Educators Pass Tests in Raising Funds

By ZANTO PEABODY

March 19, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Jolene Koester, president of Cal State Northridge, takes rich men and women to dinner, rendezvous with them on weekends and persuades them to add her university to their wills.

Her efforts are part of a new game of high-stakes fund-raising that has consumed the 23 California State University presidents since they were told in 1998 that their performances would be evaluated in part on the basis of their ability to woo individuals, corporations and foundations to give money.

Koester and her peers worked nights and weekends to set fund-raising records this year at the institutions, as Cal State trustees encouraged them to offset recession-era state budget cuts.

“I knew coming in that a big part of the job was going to be bringing in additional funds to maintain high quality educational programs,” Koester said. “But it doesn’t really feel like burning the midnight oil, because I like these kinds of activities.”

Some campuses are just realizing how a weekend dinner can lead to a new campus building.

All the presidents have made strides in the 1999-2000 academic year toward the university’s goal of funding 10% of its budget through gifts, although they have still fallen short, said Cal State spokesman Ken Swisher.

Tying money to the presidents’ evaluations--an idea introduced by former Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz--resulted in fund-raising records at 13 campuses, led by San Diego State with $163 million in external support, which includes research grants.

Munitz said he wanted to put fund-raising at the forefront of presidents’ agendas.

“It has worked very well,” said Munitz, now president of the Getty Trust.

In all, a record $882 million was raised systemwide, including grants and contracts. Of the total, $252 million came in cash and in-kind gifts. In comparison, the nine-campus University of California raised $441 million in the same period in cash and in-kind gifts.

A low score in fund-raising would not necessarily end a president’s career, but it could mean he or she would not receive a raise and it could tarnish the administrator’s overall reputation within the system, Swisher said.

Cal State San Marcos President Alexander Gonzalez became one of the first university chiefs whose evaluation took donations into account.

“His community relations, including media relations and fund-raising, are improving measurably,” read a review of Gonzalez’s work compiled in February.

With less than a decade of experience in full-on fund-raising, the presidents dared not go it alone.

When the state cut the Cal State system’s budget by $208 million from 1991 through 1994, not many staffers on the campuses were accustomed to playing the classroom-to-boardroom game. But recognizing the growing importance of private money in financing public education, the Cal State system has created 70 new fund-raising positions statewide in the last six years.

The campuses beefed up their development staffs by recruiting professional fund-raisers from established charities, such as the Jewish Home for the Aging, the California Science Center and United Way. Others rose through the academic ranks.

The pumped-up “development teams,” as fund-raisers are called, have used niche marketing and personal visits to big donors in an effort “to overcome a culture that frowned upon soliciting additional money from taxpayers,” said Ron Simons, associate vice president for development at Cal Poly Pomona.

Other area campuses overcame inexperience and self-doubt.

“We had to convince ourselves first that we are first-rate,” said Dick Tyler, acting vice president for development at Cal State Northridge. “We’ve come a long way on that, and now we are starting to convince the givers.”

Northridge on Pace to Meet Goals

Northridge’s university development team raised $7.8 million in the last academic year--13.8% more than in 1998-99--with its newfound confidence. And with four months to go in this fiscal year, the university is on track to match that total, which includes gifts from corporations, foundations and individuals but not public grants.

Though older campuses have generations of alumni they can count on for annual donations, Northridge’s first graduates are just reaching the age when many donors start considering their legacies, said Suzanne Hackett, director of major gifts. Cal State Northridge celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1999.

Bob Bersi, vice president of development at Cal State Long Beach, said fund-raising banquets, such as one held last June for the athletic program, can net $150,000 in a night. But they can cost about $200,000 to stage. A more efficient use of resources was the university’s phone-a-thon, in which students cold-called alumni last year to raise $1.1 million, he said.

But repeat gifts come during tete-a-tetes on the 18th green or at family picnics on the beach, Bersi said. Last summer, he secured a $1-million gift from Seal Beach physician Luster Hauth and his wife, Audrey.

“It’s ching-cha-ching-ching when you do a good job with personal contacts,” Bersi said.

His staff has raised $173 million in private donations since 1993, outpacing the other Los Angeles-area state universities. Cal State Los Angeles has raised $59 million, followed by Fullerton with $49 million, Northridge with $44 million and Dominguez Hills with $22 million in the same period.

Channel Islands, a new campus in Ventura County that will begin admitting students in 2002, already has set up its fund-raising arm and launched two support campaigns. The university posted only $726,857 in gifts for 1999-2000, but the total does not include a $5-million irrevocable trust pledged by Oxnard developer Martin V. “Bud” Smith to pad the endowment, a report from the chancellor’s office shows.

Campus officials have found that niche marketing attracts donors. Cal State Los Angeles worked to establish itself a few years ago as an urban cultural arts center. Donors responded with $4 million in pledges last year for construction of the Luckman Fine Arts Complex Intimate Theater Project. The cash gifts contributed to the university’s total $9.6 million in private contributions that year.

At Cal State Fullerton, the perennial baseball and softball power was denied a chance to host the regional playoffs by the NCAA because its stadium was inadequate. Supporters rallied and raised $3.5 million in nine months to expand and improve the renamed Goodwin Field. The sum helped bring the campus’ total last year to $11 million in private funds.

Only Dominguez Hills raised less money in 1999-2000 than the previous year. Alphonce Brown Jr., vice president of advancement, said the school serves one of the most diverse and poorest student bodies among the Cal State schools and has not yet launched a major capital campaign.

Of the $2.8 million raised by his campus last year, 12%, or $335,263, came from individuals--primarily alumni and parents of students--the smallest percentage for that category among the Cal State schools.

“We are learning you have to do things differently here in the South Bay,” said Brown, a former UCLA fund-raiser who joined the Dominguez Hills staff six months ago. “Finding the money is going to be more entrepreneurial. When you’re dealing with the community we have, it’s not going to come from a parents club. The students are parents and first-generation immigrants and working-class people going back to school.”

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The Rise of College Fund-Raising

The 23-campus California State University system attracted more money through private sources in the 1999-2000 fiscal year than ever before, bringing in $882 million from individuals, corporations and foundations.

Cal State 1999-2000 outside fund-raising, in millions

VOLUNTARY SUPPORT: $251.5

Other Organizations: $14.9

Corporations: $66.5

Foundations: $58.9

Other Individuals: $77.2

Parents: $4.6

Alumni: $29.3

SPECIAL REVENUE: $630.1

Endowment & other income: $37.6

Property transfers: $6.7

Grants: $272.8