Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: News
Capital Campaign | Resource centers asked to raise funds
Without loyal alumni base, development directors face challenge of meeting demand
Paul Richards
With responsibility for raising $310 million of the University's $3.5 billion capital campaign, Penn's six resource centers are charged with making a significant contribution.
But undergraduate and graduate schools, for example, have loyal alumni with incentives to give - how do you fundraise when you don't have an obvious constituency?
At the six centers - the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Penn Athletics, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Penn Libraries, the Morris Arboretum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - development directors are faced with this challenge as they try to mobilize their constituents to reach campaign goals.
"There are unique challenges," Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development John Zeller said. "And so it really requires listening carefully to what donors' interests are and trying to match those up."
But don't feel bad for them just yet - they say they have a plan.
At the Morris Arboretum - the historic Penn-affiliated public garden located outside of Philadelphia - the fundraising strategy starts with a membership base of about 5,000 households each year.
"As you look at trends in philanthropy today, donors give to institutions where they feel like they're an insider or a stakeholder," Arboretum development director Melissa von Stade said.
To that end, the Arboretum gives members access to the center through classes, private, director-led garden tours or special travel opportunities.
Marilyn Pollick, development director for the Institute of Contemporary Art, agreed that centers face unique fundraising challenges.
"For people who are in a school, quite often if they're reaching out to alums, the question of why you would want to give to Penn is much easier to answer," she said.
At the ICA, the search for new donors is always ongoing.
"We are constantly seeking out new prospects from every single person in our family," Pollick said. "That includes the board, other donors and even other people that lend work to an exhibition."
But undergraduate and graduate schools, for example, have loyal alumni with incentives to give - how do you fundraise when you don't have an obvious constituency?
At the six centers - the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Penn Athletics, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Penn Libraries, the Morris Arboretum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - development directors are faced with this challenge as they try to mobilize their constituents to reach campaign goals.
"There are unique challenges," Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development John Zeller said. "And so it really requires listening carefully to what donors' interests are and trying to match those up."
But don't feel bad for them just yet - they say they have a plan.
At the Morris Arboretum - the historic Penn-affiliated public garden located outside of Philadelphia - the fundraising strategy starts with a membership base of about 5,000 households each year.
"As you look at trends in philanthropy today, donors give to institutions where they feel like they're an insider or a stakeholder," Arboretum development director Melissa von Stade said.
To that end, the Arboretum gives members access to the center through classes, private, director-led garden tours or special travel opportunities.
Marilyn Pollick, development director for the Institute of Contemporary Art, agreed that centers face unique fundraising challenges.
"For people who are in a school, quite often if they're reaching out to alums, the question of why you would want to give to Penn is much easier to answer," she said.
At the ICA, the search for new donors is always ongoing.
"We are constantly seeking out new prospects from every single person in our family," Pollick said. "That includes the board, other donors and even other people that lend work to an exhibition."
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