UC Davis is laying the groundwork for its first major, multi-year fund raising campaign. Here are answers to questions being asked by the campus community about the planning efforts. More information is available online at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/campaign.
What is a comprehensive fund-raising campaign?
UC Davis is at an exciting time in its history, having achieved the academic stature that enables the campus to join an elite group of its Association of American Universities peers in launching a major comprehensive fund-raising campaign. Such campaigns provide substantial support to students and faculty, and increase all future private support.
UC Davis is about to enter its second century, and has just outlined a compelling strategic vision and its most important academic priorities for the future. A comprehensive campaign is the natural progression to advance and support those aspirations, and to strengthen the campus's core missions of teaching, research and public service.
Comprehensive campaigns now characterize the nation's best universities and provide the support and needed to secure national and international academic preeminence. These multi-year undertakings provide campuses with a focused opportunity to educate the public and raise awareness, build academic credibility and ongoing support. A major effort could springboard UC Davis into the ranks of AAU peers that raise upwards of $1 billion.
What will a campaign do for UC Davis?
The campus is thinking big. The possibilities are endless. There will be millions for graduate student fellowships, undergraduate scholarships and endowed professorships -- much of it money that the campus might not otherwise see. There will be support for major cross-disciplinary initiatives that embrace the best UC Davis expertise and have potential to literally change the world. And it will provide money for research and infrastructure that would come from no other source.
The campaign has the potential to double the fund-raising capacity of the campus. This first "comprehensive campaign" is a critical step in an era where private support is vital to maintaining excellence, and state support is a dwindling proportion of revenue. It is the experience of universities like ours around the country that a campaign actually raises the bar of private support after it is over. It's an investment in our future and in the second century for UC Davis.
What campaign magnitude is UC Davis proposing?
UC Davis has a rare opportunity to conduct a campaign that will embrace its centennial--to be celebrated in 2008 -- and to position the campus for the next century. An ambitious fund-raising target of $900 million is being proposed for achievement over seven years.
If UC Davis is successful in meeting this target -- and it is common for campuses to surpass their goals--it will have raised $400 million more than otherwise would have been projected over seven years if the campus did not enter into a comprehensive campaign.
Where will the money be spent?
On the core attributes that make UC Davis excellent -- on the collective brainpower of the best students and faculty members, and on big-picture academic goals with potential for improving quality of life. The majority of money from the campaign will fund graduate student endowments and fellowships, undergraduate scholarships, endowed chairs and professorships. There will also be capital investments and instructional and research support.
Campaign priorities have been submitted by every academic unit, and have been initially refined by a committee of deans and faculty leadership. Specific priorities will continue to evolve as part of a consultative effort over the life of the campaign.
How have other AAU institutions fared with large campaigns?
UC Davis is poised to join a very elite group. A handful of our peer institutions have been through not one, but two comprehensive campaigns already -- and most of them at goals of $1 billion or higher. There are no more than about two dozen universities around the country capable of achieving goals in this range.
Successes among our AAU peers include the University of Southern California, which raised $2 billion; the University of Colorado at $1 billion; Cornell University at $1.5 billion; the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, both at $1.4 billion; and Ohio State University at $1.2 billion.
How about other UC campuses?
UC Berkeley successfully completed a $1.4 billion campaign in 2000. UCLA has actually extended its campaign to surpass a goal of $2.4 billion by next year. UC San Diego is halfway through a seven-year $1 billion campaign, and on pace to exceed its goal. UCSF is one year away from concluding a $1.5 billion campaign.
Why does UC Davis need to make an investment in the campaign, and what will it cost to raise this money?
A $900 million campaign will require about 3,300 gifts of $25,000 or more, and to achieve these gifts, we'll need to identify and contact at least 9,000 donors. And we will need many gifts of
$10 million and more, which require more effort.
UC Davis has historically underinvested in fund-raising expertise, given its size, and could not support a comprehensive campaign without more resources. An advancement financing plan has been proposed to help garner these resources without impacting any funds that are vitally needed for instruction, research and academic priorities. This financing plan, borrowing from the best practices of our AAU peers, proposes a 6 percent assessment on all gifts, with the revenue to be reinvested in fund-raising capability.
A modest investment can be leveraged across the campus to provide a much larger return -- $8 in new income for every dollar spent on advancement. By rough estimates, it currently costs the university about 13 cents to raise each dollar, comparing favorably with other universities and nonprofits.
Development professionals are needed to find and screen those key 9,000 prospects. And many other staff on campus need to work to bring UC Davis to the attention of those possible donors and the community at large. Government and community relations must be strengthened, communications programs bolstered, and the campus needs to ramp-up its partnerships and engagement in all sectors.
Who really does the fund raising for UC Davis?
If we are successful, everyone does fund raising: Our faculty, staff, students, volunteers, alumni, parents and friends. It's a partnership that requires teamwork. Unit-based development professionals understand the goals and priorities for their programs and focus on these, working closely with their own academic leadership. Centralized development professionals provide the "glue"--coordination, consultation, services and research. This collective expertise is complementary, and both are needed if an ambitious campaign goal is to be realized. As the campus moves increasingly toward interdisciplinary approaches and embraces big-picture goals that encompass many campus units, central coordination will be required.
What role does University Relations play in campus advancement?
University Relations is critical to the achievement of UC Davis' engagement strategy: to build and enhance enduring relationships with alumni, parents and friends, and to improve the quality of our communication with these groups. University Relations develops the public, private and donor partnerships necessary to aggressively pursue financial resources. Its units -- development, advancement services, communications, government and community relations, alumni relations and cultural programs -- have shown repeatedly that they are able to leverage a small investment to produce a significant return. The recent Economic Impact Report rollout is one example of our successful collaborations.
What does the central development office do?
Already, UC Davis receives about $70 million annually in private giving. There are over 50,000 individual gifts each year, many of them under $100. All of this activity is processed through the campus development office. The hope for the campaign is to dramatically increase the number of gifts, and also their size.
The central office provides shared services to benefit colleges and schools to make sure each solicitation reflects a careful strategy, and to help avoid duplication. The central staff provides specialized fund-raising expertise in areas such as estate planning, corporate and foundation giving and prospect research. Its annual fund operation aims to reach all alumni with phone and mail solicitations. Many of these functions are beyond the reach of a college or school's staff working alone. It's a partnership!!
Can UC Davis afford to enter a campaign right now, given the state budget crisis?
UC Davis can't afford not to enter a campaign right now. Our supporters have told us it's time. Our trustees, our alumni, our peers in the academy and the public -- all of them have encouraged us to embark on a major campaign because they are so proud of the university and they want to support it and get others to support it.
It takes several years to invest and start seeing a return on that investment; the UC Davis campaign begun today would not go public for four more years. UC Davis to move forward now to stay competitive with the best of American research universities, and raise the private dollars necessary to attract and retain the best faculty, attract the best students and conduct world-class research.
What is the next step for UC Davis?
The next step is for everyone to start imagining the possibilities and get involved. We want to find and embrace the best "big ideas" from the academic community, the concepts that have the most promise to revolutionize people's lives -- tapping our expertise in health, food, technology, the arts, We then need to engage and energize the public and our prospective donors. And we need to get busy building our fund-raising infrastructure on campus, hiring the professional staff that will make it possible to realize our dreams.