GIVE AND TAKE
Light State Coffers Force Schools to Find New Funding Sources
By RENE’E BEASLEY JONES
Public universities are seeking other sources of income as state funds ebb and flow with economic cycles and fail to keep pace with increasing enrollments. Chief among them: philanthropy.
The University of California, Irvine said private donors gave $57 million to the school for the 12-month period ending June 30. That’s 61% higher than a year earlier, when UCI’s fundraising office was going through leadership changes.
Across the county line, private donations and externally funded research at San Diego State University have risen so much in recent years that state revenue, tuition and fees now make up only slightly more than half of the university’s annual operating budget.
And, since 2000, the University of California, San Diego has come close to doubling its fundraising staff, which now numbers more than 100. In March, the university launched a $1 billion fundraising campaign.
Even with the still-limping economy, UC San Diego reported its biggest fundraising effort in three years. Private support for the 2002-2003 school year came to $131.1 million.
In the next few years, UC San Diego may add another 20 people to its fundraising staff, said Jim Langley, vice chancellor for external relations.
“We believe this is the best way out of this budget crisis,” Langley said.
Campuses nationwide are going anywhere to raise money,other than state coffers, said Travis Reindl, director of state policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Other than private donations, research contracts and grants, school officials trying to start new programs, build infrastructure and meet growth projections are opting for a new wave of revenue options, Reindl said.
They include offering joint-use arrangements for facilities, signing vendor agreements for exclusive rights to sell products on campuses and selling naming rights to stadiums.
Campuses face increasing ethical and legal complications in their quest to secure gifts and strike deals for exclusivity, Reindl said.
“This requires a different set of sensitivities,” he said. “It’s a new world. And there are a lot of pitfalls that campuses have to be very sensitive to.”
During the past academic year, San Diego State’s faculty attracted more than $130 million in grants and contracts for research. Private donations brought in another $43 million.
The money helps start new academic programs and supports additional faculty.
The start of San Diego State’s hospitality and tourism program in 2000 depended on financial contributions from the industry, said Ethan Singer, associate vice president for academic affairs.
Individuals and businesses are pulling purse strings tighter today to weather the current economic storm, Singer said. Fundraising has been more difficult since the technology bubble burst a few years ago.
“But we have an aggressive philanthropic program,” Singer said. “We increase goals each year. We’ve been successful in meeting them.”
Three years ago, San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. made a five-year commitment of $25 million for educational programs to help bridge the so-called “Digital Divide” nationwide.
UC San Diego; San Diego State; California State University, San Marcos; and the Foundation for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Education were the recipients of the donation.
In the past year, Qualcomm pledged $250,000 to help start San Diego State’s Information and Communications Technology Partnership. It also endowed the Jerome S. Katzin Chair in Corporate Governance at UC San Diego.
Qualcomm gives roughly 1% of its annual pretax profit to organizations, said Dan Sullivan, executive vice president of human resources. The company’s total cash gifts amount to $8 million to $12 million annually, Sullivan said.
“We focus our giving on those institutions that have full-time faculty conducting both teaching and research,” Sullivan said. “We’re quite interested in programs that are focused on the development of engineering and science degrees.”
Qualcomm views giving as the duty of a good corporate citizen and an investment in the company’s future, which is built on the intellectual content of its employees, Sullivan said.
“Our shareholders are not looking for a company that’s focused on short-term profitability but looking for ways to invest in the company going forward,” he said. “Supporting communities where we do business is part of that.”
Beasley Jones is a staff reporter with the San Diego Business Journal.
College Officials Play Big Money Role
Out of necessity, university chancellors and presidents are critical to fundraising efforts.
“People with eight-figure gifts usually want to talk to the CEO,” said Donald Fellows, a consultant with Lyndhurst, N.J.-based Marts & Lundy Inc., which advises nonprofit organizations on fundraising activities.
In the past 10 years, deans of schools have become more important to the process, Fellows said.
And the trend is starting to include department chairpersons.
Deans and directors may spend 25% to 50% of their workweek doing fundraising and external relations, Fellows said.
Carl Winston, director of San Diego State University’s hospitality and tourism management program, is living proof. Winston estimates he spends about 40% of his time on development-related activity.
However, as a full-time director of a new program, Winston’s situation is different from most directors at San Diego State, he said.
University officials knew the fledgling program would need more attention from the onset. Fundraising was part of his job description.
Winston never views fundraising as begging.
“We’re not asking for something for nothing,” he said. “Our giving proposition is not a charitable one.”
,Rene’e Beasley Jones
