Gifts to FAS Fall Short of Budget

Fundraising for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) was nearly $20 million short of budgeted projections at the end of February, according to an internal document obtained by The Crimson.

The report detailing FAS fiscal year 2004 fundraising through the end of February, which circulated among University officials earlier this month, indicated that total gifts were down 24 percent from the nearly $104 million slated to have been raised by that time.

A dearth of construction gifts—$30.6 million below expectations—accounted entirely for the shortfall, which was partially mitigated by surpluses in other fundraising areas.

And with a host of construction projects already underway, including development in the North Yard and Allston, lackluster donations for construction could imperil some key FAS goals. The report specifically identified construction gifts as the top problem facing FAS fundraisers.

Several senior officials involved with FAS finances did not respond to repeated attempts at contact yesterday. Andrew Tiedemann, a spokesperson for the University development office, said The Crimson’s numbers were wrong, though he declined to elaborate.

In an interview yesterday, University President Lawrence H. Summers suggested FAS fundraising had rebounded somewhat from the end of February.

“People thought it was down quite badly,” Summers said, “but then they were saying more recently that it looked much better.”

The low fundraising totals follow the January departure of Beth B. Raffeld after her short tenure as associate vice president and dean for development at FAS. Scott A. Abell ’72, former president of the Harvard Alumni Association, is set to take over the position in May.

The report said total FAS fundraising between July 1, 2003 and Feb. 29, 2004 was down 9 percent from the same point last fiscal year. And while the Law and Business Schools, in the midst of major capital campaigns, were enjoying banner years as of the end of February, the other graduate schools were either flat, below or well below fundraising totals through the same time last fiscal year.

The Graduate School of Education (GSE) was down almost $10 million, or 57 percent, although spokesperson Greer C. Bautz said some gifts—totaling at least $2.5 million—had not yet been recorded in the report.

Bautz also said the GSE was in the process of reorganizing its development office and searching for its own associate dean for alumni affairs and development.

Randolph W. Billings, director of development for the School of Public Health, which was down 28 percent through the end of February, did not respond to attempts to contact him yesterday.

Buoyed by the Law and Business School campaigns, overall giving to the University was up 11 percent, to just over $351 million, compared to the end of February last fiscal year.

It remained unclear yesterday whether giving to FAS has turned around since the period covered by the report, and University officials declined to provide updated numbers.

But Tiedemann said FAS was primarily concerned with totals over the entire fiscal year, not on a monthly basis.

“We raise money for 12 months, and it doesn’t move in a straight line,” Tiedemann said. “A lot of our fundraising is around reunion commitments and whatnot, and that’s coming up.”

Vice President for Finance Ann E. Berman said yesterday she was not familiar with the numbers obtained by The Crimson.

Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby raised just over $5.2 million through the end of February this fiscal year for his much-heralded Dean’s Discretionary Fund, which has been promoted as an avenue for donations to financial aid, Faculty support and the sciences.

And FAS was also the recipient of $46.4 million in active endowment gifts over the same time period.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.