Maryland Day may have seemed an unnecessary expense for a fiscally strapped university to bear. But to administrators, they represented part of a potential solution to the monetary problems that have plagued the university for years.
Administrators are looking to new potential donors to propel the university through the second half of its $1 billion Great Expectations campaign, the largest fundraiser it has ever attempted. Maryland Day provided a perfect combination of future and former students to help the university plead its case for donations, but it will take more than a cupcake-filled carnival for the university to catch up to its peer institutions' fundraising rates.
All of the university's peer institutions - the universities of Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina, California-Berkeley and California-Los Angeles - have already completed fundraising campaigns of well over a billion dollars and have been soliciting donations for decades. The university's strategic plan rests the success of new initiatives on the administration's ability to raise $1.2 billion in private donations over 10 years, and officials on the Strategic Planning Committee have said they hope by the end of that time to be able to consistently rake in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars annually. Because the university's peer institutions have a much longer record of raising large quantities of money in relatively little time, administrators are taking cues from its peers.
One of the keys to catching up with our peers, according to university President Dan Mote and Vice President for University Relations Brodie Remington, is to build relationships with donors and a base of younger donors. Mote said Maryland Day is a good example of the university reinforcing ties between various fundraising sources, including alumni, the community and businesses in the state.
"It's all a matter of building relationships with alumni and friends ... building a better understanding among people about how much private support we need to operate a great university," Mote said.
Administrators are looking to new potential donors to propel the university through the second half of its $1 billion Great Expectations campaign, the largest fundraiser it has ever attempted. Maryland Day provided a perfect combination of future and former students to help the university plead its case for donations, but it will take more than a cupcake-filled carnival for the university to catch up to its peer institutions' fundraising rates.
All of the university's peer institutions - the universities of Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina, California-Berkeley and California-Los Angeles - have already completed fundraising campaigns of well over a billion dollars and have been soliciting donations for decades. The university's strategic plan rests the success of new initiatives on the administration's ability to raise $1.2 billion in private donations over 10 years, and officials on the Strategic Planning Committee have said they hope by the end of that time to be able to consistently rake in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars annually. Because the university's peer institutions have a much longer record of raising large quantities of money in relatively little time, administrators are taking cues from its peers.
One of the keys to catching up with our peers, according to university President Dan Mote and Vice President for University Relations Brodie Remington, is to build relationships with donors and a base of younger donors. Mote said Maryland Day is a good example of the university reinforcing ties between various fundraising sources, including alumni, the community and businesses in the state.
"It's all a matter of building relationships with alumni and friends ... building a better understanding among people about how much private support we need to operate a great university," Mote said.
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Jason Smith
posted 4/28/08 @ 5:04 AM EST
If the school wants young alumni to give back then it has to give the students a reason to love the school while they are still students
and if they want money they need to stop kicking students off campus housing. (Continued…)
Shawn
posted 4/28/08 @ 5:23 PM EST
I had a great time on campus and have already started giving back - with a contribution to the senior gift - and will continue to give back for years to come. (Continued…)
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