from John
The Academy’s decision to start a foundation to raise private funds for expansion projects is a step in the right direction if the Academy decides to head into the future as a independent private school. The challenging part, however, is to find someone to head the foundation that understands the importance of public relations and has the ability to recruit influential people to work for the Academy cause.
There are two aspects to successful non-profit fund raising that I am aware of – good public relations and aggressive solicitation of donations and bequests. In my experience the cause was not about promoting an individual, but instead promoting an ideal such as the quest for betterment of humanity.
After I left the National Institutes of Health (some said I was crazy) to take a position at the Pauling Institute in Palo Alto CA in late 1981, I had to raise my own funding through grants and help the Institute to raise money to stay afloat. This was a continuous effort at the Pauling Institute and with later employers until I left research at the end of 1995.
While Linus Pauling was a notable figure with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and a Peace Prize in 1962, rarely did raising donations come easy and I was not going to depend on that. Between January 1, 1984 and September 1995 I raised around $2.5 million from funding agencies to support my research program (American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute primarily; these grants are listed in the left sidebar under Novel Science and can also be found in the CRISP database on the Internet). But this funding paid for less than half of the costs of my research and by 1985 the Pauling Institute had no other federal grants. Today, the Pauling Institute which is focused on nutrition and its role in human disease is thriving and well funded at Oregon State University Paulings alma mater.
During the 1980’s, I worked with two successful fundraisers, Rick Hicks at the Pauling Institute and later with Shari Boxer at the California Institute for Medical Research. Both of these people worked tirelessly with pure altruism because they believed in value of their cause. Shari later developed JDS Group, a successful public relations consulting business in the Silicon Valley that was featured in the well respected San Jose Business Journal.
Rick Hicks carried the Pauling Institute on his back for 15 years before its move to Oregon State (here’s Rick standing with Pauling’s eldest son, Linus Jr.). Both he and Shari formed extensive networks with influential people who could help either by donating money to their cause or who could assist in finding others to help. Our Board of Trustees at the Pauling Institute with some very notable and wealthy members was not the driving force; instead, Rick was the point person and energy behind all fundraising successes.
I would not expect the Academy foundation to have the level of success achieved by Rick and Shari because of our location in the quiet corner. However, there is no question in my mind that the approach and tenacity needs to be the same for the Academy. A committee of Trustees or Directors formulating a public relations and fund raising program will not work - nor will any business plan. Instead, the Academy needs a single individual with the talent, energy, and altruism to achieve success for the institution.
In addition to the leadership and energy of Hicks, we had a well done news letter that kept all interested parties up to date on our accomplishments. When I saw the announcement by the Academy about the teacher of the year in the Villager, I thought of this as a missed opportunity. Announcements like this could have been featured along with other benchmarks at a fund raising dinner.
The Pauling Institute held one big party annually, usually in November. One memorable event was our party at the Stanford Court on Nob Hill in November of 1986 which raised more than a $million. Here’s the scene … and here I am with my date. I had to buy the blue dress.
John,
I could not agree with you more. I have far less glamourous experience in this than you have had - and far less of it. I worked in a small, private, Catholic high school in RI. I was the Admissions Counselor, which is slightly different. It was my job to recruit students in order to bring in more income in tuition. But I shared an office with two different Development Officers, as there had been a changing of the guard in that position during my employment. The first Development officer who had left the position was exactly such as you described - tenacious at digging up past alumni in order to create her own network and constantly on a PR campaign to tout the school’s name, mission, and achievements among the public. That first officer’s replacement was nowhere near as successful because she lacked the knowledge and drive to pick up where the previous development officer had left off.
Does anyone know if the Academy even has a development officer? I’m assuming that they do not, otherwise I wouldn’t have to ask. If they had such a person and that person was tenacious enough, we would all be going to sleep with visions of the Academy dancing in our heads. Not for controversial reasons, but for the successes of their current students and the achievements of their past graduates.
It’s true that this whole process will be tougher to get off the ground given our location in the Quiet Corner and the present economic climate. But the right person could be in that Development Office right now, building his/her network of influential contacts and going heavy in the PR arena to get the school’s name out in the public and keep it there for all the right reasons. The sort of person you describe above John, should be the Development Officer in my opinion and should be the point person on any committee that the Academy would like to form around it’s fundraising endeavor. They need an energetic, tenacious, go-getter who believes in the Academy as an institution.
I hope for everyone’s sake that they seek out and find just such a person.
The BOT members are large donors at private schools. Whether this is a prid quo pro for being on the board, or just expected, I don’t know, but a large part of the annual contributions come from BOT members themselves.
How much has been donated by the current WA BOT? I’m guessing not much, and if WA wants to do more that talk the talk this is going to have to change. I don’t see it happening.
This is a much nicer article. Gentler tone. Thanks for listening. (That is some blue dress!!! You look smitten by it!)
Smitten for life!
Kristen Willis is the Academy’s Director of Development, and Anne Carraher is the Development Assistant.
While I think that all fundamentals of good fundraising apply to endeavors large and small; and that this Fund is a very good idea for the future, I think it’s unrealistic to expect high dollar amounts to be raised. Part of these fundamentals’ include examination of the targeted donor pool and analysis of how much money they might have eligible to donate, assuming their full desire to do so.
Take Woodstock residents and you have a small population to begin with (unlike, say, Norwich) - potential donors are a mere percentage of that small population. I would guess that the number of potential donors who are even able to give substantial amounts represent a tiny fraction of that donor pool.
That said, once this Fund has been around for many years AND has saved it’s money, invested prudently, etc. there is a potential for a small amount to grow substantially as long as it’s not raided too early. I think it will only work best as a very long-term endeavor, but one very worth starting asap. The recession has hurt charitable donations everywhere, but causes dear to people still receive donations in any environment.