Winter 2008
Mind Your "P's": Fundraising Lessons from ICCD's Conference "Growing Giving"
By Barbara Viniar, Ed.D., Executive Director, ICCD
The speakers at ICCD’s “Growing Giving” program in November were corporate and private donors, development professionals, trustees, foundation board members, presidents, and authors. Their perspectives were diverse, but their messages were consistent:
If you want to succeed in increasing private support for your community college, you have to
mind your P’s:
- Pride,
- Professionalism,
- Personal relationships,
- Partnerships,
- the new Philanthropist, and
- Perseverance.
Rita Bornstein, President Emeritus and Harriet W. Cornell Chair of Philanthropy and Leadership Development at Rollins College, said she was offended when a president described fundraising as begging. “We are not beggars,” she said. “We are equals.” Pride in our institutions makes us good fundraisers.
In an era when fundraising scandals are common news, it is incumbent on us to set high standards of professional conduct and ensure accountability to our donors, our boards, the campus, and the public we serve. As Doug White, author of Charity on Trial, reminded us, it is not about compliance, but about ethics. Our professionalism can never be in doubt.
Fundraising is a professional sport, said Brenda Babitz, President of the Monroe Community College Foundation and author of the book Growing Giving, and her role is coach. As our development programs grow, we need experienced individuals like Brenda to take them to new levels. According to Ron Thomas, author of the forthcoming book Tilling the Field: Success Factors in Community College Fundraising, investment in development staff is the single most important factor in community college fundraising success.
Arunas Chesonis, Chairman and CEO of PAETEC Holding Corp. and a major donor to Monroe Community College in Rochester New York, stressed the personal relationship he had developed with Tom Flynn, President of the college. It was a relationship based on honesty and mutual respect that started with a minimal commitment of Chesonis’s time.
Chesonis is a good example of the “new philanthropist,” or what Shauna Chabot, Associate Managing Director for Brakely Briscoe Fundraising and Management Consultants, called the “donor investor,” an individual who sees his or her donation as an investment and wants to play an active role in achieving results. Community colleges, said Chabot, should take advantage of the increase in wealth among young entrepreneurs and women.
Kay Walter’s foundation, Second Chance, provides scholarships that enable single parents to enroll in the nursing program at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Walters was inspired by her own nursing career, a positive experience at a community college, and a speech about the college’s mission by Valencia’s President Sandy Shugart to create a partnership that improves the lives of families and addresses the shortage of nurses.
Barbara Miller, Executive Vice President of the Central Florida Auto Dealers Association, described the partnership among the dealers and between the dealers and the college that enabled them to recruit young people into the field, provide financial aid to community college students, and build a $10 million state of the art education and training facility on the campus of Seminole Community College outside of Orlando. All of our colleges can capitalize on similar economic development and educational partnerships.
It took Miller, with ongoing support from Seminole’s President Ann McGee, ten years to raise the funds for the new building. It may take longer for alumni to become major givers. Finding shared values and the right proposal for a given donor takes research, time and cultivation. Perseverance is critical to community college development efforts.
ICCD will be collaborating with the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and the California Foundation for Community Colleges, to offer another program on fundraising,
"Navigating the Rising Tide of Community College Advancement"
October 15-17, 2008
in San Diego, California
For more information about "Navigating the Rising Tide of Community College Advancement," contact Dr. Barbara Viniar, ICCD Executive Director, at (607) 255-9259 or by email.
Link to ICCD's other Winter 2008 Gravitas newsletter articles
Download the Winter 2008 edition of ICCD's newsletter Gravitas (pdf)
