Texas A&M’s One Spirit One Vision Campaign began in 2000 with a goal of $1 billion to be raised by the end of December 2006. At the end of December 2005, the campaign had raised approximately $1.1 billion. Here, Eddie J. Davis, president of the Texas A&M Foundation, discusses the campaign and the state of philanthropy.
Board
of Regents Chairman John White, left, and Texas A&M President
Robert M. Gates, right, celebrate the campaign's success with
Eddie J. Davis at a recent Board of Regents meeting.
Systemwide: How is the money raised in the campaign being used?
Davis: The campaign is intended to raise money primarily for endowments—specifically, chairs, professorships, fellowships and scholarships. It also has raised money for a few narrowly focused capital construction projects.
In support of President Robert M. Gates’ faculty reinvestment plan, 54 endowed faculty chairs have been established, the majority at the $1 million level and a few larger than that. Forty-nine professorships also have been created during the first six years of the campaign.
During an early period of the campaign when matching funds were available, we were successful in generating 88 fellowships, which are difficult to generate. Scholarships, both endowed and pass-through, are always popular among donors. More than $116 million has been contributed to the campaign for student scholarships.
Some of the more dramatic gifts include more than $45 million from George Mitchell ’40 in support of the physics program in the College of Science, including two buildings, an institute for fundamental physics and a building to house the Department of Physics.
Who decides how the money will be used?
Donors direct the use of the vast majority of funds raised. This is typical in most major gift fund-raising organizations like the Foundation. Members of our development staff present the needs of Texas A&M to our major donor prospects through a series of discussions and meetings that span weeks, months or even years. This type of deliberate, personal relationship building is essential to the success of our program.
With the Foundation as matchmaker, the donor and the university ultimately determine where the philanthropy is best utilized. It is important to understand that this is the point at which real stories are told.
The work of individual faculty members and the success of bright students is the ultimate result of successful fund raising. While statistics and total dollars raised are important, it is the lives that are changed that make the One Spirit One Vision Campaign so worthy.
What is the Foundation’s relationship to The Association of Former Students and 12th Man Foundation?
Texas A&M has an unusual organizational structure for fund raising. The Association of Former Students is responsible for alumni activities and management of the annual fund (unrestricted funds that are raised and used each year to support Texas A&M).
The 12th Man Foundation raises money for athletics and the Texas A&M Foundation is the endowment fund raiser for academic programs, scholarships and student activities.
Endowed funds are designed to last forever since the principal of the gift is not spent; only the earnings that are generated each year are used by the recipient. It is not unusual for institutions to have a separate fund-raising organization for athletics. It is unusual, however, to have two major fund-raising entities such as the Foundation and The Association of Former Students.
Often alumni programs are embedded in the institution or supported by the university. The Association of Former Students was created early in the history of Texas A&M, and the Foundation, which was created in 1953, was a spin-off with responsibility not only to raise major gifts but also to manage the assets. In recent years, the Foundation has begun to manage the endowment for The Association of Former Students and the 12th Man Foundation as well.
Eddie
J. Davis, president of the Texas A&M Foundation, addresses a group
of donors.
Do faculty play a role in fund raising?
Most major-gift fund raising is done person-to-person. Since individual donors are interested in what’s going on at the department and college levels of the university, the faculty plays an essential role in its ability to describe how the philanthropy will make a difference to specific programs or in the lives of students.
The more faculty we can involve and engage in fund raising, the more success we will have over the long term. It’s interesting to note that several members of the faculty also are donors.
Fund raising often is called “friend raising.” What are some of the differences in working with older versus younger alumni given Texas A&M’s tremendous growth in recent decades?
You’re correct in using “friend raising.” We work closely with our donors over many years: before, during and after they make their gift. The sheer numbers of young alumni are causing us to look at different means to reach them and we’ve begun to address them in our marketing strategy work.
We may need to add additional tools to our traditional donor-relations toolkit such as electronic media or direct mail pieces that address philanthropy from a younger perspective. No matter how we initially reach the younger donors, though, we will always depend on the personal touch to create the lifelong relationships with our donors and friends.
The Foundation recently hired a director of marketing and public relations. What is your marketing philosophy or approach?
We hired Kathy McCoy as director of marketing and public relations in great part to assess our marketing approach and develop a brand strategy and marketing philosophy.
This process will support our major gift fund-raising efforts and elevate the identity of the Foundation as it connects to the emerging donor group, i.e., younger graduates from the 1970s, the ’80s and even the 90s.
We hired a major brand consulting firm to segment our former students and identify their various interests and communication preferences. By using appropriate media to communicate a compelling message of how the Foundation can help donors help A&M, we will be more successful in building the Foundation’s identity and reputation as the home of major gift activity for Texas A&M.
Texas A&M has many corporate donors. What do you think appeals to them the most about supporting the university?
What appeals most to corporate donors is the product: quality college graduates. Many corporate donors engage in philanthropic activity with Texas A&M because they want the access and reputational advantage that comes with hiring Texas A&M graduates.
But this certainly is not their only interest. Many corporations have substantial relationships with Texas A&M faculty and are invested in the development of research and technology that will be advantageous to them.
In recent years corporate philanthropy has shifted from a philosophy of simply providing support for the public good to philanthropy that supports the strategic business plans of these corporations. Texas A&M has significant value both in its student product and also from its industry connections in agriculture, engineering, business, geosciences, science and veterinary medicine (to name a few), which are directly engaged in assisting businesses with their strategic plans.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported that 2005 was likely a record-setting year for donations despite reports of “donor fatigue” following Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters. What’s your sense of this here at Texas A&M?
That certainly seems the case at Texas A&M, as well. The total cash contributed to Texas A&M in December 2005 was a record of more than $20 million. The Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 provided attractive tax incentives for donors who made a cash contribution in 2005. We can attribute a large part of the increase in philanthropy in 2005 to this legislation. Our last fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005 was a record year for contributions to Texas A&M and the Texas A&M Foundation. It appears that 2006 could be slightly better.
As the campaign enters its final year, what’s next for the Foundation?
As you might suspect, fund raising never stops because Texas A&M always will have needs. Gifts and distribution from the endowment make up less than 5 percent of Texas A&M’s total operating budget.
As we forecast state support in future years, it is likely that the importance of philanthropy will continue to increase. Thus, we are making plans for the next campaign, which likely will begin around 2010. The next campaign will concentrate on the highest priorities that the university identifies for private capital between the end of this campaign and the beginning of the next.
Twenty-five American universities were involved in billion-dollar campaigns last year. What trends do you see on the horizon—will $2 billion campaigns be common in the next few years?
I think $2 billion campaigns are likely on the next horizon. I think we must be cautious, however, about throwing around big-dollar objectives as the fundamental criteria for success in higher education. The real stories are written in the change that occurs with each gift that is made.
During the next decade, we must focus on reenergizing the understanding of the value of higher education to the U.S. democracy. I worry that states and other public entities will continue to shift more of the burden to the students and their families as well as to philanthropists who ultimately believe in higher education.
My concern is for those who will be eliminated from the process simply because they are unable to pay or unwilling to borrow enough to gain access to the great liberating opportunities of higher education. Fund raising campaigns are part of the answer, but they certainly are not enough to meet the estimated demand in the state of Texas or across the country.
You graduated from Texas A&M in 1967. Did you have any idea when you were a student that you’d end up spending your career here as well?
Texas A&M in 1967 was such a different place. I’ve often described the difference this way: In 1967 Texas A&M was in black and white. Today it is in full Technicolor. I came back to Texas A&M after military service and graduate school—a pure act of fate.
I left once, found my way back and have been here doing a variety of things for many years. The opportunity to lead the major gift fund-raising organization for Texas A&M was not on my long list of things to do. It is, however, one of the most gratifying and rewarding jobs anyone could have. The distance between the work I do and the impact it has is short, and thus the psychic rewards are manifold. It’s hard to imagine having a job I could possibly enjoy more.
Do you get involved at all with fund raising at other system institutions?
Actually, we manage assets as well as fund raise at the Texas A&M Foundation. Several years ago we created a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Texas A&M Foundation Trust Company, to manage qualified charitable trusts for individuals and other institutions. We currently manage trust assets and other investment assets for the Tarleton Foundation, A&M-Corpus Christi and A&M-Commerce. We work closely with their investment committees and fund raisers and enjoy those relationships.