Capital Campaign Amidst Quiet Phase

Fourteen months after announcing that Harvard will launch its most ambitious capital campaign to date, University officials are drafting plans, meeting with top donors, and ramping up fundraising efforts during a “quiet phase” that’s anything but quiet.

University fundraisers say Harvard will publicly kick off the campaign in the next two or three years.

While many of the university-wide campaign’s goals have begun to take shape, Harvard has not yet revealed the most speculated-upon detail—the total dollar figure the campaign will seek to raise.

“We haven’t set the goal yet,” said Harvard’s fundraising chief, Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Donella Rapier. “It’s a little bit like a political campaign. When you’re running a political campaign, you get your backers and you raise significant funding well before you ever announce your bid for governor.”

Rapier said Harvard’s capital campaign will likely be the largest ever announced in higher education, and will “definitely” exceed the University’s last run, which ended in 1999 and reaped $2.6 billion. (A similar seven-year campaign launched today would reach at least $3.8 billion, based on a higher-education inflation rate of 3 percent.)

“I really, honestly, don’t know what the number will be,” Rapier said. “Until we complete the planning we don’t know what figure is going to be most appropriate and realistic.”

The first step, she said, is finalizing the academic priorities that will drive the campaign.

The “high level” goals have been set, Rapier said. “It’s a matter of now going down the next level and really figuring out the dollars we need in each of the areas.”

SHOPPING LIST

One of the centerpieces of the campaign will be the curricular review and efforts to strengthen the College through improvements to financial aid, study abroad, and advising, as well as increases in faculty size. Graduate schools whose missions support public service will also benefit from the new funds.

The campaign will further focus on broad, cross-university initiatives like the expansion of science at Harvard, a priority touted by University President Lawrence H. Summers. Funding for the arts, culture, and humanities will also figure prominently into plans for the campaign.

As the campaign’s objectives become more concrete, the University is consulting with close donors and preparing to bring more contributors into the loop.

“We ask them what they think,” Rapier said. “We say ‘does this sound right to you? Is this the right direction? Is it the right thing that Harvard should be doing?’ In this way the alumni have a lot of input into how the campaign is structured, and where it should focus.”

Some of the discussion over campaign plans will take place amongst committees composed of about 15 to 60 alumni and donors.

But the quiet phase isn’t all talk. In anticipation of the public kickoff, the University is seeking sizable donations from top contributors. According to Rapier, universities typically raise 20 to 30 percent of a campaign’s total during a two-year quiet period. Harvard, however, may take more time to gear up before the public phase. “This is obviously an enormous undertaking,” Rapier said. “Because of that, we probably will have a longer quiet phase than other organizations might.”

ACROSS THE RIVER

Looming over the capital campaign is the University’s future expansion into Allston, which it will partly finance through fundraising.

Because Allston development will outlast the campaign, Rapier said Harvard has considered supplementing its effort with fundraising drives targeted specifically for Allston or extending the campaign itself.

While the schedule has not been finalized, Rapier said Harvard’s public phase will probably last the traditional five years.

The University has yet to determine how campaign proceeds will be distributed between Allston’s academic programs and its construction.

“I suspect that the funds for the buildings themselves will not be very prominent, given the length of time required for the physical planning and construction itself,” Rapier said.

STRONG SHOWING

Harvard led U.S. universities in fundraising in 2004, and Rapier said 2005 is shaping out well. Contributions gained so far this year have exceeded funds brought in over the same period last year, she said, “pretty much across the board.”

These gains have been realized despite the uproar following Summers’ controversial January remarks on women in science.

“The reactions [among donors] have been very similar to what you’ve seen here,” Rapier said. “There are strong opinions on all sides of these issues. The one thing we do know is that our fundraising results are up and we’re looking very good for the year.”

—Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.