FUNDING

 In a resource-scarce environment, university presidents have long worn fundraising hats in addition to their more traditional leadership roles. Now the next level of academic leadership at UND and elsewhere — the vice presidents and deans — are finding that resource acquisition is built into their job descriptions as well.

  The pattern these days is for universities to broaden their search for gifts from their traditional reliance upon alumni, says Bruce W. Flessner, senior partner with the development consulting firm of Bentz Whaley Flessner. Only about 30 percent of private gifts and grants to higher education now come from that source. Individuals other than alumni, plus foundations and corporations, largely make up the difference.

  Flessner recently completed a three-session training program on the nuances of fundraising for the deans and key staff.

  The training program — together with a commitment to further strengthen an already excellent working relationship with the UND Alumni Association and Foundation — is part of a three-year initiative begun this fall by President Charles Kupchella. Expanding private fundraising has become so vital for the future of UND, he says, that it will figure as one of a half-dozen most important strategic action areas in UND’s new Strategic Plan now being finalized.

  Not that Kupchella has given up on convincing the state to invest more tax dollars in UND.

A capital campaign coordinated by the UND Foundation for the College of Business and Public Administration is nearing its $20 million goal, thanks to the generosity of alumni like Greg and Cindy Page. Their $250,000 gift is already impacting students, making possible the state-of-the-art Page Family Marketing Center recently dedicated in Gamble Hall. The facility enables students to gain hands-on experience with the kind of sophisticated market research that drives business today. The Pages are alumni of the College (Greg in 1973 and Cindy in 1975). A member of the Alumni Association and Foundation board of directors, Greg is president and chief operating officer of Cargill, Inc.

  Although legislative appropriations to higher education declined 1.5 percent for the current biennium, he is convinced the lawmakers will seriously consider fully implementing the Higher Education Roundtable’s long-term financing plan for the state’s colleges and universities.

  That plan calls for increases over several biennia both of tuition paid by students and of general fund dollars provided by the state. Each North Dakota college and university is being compared with a group of national peers, selected for their similarities in size and mission. Looked at are North Dakota’s per-student investment from state dollars and tuition in the “core” costs of each institution. The goal: reaching 85 percent of the average of the peer group by the end of the 2007-2009 biennium and 95 percent of the average by 2015.

  Besides this legislative agenda and the newly increased focus on philanthropy, UND is exploring other revenue sources, Kupchella said. These will include pursuing more grants for research, capitalizing on the intellectual property discovered at UND in collaboration with the private sector, and creating new partnerships to develop revenue-producing ventures in the University Village (see NEWS).
UND’s academic leadership must play a role in much of this, he says. Major individual donors, especially, must be convinced of the underlying quality and of the enormous potential for the future represented by UND. This one-on-one solicitation is best done by those who know it best, says consultant Flessner: the president and the deans.

  The President’s Office has committed to three years of new funding to build fundraising infrastructure in the colleges and schools. The deans applied for funding totaling $334,300, and agreed to attend the Flessner training series and collaborate closely with the UND Alumni Association and Foundation, one of the most successful organizations of its kind in the region.

  Receiving the funding were Deans Bruce Dearden of Arts and Sciences, Dennis Elbert of Business and Public Administration (already well along on a $20 million capital campaign), Dan Rice of Education and Human Development, John Watson of Engineering and Mines, Paul LeBel of Law, and Helen Melland of Nursing. Most are bringing on board development officers to coordinate with the UND Foundation, or using the funding to free up more of the dean’s time for personal solicitation of gifts.

  Both H. David Wilson, dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Bruce Smith, dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, have already created the infrastructure for capital campaigning. The Medical School will observe its 100th anniversary in 2005.