With no major boosts in state funding in sight and the ever-increasing cost to run a university, fundraising has become an immediate concern for SIUC, as pointed out in the North Central Accreditation report.

The SIU Foundation is the central organization charged with the responsibility of fundraising for the University and also is responsible for the money once it is raised. Though the University endowment has grown by 14 percent in the last three years, Foundation officials agree more needs to be done.

Raymond Lenzi, acting vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement and chief executive officer of the Foundation, said the status of University fundraising depends on the point of view.

If you look at where we are to where we should be, for an institution of our size, we need to make some significant progress, Lenzi said. If you look at the progress we’ve been making in recent years, we have been improving our fundraising.

As a doctoral degree-granting institution, SIUC is periodically reviewed and accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. An NCA team visited SIUC from April 12-14 to gather information for its evaluation.

During its visit, the team reviewed documents, including SIUC’s self study, course catalogs, handbooks and financial reports, and met with numerous students, faculty, staff, administrators, constituency group heads and fiscal officers.

The team summarized SIUC’s strengths and challenges in its official report and offered suggestions for improvements. Accreditation, which SIUC was granted, is based on five criterion, including having clear and publicly stated purposes, effectively organizing its resources, accomplishing its goals and purpose and demonstrating integrity in its practices.

In a 1998 study of university endowment levels, SIUC ranked fifth of eight Missouri Valley Conference schools and 418th of 508 schools reporting nationally. Jim Gildersleeve, president of the Foundation board, said SIU is behind largely because private institutions have always been more active in seeking outside funding than public schools.

Foundations such as ours have been forced to restructure and build modern fundraising organizations to raise funds to fill the void left by the state, Gildersleeve said. We must increase our fundraising efforts in Chicago and St. Louis where we have large numbers of alumni.

The lack of permanent leadership in the role of vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement has also hurt fundraising efforts somewhat, Gildersleeve said.

Our current interim vice chancellor [Lenzi] has been doing a terrific job in the position, Gildersleeve said. However, by not being permanent, many of the positions within Institutional Advancement can’t be filled since qualified people will not apply for these positions with the lack of permanent leadership. I don’t blame them.

Interim Chancellor John Jackson agreed that filling the position is important to University fundraising efforts, but noted the office has been working hard under the temporary leadership.

Filling the vice chancellor spot is an important step forward, but they have not just been sitting still, twiddling their thumbs, Jackson said. However, permanence is important.

Jackson said part of the reason SIU has been behind other universities in fundraising in the past is because many of the best alumni have been in programs such as education and government service, where graduates typically do not make large amounts of money.

The relatively recent development of law, medicine and engineering programs at the University allow for wealthier graduates, and, therefore, more fundraising possibilities, Jackson said.

However, the SIU Foundation cannot rely only on improvements in the fundraising environment; it has to take an active role in developing external funding.

Lenzi, who is a candidate for the permanent vice chancellor position, said his office is improving their efforts in three ways:through additional hiring, more training and a refocusing of efforts.

One of the most recent moves has been the hiring of Yvonne Morris, the first full-time planned giving director for the Foundation. Morris is a lawyer specializing in estate taxes, and Lenzi said she is an important addition to the Foundation.

It gives you the ability to get more of the big estate gifts, and those are very important in terms of total gifts, Lenzi said.

The Foundation receives fundraising dollars in three ways, and planned estate gifts are usually the largest donations. These are gifts to the University that are written into the donor’s will. Annual gifts are funds raised by activities such as phone campaigns and are normally smaller in size. Major and special gifts are usually one-time donations of money or property.

The training aspects of Foundation improvements deal with the people doing the actual fundraising for the University. Lenzi said, when he became the acting vice chancellor, there were no certified fund-raisers working for the Foundation.

Indiana University has a program called the Fundraising School, which involves a four-course series that trains participants to be certified fundraising managers. Lenzi contracted with Indiana University to bring the program here, and, by Dec. 3, Lenzi said there will be 15 certified fundraising managers working for the Foundation.

Having good training and certification not only increases competence, it increases confidence, Lenzi said. People now know that they really know what they’re doing.

He said the group training also aids group cohesion by serving as a retreat for the fund-raisers. The training also helps prepare the Foundation for an upcoming comprehensive capital campaign, which is still in the planning stages, Lenzi said.

The final aspect of improving the fundraising efforts of the University involves the refocus of the entire office, which Lenzi said centers on the themes of communication, organization and results coupled with accountability.

The communication aspect includes the restart of a regular newsletter to the Foundation board members, semi-annual and annual reports to donors and creating an overall culture of communication. An important part of this culture is not only improving internal communication, but having excellent donor relations as well.

I’m a three-time alumni; when I bleed, I bleed maroon, Lenzi said. You have to really dig in and know the operations of this University, the points of excellence and the problems, frankly.

Organization of fundraising efforts is also vital to the refocus of the Foundation, Lenzi said. When he came on board, only 11 percent of the Chancellor’s Council, which are some of the largest annual donors to SIU, were assigned to a development officer in the Foundation. Lenzi said 100 percent of these donors are now assigned.

Other organizational issues include making sure the development officer in each area of the University has clear goals and good prospect management. By good prospect management, Lenzi means that all potential donors are contacted, but not by multiple Foundation officials.

Those are key organizational issues, Lenzi said. You can’t effectively raise money if you are not organized.

The final aspects of the refocus of the Foundation are results and accountability. Lenzi said this deals not just with financial goals, but with developing and cultivating groups in specific colleges, recruiting and training volunteers and engaging college deans in fundraising.

Though steps are being taken to improve University fundraising, Gildersleeve said current University needs are incredibly dire, and raising needed dollars is only going to get more difficult.

Modern technology is not only changing the needs for humanity, it’s bringing change to education in ways we could never comprehend even 10 years ago, Gildersleeve said. As a result, the need for capital projects all over the University becomes immediate to say the least.

All of this is taking place in an environment where competition for the donor dollar is intense.