Big money: It's academic
Published in College News on 11/15/2005
Colleges in international gold rush for donors.
Article originally appeared here. LONDON - If you're asking for money - a lot of money - why not do it at a place called Cafe Paradiso?
Of course, Jill Sherman, Haverford College's vice president for international advancement, let prospective donor Angela Hobart choose the little cafe around the corner from the British Museum, where Hobart teaches.
In a sense, this was a formality. Over more than a year, Sherman had guided Hobart through what she calls the "dance" of negotiating a large gift for the school.
"There comes a time when the dance is smooth, and you follow each other's steps," said Sherman. "But I am leading - even though it doesn't appear so - if I am doing my job well."
Now the final moves are being choreographed over cappuccino at Paradiso.
Call it the globalization of giving. Raising money is the lifeblood of higher education, and universities are now competing for private contributions all over the world. They are reaching out to alumni living abroad, foreign undergraduates and their often well-to-do families, and wealthy "admirers" such as Angela Hobart.
Hobart, a British anthropologist, has agreed to endow for three years a study-abroad program for Haverford students and faculty at her estate in Ascona, Switzerland.
And Sherman, who knows how to ask nicely but never loses sight of her goal, has Hobart thinking about a lifetime commitment "in the six-figure neighborhood."
Competition among American universities has expanded their neighborhoods when it comes to attracting students, faculty and money. The race to get bigger and better has spread abroad.
In just over six years at Haverford, Sherman has led two successful capital campaigns and transformed the Main Line school into a force in international fund-raising.
Hobart never attended Haverford, but she spent the first 12 years of her life there while her father, Edmund Stinnes, was on the faculty. She admires Haverford's Quaker background and its peace and global citizenship program.
"Both of my parents were internationally orientated," explained Hobart as she sipped her coffee, her graying hair covering the collar of a blue batik shirt purchased on a recent trip to Ball. Hobart travels frequently to Indonesia and is considered an expert on its indigenous peoples and art.
Sherman glanced at a red folder with a college logo that contained all of her fund-raising proposals and agreements for this weeklong trip. As Hobart reviewed the documents, Sherman dropped a little bomb.
"We're also thinking about getting a little bit bigger, as a college," she said.
"Oh, my goodness," said Hobart. "In what way?"
"First, because of our expanded agenda in the arts," Sherman said smoothly. "Also our new international focus."
"I hope it's not going to be too big," said Hobart. "That's what I find so appealing."
Sherman gave assurances. That's part of the dance, too. Don't spoil the mood, but lay the groundwork for something more daring. Bigger school, bigger needs.
Even small liberal arts colleges such as Haverford and Swarthmore are players in international development. One of the nation's biggest is the University of Pennsylvania.
Nine years ago, The Inquirer reported that Penn's office of development and alumni relations had an annual budget of $13.8 million and employed 250 people. The staff included 83 development officers who spent much of the year traveling the world soliciting money.
Penn declined to update those figures, citing the competitive nature of the business.
But the number of full-time fund-raisers has increased by 66 percent since 1985, Penn said.
Contributions to colleges and universities in the United States rose by 3.4 percent in 2004, according to an annual survey by the Council for Aid to Education at the Rand Corp.
Nearly half of the $24.4 billion raised last year came directly from individuals, almost a 10 percent increase from 2003. Alumni giving is the base of support, but the increase was mainly driven by gifts from non-alumni donors, which increased by 21.5 percent.
The council doesn't track foreign donations, but international contributions largely derive from alumni and non-alumni individual donors.
With $332.8 million raised in 2004, Penn ranked fourth on the list after Harvard, Stanford and Cornell Universities.
Tom Smith Tseng, associate director of Stanford's Office of Asian Relations, compared international advancement these days to an "arms race" and said if a school doesn't travel abroad, it will be left behind.
"A leading U.S. university without a global outlook in its alumni outreach and development activity is one that overlooks the potential of a group of constituents who may be ready and willing to help," Tseng said.
He described a trip to Beijing in September when he bumped into representatives from Cornell ,and Yale, with Princeton about to appear. Tseng said his China stop netted $1.5 million in scholarships and fellowships for Stanford.
"Studies have shown that foreign donors are motivated by the same factors that influence their American counterparts: belief in the institution's mission and a desire to do good," Tseng said.
Dan West, vice president for development at Swarthmore, said the school's quest for international donors began in the last decade. West and president Alfred H. Bloom now make annual trips to Europe and Asia, where most of their 600 international alumni live (out of 18,000 total).
West described two recent gifts as "breakthroughs." A group of Japanese alums have pooled their gifts to raise $150,000 for a seminar room in the new science center. Another group in Hong Kong has pledged a little more than $100,000 for an endowed scholarship to benefit Asian students who are not American citizens.
"They are not huge amounts of money, but they are a real step forward in terms of getting foreign alums to take seriously their responsibility to help the college," said West.
One challenge that West and his counterparts face is the lack of a tax incentive in Europe and Asia for private giving.
"The whole notion of private philanthropy and a tax code that is structured to provide support and encouragement is literally foreign to most of the world," said West.
"If you're dealing with a culture where philanthropy isn't as established, you do have to make the case that this is the way it is in the United States," said Penn's Edward M. Resovsky, managing director for international development.
Last year, the school began a program called "Penn Traditions," which organizes specific events for each class designed to build allegiance to the university. For sophomores, the program is called "Highball to Heyday: The Penn Experience" and explains the university's colorful rituals.
Penn Traditions director Elise Betz said they hoped to reach out to students in an entertaining way "that would help create understanding of Penn's mission, its traditions, and the students' role in the larger Penn community."
While not directed at foreign students, the program, Betz believes, will create a bond between student and university that will aid fund-raising and encourage the student to "give back" after graduation.
Jennifer Dumas, an American who until recently was the director of development at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said that colleges are now "planting a seed subliminally that you are expected to give."
Dumas recalled that when Cornell accepted her, the letter included a financial-aid package and a note saying that the school was able to offer it due to the generosity of earlier students.
Foreign students who become successful may be more likely to reward their school's generosity.
Last year, $14 million of the $332 million raised by Penn came from non-U.S. sources, according to school officials.
Reading Room
Free sources of help and advice with college writing issues. Enter Reading Room