Deans Fundraising Workshop - Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Good morning. Welcome!
Since we are devoting this day to fundraising, I thought I would start with some facts about people with money.
Nearly 10 million Americans have a net worth of at least $1 million, a figure that excludes their primary residence. About 500,000 are worth more than $10 million.
Households with $25 million or more - there are an amazing 100,000 of those in this country. This spring, for the first time ever, the number of billionaires on the Forbes list cracked four figures, at 1,125. More than a third are Americans.
There is no shortage of potential big donors. In fact, there is an abundance. We are, however, experiencing a shortage - a shortage of grand ideas.
When it comes to seeking the generosity of the wealthiest people in this country and on this planet, we, at the University of Florida and other universities in this country, are in need of...how to put it...dreams. Projects so ambitious or unconventional that they capture the imaginations of the most sought-after donors.
We believe you, our top leaders, are in the best position to conceive these projects, to dream the dreams that resonate with these donors. This is why we brought you together for this workshop today.
Let me back up just a little.
We have raised over $650 million toward the Florida Tomorrow capital campaign's goal of $1.5 billion. Many of our contributions fall into the category of quote-unquote "loyalty gifts" - gifts from alumni or friends that arise out of allegiance to UF or to a UF college. While we value these gifts, we will never reach our goal on their strength alone.
The world's biggest donors today are not loyalty donors. They are transformational donors. They want to remake an institution, achieve a difficult goal, or be part of something risky, radical or revolutionary.
We think we have the ingredients to make that possible at the University of Florida. But to do that, we will all have to change our traditional way of thinking.
If I asked each of you today what you would do with a wonderfully generous donation, you might say you would hire more faculty, create endowed chairs or add scholarships. All of that is terrific and much needed.
But, none of these items are dreams - they are another set of bullets on another list of strategic objectives.
Moreover, while you may wish to enhance your college or department, the transformational donor does not necessarily share your wishes. Research shows that people want to give philanthropically to satisfy different, even disparate, passions. Our job is to find ways for donors to fulfill these passions, and that will entail sharing donors across colleges, schools, departments.
The phrase, "that's my donor" may be the single biggest impediment we face in bringing in the largest gifts. Transformational donors want to put money toward a cause, not a kingdom.
So, as with many real dreams, yours should fly beyond your office, past your familiar hallways, through the walls of this University. With the donor's help, you may do the work in many different divisions or departments at this University.
But your goal is broader still: You have a vision for making the world better in some substantial way.
I want to give you a couple of examples of the kind of dream and donor we're seeking.
Three years ago, Tufts University in Massachusetts received a $100 million donation, its largest gift ever, from Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay.
Omidyar and his wife, Pam, worked out an agreement with Tufts whereby the University would use the money to make microloans in developing countries. The returns support Tufts' financial aid programs and scholarships and are reinvested to support more microloans.
The Omidyars are Tufts alumni, which undoubtedly played a role in their generosity. But, had the Tufts not been open to this radical idea of growing a university endowment via a social good, it's a fair bet the eBay founder would have taken his donation elsewhere.
We have examples of transformational gifts on our own campus as well. Thanks to William and Evelyn McKnight, we created something that had never existed at UF before and remains rare on other campuses today - the multidisciplinary Brain Institute.
Thanks to Jim and Alexis Pugh, we built Pugh Hall, a building that very much by design, houses the path-breaking Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
n 2006, a St. Petersburg heart surgeon, Crayton Pruitt, transformed UF's then-tiny biomedical engineering department into a thriving and growing one. Dean Khargonekar will discuss this gift later today, and I don't want to spoil his presentation, but there's no question Dr. Pruitt's grand ambitions cried out for an appropriately grand response.
Ambitions. Dreams. Transformations. Given the painful budget cuts you are all experiencing, it may seem utterly the wrong moment to ask for your leadership in this important cause. You might also think that you have enough to worry about, that this is a job for the professionals in development.
But, I would make just the contrary arguments. We should dream our greatest dreams in our most distressing times. And, you, the academic leaders of this University, are those most capable of conceiving and articulating the dreams we seek. Even if this activity doesn't lead to a major gift or gifts, it will remind us our largest and most noble goals as scholars and scientists. I started with some facts about money, and I would like to end with facts about money.
To reach the Florida Tomorrow goal of $1.5 billion, our development folks believe we need at least one $100 million gift, one $75 million gift, and two $50 million gifts. We also need many more $25 million, $10 million, and $5 million gifts.
We may well attract some of these gifts in the traditional ways. But, I firmly believe that, with the help of your valued guidance and expect assistance, we will draw the attention of our most outsized donors with our most outsized dreams. I hope you have a great workshop today.
Thank you.
Bernie Machen