Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57707
ALL FORMS OF FUND RAISING INTERRELATE AND ONE CONVERSATION OR GIFT CAN LEAD TO ANOTHER. remain anonymous. Some donors like tangible brick-and-mortar proj- ects; others want to upgrade pro- gram operations. All of them want to have an impact on your students— either directly, through scholarships, or indirectly, by providing salaries that pay for great teachers. Another thing they all have in common is the desire to know that their gifts are continuing to provide value. You can bet that nearly all of them will want periodic updates from the dean, the professors hold- ing the endowed chairs, or the students attending school on their scholarships. If you show good stew- ardship of their gifts, donors will be pleased with their contributions and start thinking about their next dona- tion. The best sources of future gifts are happy prior donors. Understand that relationships are key—and so is asking. Fund raising is definitely about building produc- tive, long-lasting relationships. Some people would say that actually asking for money harms the relationship; others would argue that if you build the relationship right, you never have to ask for money. I disagree with both positions. I believe that if you can build a true partnership with donors, they will understand that their giving is a critical part of the partnership. But they're unlikely to be able to read your mind and know exactly when to give you precisely the funding you need. Don't be afraid to ask for the gift. Perhaps you feel some donors have become close friends, and that asking and giving should not be the basis of that friendship. In that case, you should be visiting with them on your own dime, not taking them out to dinner at the university's expense. Remember the "E" in fund raising. Successful entrepreneurs give more money than executives, profession- als like CPAs, or even corporations. This is true among WSU's donors and is consistent with national and global reports about philanthropy. Even donors who are not entre- preneurs themselves tend to like giving to entrepreneurship pro- grams. Entrepreneurship resonates with these individuals because it is applied and tangible, and it has value to the economy as well as the university. It's also a "hot" topic on college campuses. For instance, the fall 2007 meeting of the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers had 215 participants and dozens more who were turned away. As a result of heightened interest, the officers of the organization plan to morph it into the Global Consor- tium of Entrepreneurship Centers and expand membership. All of this bodes well for program growth— and for more giving centered around entrepreneurship. But be careful what you wish for. Be aware that entrepreneurs are likely to be high-maintenance donors. They are skeptical of academe and often feel they were successful despite what they learned in business cours- es. When they give money, they often want to be deeply involved in helping you figure out how to use it. They also expect to see transfor- mational impact, and they are likely to demand both accountability and return on investment. Expect them to require more donor stewardship than you would ordinarily provide. Finally, analyze your value chain. To make sure that your fund-raising efforts support your vision for the school, apply value chain analysis to your program. Your vision should drive the actions you take to meet program goals, set objectives, and allocate resources; these actions in turn should drive fund-raising priori- ties, affect the makeup and focus of the advisory board, and set the tone of external relations. When your vision guides your actions, you can implement a focused fund-raising strategy that fuels program change. Once I completed my assignment on the WSU Foundation, I returned to the College of Business. Because of everything I have learned about fund raising, I believe I'll be able to secure substantial gifts for our school in the future. As for that serial entrepreneur I met more than five years ago, he never donated the big gift we were discussing that day. However, I learned a great deal from him about how an outsider thought our program could be improved, and I used that knowledge to rethink the way we teach entrepreneur- ship at WSU. Our reengineered program attracted a $3 million donation from another alum, and that gift launched an interdisciplin- ary and tremendously successful entrepreneurship effort between the business school and the engi- neering program. This experience showed me firsthand that all forms of fund raising interrelate and that one conversation or gift can lead to another. Fund raising is a process of building—relationships, endow- ments, programs, and dreams. I look forward to whatever I can help the school build next. ■ z Len Jessup is the Markin Endowed Chair in Business Leadership and director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Washington State University's College of Business in Pullman. BizEd MAY/JUNE 2008 65