Penn State president fine-tunes university’s fundraising strategy

Eric Barron wants to think about raising money for Penn State in a new way.

The university president wants to take the concept of the capital campaign and refocus it, addressing themes that will make a difference at home, across the state and around the world.

It might seem like the last capital campaign just wrapped up. And indeed, it did. The “For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students” effort closed in June 2014, bringing in $2.188 billion to the university, with contributions from more than 604,000 alumni, faculty and other supporters.

In September 2014, trustees heard about the success of that campaign. On Friday, they heard about the president’s plans moving forward.

“The interesting thing about this is, if we do this well, we will connect with donors at a very different level,” Barron said. “It also has one other potential advantage. It distinguishes itself from the last campaign.”

The big idea is to spotlight big ideas. Where “For the Future” had goals such as ensuring student opportunity and sustaining a tradition of quality, the next campaign will work on ideas that closely tie to the strategic plan that goes into effect in spring 2016. The capital campaign should follow in the summer, giving two years between the end of one fundraising push and the start of the next. Barron wants the new campaign to mirror the strategic plan in length, too, lasting just six years.

The ideas for the campaign have scope. The themes include global engagement, cultural literacy, population health and personalized health, sustainability and human security, access and affordability, digital innovation, discovery, excellence and community, and Invent Penn State.

If they seem familiar, they should. Some of those are significant objectives of Barron’s administration, things he has been talking about since taking the big office shortly before the last campaign ended. Access and affordability has been a particular focus, with the first tuition freeze in decades, and the Invent Penn State project, encouraging entrepreneurship and economic development, brings attention to the university’s impact beyond campus.

“We have amazing depth and breadth in these areas. We can increase our efforts ... and have something substantial. I’d like to be able to look people in the eye and say Penn State is the energy university in this country. We are already very close,” he said.

Barron still wants to narrow the themes. In his “next steps,” he pointed out that eight areas of focus were too many, saying that he wanted to “cull, alter (and) improve” the list before the campaign kicks off. He hopes to have a final cut by the end of the year.

The president is not the only one preparing for the push. At the outreach, development and community relations committee meeting Thursday, a presentation from the Office of Gift Planning showed that efforts are being orchestrated well in advance.

According to director Michael Degenhart, they have studied the demographics of the alumni community, identifying those likely to direct bequests to Penn State in their wills. There are about 1,900 living people that the office knows have included the university in their wills. Over the next campaign, they hope to increase that to 3,500-4,000. Penn State has received about $15 million to $20 million in “realized bequests,” money that comes to the university after a death, but is only told of those donations in advance about a third of the time.

Planning director Keith Cook said his office is coordinating with the Annual Giving office and individual colleges and schools on those efforts.

Likewise, Barron said the themes have come with buy-in from the faculty across colleges. Global engagement and access and affordability were the highest ranked, just edging out Invent Penn State and water, energy and food security.

Barron hopes that the ideas will give donors more than just a chance to give money, but a chance to buy into an idea that excites them about giving.

“There is one thing we will have to give up. The super big donor,” Barron said.

Instead, he sees a way to pursue donors in a different way, with more people funding projects that matter to them. He doesn’t see that as a problem. In fact, he thinks other schools may follow Penn State’s lead.

“Suppose a donor wants to give a free course, wants to do it for four years,” Barron said.

Because access and affordability matters, one person could, with a small investment, give a student the chance to go home for the summer, get a job, but still take a class that would help finish school in four years.

“Imagine the letter coming from that donor. ‘You graduating in four years is important to me.’ Imagine the message that could send,” he said.

That is the power he sees behind a theme.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Penn State president fine-tunes university’s fundraising strategy."