With less than three years to go in the Campaign for Academic Enrichment, at least nine projects still to be completed and an economy inhospitable to fundraising, the development office - the University's fund-raising arm - has its work cut out. But it is hoping that a select handful of individuals could make paying for all that a lot easier.
The development office is in talks with a number of prospective benefactors, hoping to find "single-donor solutions" to a number of the University's biggest planned endeavors, said Ronald Vanden- Dorpel MA'72, senior vice president for University advancement. Those projects include the Walk, the already-underway greensward that will connect Lincoln Field to the Pembroke campus; the renovation of J. Walter Wilson Laboratory; and an 80,000-square-foot building to consolidate the cognitive and linguistic sciences, psychology and brain science programs, he said.
For each of the projects still on the agenda, the University's planners have set a fundraising goal - a fraction of the project's total cost that they hope gifts will supply. (Most of the remainder is financed by taking out loans, to be paid back over many years.) But with the right strategy and a little bit of luck, the University could find one donor to provide most or even all of that fundraising goal.
"The best strategy, if you can do it," Vanden Dorpel said, "is to find one donor to do it."
"Plan B is usually to get a bunch of large gifts," he added.
To provide an incentive for prospective donors, he said, the University offers a "naming opportunity" for the building in exchange for a gift of at least one half the cost of the project.
The University has been "talking very seriously" with a donor who was considering making a $10 million gift for the Walk, Vanden Dorpel said at a briefing for Herald reporters in November. That donor, he said Thursday, "has deferred a decision" because of the state of the economy.
The University is also "going to try a single-donor solution" for the conversion of the J. Walter Wilson Laboratory into office space for student services. That would require a gift of $10 to $15 million, Vanden Dorpel said.
He cautioned, however, that "there are a lot of issues that are going to be discussed" at the Corporation's meeting this weekend.
The University is also expected to look for a single donor to fund the new sciences building, which it has temporarily named the "Mind Brain Behavior Building." That project, to be built on the south side of Angell Street along the Walk, will cost $69 million, with a fundraising goal of $35 million.
"If we're successful, we'll get it all from one donor," Vanden Dorpel said in November.
Finding a single donor, aside from being easier than luring many small donors, "allows us to plan ... execute and expedite projects," said Neil Steinberg '75, vice president of development and the capital campaign's director. He added, however, that the University was "reaching out to donors of all sizes" and that it was "very important for Brown that this campaign be very inclusive."
Inclusive or not, beyond those three projects, the University will need to pull in millions more for the other projects on its agenda.
In addition to the three projects for which it hopes to find single-donor solutions, there are still the matters of a new pool to replace the doomed Smith Swim Center, new construction for the Nelson Fitness Center and Creative Arts Center and the renovations of Faunce House, Pembroke Hall, Pembroke Field, Rhode Island Hall and some residence halls.
A major operation
Bringing in the cash to fuel this growth is a large, complex development outfit unknown to most Brown students.
Located in an alluring, historic stone building that was once a machine shop in the city's bustling Jewelry District, the development office has about 200 employees in this 160-year-old converted mill - though the staff is still the smallest in the Ivy League, Vanden Dorpel pointed out.
"We do so many different fundraising techniques," said Director of Prospect Development Elizabeth Crabtree, who leads a staff of about 10 people that works full-time to keep tabs on Brown alums worldwide. "It's a sophisticated fundraising operation over here."
Crabtree said she and her staff spend much of their time reading and trolling the Internet and news media around the world to find out what Brown alums are up to.
"A big part of the work of my department is to identify and prioritize people to the gift officers," she said.
These gift officers then work to cultivate relationships with prospective donors - sending materials about the campaign, making phone calls and, in the case of donors with large "capacity," even making personal visits.
According to Vanden Dorpel, the office takes its cues from a fundraising strategy he said he admires, one laid out by a Harvard endowment manager named Harold Seymour almost 50 years ago.
Seymour outlined four key steps to successfully courting donors, described by Vanden Dorpel as the four I's - identification, interest, involvement and investment - steps he believed were key to bringing in money to a nonprofit organization from donors who, he argued, sought a personal connection.
"He put forth the concepts of this business that are pretty much still in use today," Vanden Dorpel said. "We know a lot about our donors."
The notion of the single-donor solution is nothing new to Brown. From the very old - Hope College and Manning Hall, made possible by the Brown family - to the very new - the Friedman Study Center, made possible by Susan Pilch Friedman '77 P'08 and Richard Friedman '79 P'08, buildings have often been the result of individuals carrying the bulk of the financial load.
The Salomon Center, Sayles Hall and Faunce House were all single-donor solutions as well.
To convince donors that their gift is in line with their philanthropic interests, the University must assure them that the gift will be transformative, Steinberg said. "The Academic Enrichment blueprint is the first thing that we talk to them about," he said. They then work to show a donor how their gift would concretely benefit the University and fit in with that plan.
"In some cases, it's the president's vision for what we're doing and where we're going," he added.
But, Crabtree said, "philanthropy is a very personal decision."
