Harvard Prepares Funding Pitch

Boston's Harvard Club. Sandwiches run about $12. Dinner entrees--French haute cuisine--cost around $18. Jacket and tie are required. And if a Harvard fundraiser thinks you're good for $100,000 or more, you might get taken there for free.

"The only way you raise money is with a personal call--letters go in the circular file," says Harvard fundraiser Ernest E. Monrad '51. "Then, you take them to lunch."

"You see them once, twice, maybe even three times," says Monrad, the alumni head of Harvard's Boston fundraising efforts.

Monrad is part of a core group of dedicated alumni who spend their time identifying--and wooing--graduates who have the money to make substantial capital gifts to Harvard.

And as Harvard's administrators consider plans for a massive University-wide fund drive, the success of alumni fundraising has become increasingly important.

The stakes are high. Last year, the University raised more than $185 million in voluntary support. And, fundraisers say, only about 10 percent of alumni account for 80 percent of all graduates' gifts.

The fundraiser's job is to find that 10 percent.

"The trick is to ask for as much as possible," says Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Fred L. Glimp'50. "If we asked all the people who give $5000 togive $250,000, you'd be surprised how many do."

But Monrad says Harvard takes a much moresystematic approach in targeting potential biggivers.

"Harvard people tend to be successful people.You have a pretty good dossier on people becausetheir salaries are published publicly," he says.

And, he adds, the University's developmentoffice in Holyoke Center has its own means ofamassing information.

"You'd be amazed at the dossiers the Harvardintelligence system has put together," Monradsays. "You're armed with a fair degree ofknowledge about them."

Says Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, "IfI'm meeting someone for the first time, I knowsomething about [them], certainly when they werein the College, what they've done since then, thatkind of thing."

At Harvard's nine faculties, an average of 31percent of alumni gave last year. And Glimp saysthat figure is consistent with the success ratesat Yale University and the University ofPennsylvania. Some smaller schools--like DartmouthCollege and Princeton University--boast ratescloser to 40 percent, he says.

Key to Success

Boosting that level of alumni giving may wellbe the key to success in a planned multi-billiondollar fundraising drive, administrators say.

The University's last capital campaign ended in1986 and raised more than $350 million. Butfundraisers now say Harvard is ready for anotherdrive--a bigger and better one.

Although officials have placed the campaigngoal at $2 billion, some key alumni advisors saythe number is closer to $3 billion.

And these alumni are the ones who should know,administrators say, because they're also the oneswho will be giving much of the money for a capitalcampaign.

Although Monrad says "you have to wait a decentinterval before you go back to these people [toask for money]," he says he expects aUniversity-wide campaign to "go into high gear byfall 1991."

But to raise $3 billion Harvard will need todepend on a solid network of alumni who arewilling to give large donations to the school. AndHarvard's development professionals and volunteershave developed an intricate structure for drawingthose alumni into the University's fundraisingmachine.

Bok Weekends

From elaborate reunion celebrations to specialweekends with President Derek C. Bok andappointments to visiting committees, Harvardtreats its wealthy alumni to a set of programsdesigned to "give them some kind of inside insightto what the place is like," as Spence says.

The Bok weekends are one example of what hasproved to be an extraordinarily successful--andpopular--fundraising tool.

Started during the 350th anniversary campaign,the weekends bring about "40 couples" toCambridge, where they are treated to meetings withtop Harvard faculty and administrators.

Edward B. Whitney '66, a Wall Street investmentbanker who was invited to last week's event, sayshe was courted with a reception, an address by thepresident, a faculty panel and tickets to thefootball game against Princeton.

"It was clearly a warm-up for the 25threunion," Whitney says. "It's supposed to leaveyou with a warm feeling in the pit of yourstomach." And, he says, "most people know that the25th is a special reunion--you're expected to givean especially large gift."

Although Whitney says he has not beenapproached for a major gift yet, he says he'sconfident "the call will come" because theweekends are "oriented toward potentiallysignificant givers."

And Monrad agrees, saying the Bok weekendsprimarily target those alumni who might give toHarvard in the future.

"If at a reunion we see you made $800,000 thatyear, we invite you back for a weekend," he says.And that's where Harvard makes its pitch: "Youcombine the right amount of nostalgia with theneeds of Harvard."

But according to Bok, the weekends aren't justanother fundraising ploy. "I don't think that'strue that they're just used as a perk. I'm suredifferent motives may inspire different kinds ofinvitations, [but fundraising] is certainly notthe primary motive involved as far as I can tell."

Still, Glimp concedes that such methods areimportant if Harvard's wealthier alumni are to bepersuaded that the University actually needs theirmoney. "If people get used to [understandingcosts], it will seem to them to be important,"Glimp says.

And Harvard's strategy is not unique. Mostschools' development officers say the push tobuild alumni support has increased dramatically asthe burden of higher education's costs falls moreand more heavily on the private sector.

"Fundraising starts with a relationship thatyou build with your constituency over a number ofyears," says Washington fundraising analystRichard Edwards.

The Younger Generation

Although younger alumni--those who areapproached within five to 10 years ofgraduation--may not be able to give a largedonation, they can still be kept involved with acampaign through volunteer work, Edwards says.

And this strategy will pay off, he adds,explaining, "in 10 to 20 years, the sameindividual is now a CEO of a corporation."

At Harvard, Glimp says he tries to maximizealumni involvement. He says there are more than5500 alums involved in fundraising for the Facultyof Arts and Sciences (FAS) alone.

Of this group, Glimp says 46 percent gave tothe College last year--twice as many as the numberwho voted in the Board of Overseers election.

And what's true in general for alumni is doublytrue for the younger classes, fundraisers say.

"You want to keep people involved for futurepurposes," says Joel A. Getz '86, class marshalfor his year. "Participation is very important foryounger classes."

Getz says he organizes telethons andletter-writing campaigns for younger classes. And,recently, he was invited to a fundraising workshopat Harvard that included a session entitled,"Soliciting for Major Gifts."

In the workshop, Getz says he was advised to bebold and ask alumni for exact amounts, because you"don't know how much money some of these peoplehave."

But Glimp says the development office tries tostart even earlier than graduation day.

"We try very hard to have seniors aware of the[Harvard] clubs," Glimp says. Those clubs play animportant role in keeping graduates connected tothe University, he adds. New York's club even"recruits" recent graduates.

This technique has paid off for the College,with almost half of FAS' alumni giving to theUniversity last year. But some of Harvard'sgraduate schools have not been as successful. TheDivinity School and the Graduate School of Designrates were as low as 26 percent and 20 percent,respectively. And the Graduate School of Educationalumnireturn rate was also at 20 percent.

But the Law School and Medical School garnereddonations from more than 50 percent of theiralumni last year--a success rate Glimp attributesto recently-increased fundraising efforts there.

The Law School is currently preparing to launcha $150 million effort and the Med School is in themiddle of an even more ambitious capital drive.But Glimp says these wealthier faculties--alongwith the Business School--have always garneredhigher returns than the other, less financiallysuccessful schools.

Many associated with University fundraising saythis discrepancy is the very reason why Harvardshould launch, for the first time, a mammoth driveincluding all nine faculties.

Such a drive, Monrad says, would be "an effortto make these places self-reliant."

Development officers say that while Harvard hasimpressive systems for ensuring that alumni giveto the faculties from which they graduated, thereis no established way of encouraging cross-schooldonations.

"Often these people will step forward," Glimpsays. But, he adds, Harvard's traditional "everytub in on its own bottom" philosophy--where eachschool is responsible for its own fundraising--hasmeant that a University-wide approach to givinghas never been a top priority.

But the need for funds has escalated to thepoint where such an approach is almost essential,according to Harvard fundraisers.

The University of Pennsylvania recentlyannounced plans to launch its firstuniversity-wide effort, with a target of more than$1 billion. And Stanford University is finishingup $1.1 billion campaign that is the nation'slargest ever.

And Peter J. Malkin '55, the chief New Yorkfundraiser, says if they can do it, Harvardcertainly can.

"If you were to mount a truly University-widecampaign, I'm chauvinist enough to think that ifPenn can raise $1 billion, Harvard can raise $2billion," he says.

And Monrad adds, "There has to be [aUniversity-wide drive], and it will be in the $3billion range before we're done...There's anirresistible tide pushing the campaign forward,despite a natural reluctance [to changetraditional modes of fundraising]."

Fine-tuning the Pitch

To prepare for a fundraising campaign whichseems almost inevitable, Harvard's developmentofficers say they are fine-tuning their pitch toalumni.

And they say their message is one that will bewell-received.

"My first line of argument is that Harvard isthe greatest university in the world," Malkinsays. "If anyone's interested in education,Harvard is a logical place to help."

Monrad says he takes a similar approach. "Ifeel that Harvard's the leader--Harvard sets thestandard for education in the world," he says.

And, at least according to Whitney, thatstrategy has paid off. Whitney, an annualcontributor to the Harvard College Fund, says hedoes so because he remembers his time at theUniversity fondly.

"You have an enormous loyalty to an institutionwhere you spent such formative years of yourlife," Whitney says.

As Glimp says, "You like being involved insomething you see making a difference. Everybodylikes working with a winner."

Next Week: The give and take of alumnigiving--Harvard's Alumni Association.