3. Transformational Gifts
The Role of Academic Leadership
Wm. Christopher Clarke
Sr. Assistant Vice President for
Duke University
February 2018
4. Framing Comments on
Transformational Gifts
Question 1:
At my institution “Big Ideas” are
typically generated by the:
(1) President/Provost
(2) Trustee and Board Members
(3) Academic Deans and Directors
(4) Faculty and Staff
(5) Top Donors
5.
6. Framing Comments on
Transformational Gifts
Question 2:
Assume sufficient resources to
cover your general operations,
what would be a “Transformational
Gift” for your unit?
(1) $100,000 - $1.0M
(2) $1.0M – $2.5M
(3) $2.5M – 10M
(4) $10M – 25M
(5) $25M – $50M
(6) $50M - $100M+
7.
8. • $350M Chan family's gift to School of Public
Health largest in Harvard's history
• $400M Philip Knight (Nike) gift to support
graduate and professional student
scholarships/fellowships
• $500M Philip and Penny Knight (Nike) gift to
support the Campus for the Acceleration of
Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon
• $100M Duchossois Family gift to support science
and medicine at the University of Chicago
• $500M Helen Diller Estate gift to support faculty
students and innovation at UCSF
9. • $100,000 gift to Santiago Canyon College – its
largest donation – will support technical education
for working students
• $250,000 gift to Southwest Michigan College – its
largest donation to a new nursing program project
• $250,000 gift to Winston-Salem State University
which secured a 1:1 match to create a $500k
professorship endowment
• $1M gift to Franklin-Marshall to support students
who have overcome adversity
10.
11. • ACADEMIC VISION/IDEA GENERATION LEADERSHIP
• IMPLEMENTATION LEADERSHIP
• ORGANIZATIONAL DISCIPLINE AND A DETERMINED
COMMITMENT OF RESOURCES
• CREATIVITY AND INNOVATIVE THINKING
• SPECULATIVE EFFORTS (AND YOUR EFFORTS AREN’T ALWAYS
REWARDED BUT ARE REPURPOSED!)
• A COMMITMENT TO EXTRAORDINARY STEWARDSHIP
• COLLABORATION
• TIME AND COMMITMENT TO THE LONG VIEW
12.
13. Framing Comments on
Transformational Gifts
Question 3:
My greatest challenge in securing
a Transformational Gift is:
1. Lack of convergence around
“The” Big Idea
2. No Institutional History of
delivering on Big Ideas
3. No qualified Donor Base
4. Time required to do high level
(principal gifts) fundraising
5. More pressing financial
demands
14.
15. A BIG IDEA NEEDS TO HAVE
ELEMENTS THAT:
–Excite/inspire the donor
–Address a need/achieve a goal/fulfill a
dream
–Add to the core needs of the Institution
REQUIRED ELEMENTS:
–Faculty Endowment
–Student scholarship/fellowship support
–Capital/Equipment?
–Research Funding
–The “dream” element
16. The Donor Relationship
The CEO/President/VC/Dean
The Academic Vision
The Business Model
The Extraordinary Stewardship
17. The Donor Relationship
- Depth and Multiple Points of Contact
- Unpredictable Players
- Length of Relationship
- Prospect/Donor Research
- Role of Development Leader vs. CEO
18. - Engagement in the broadest sense possible
- Manage (and control) communication flow
- Constant contact through the “friendship” model
Lessons Learned – The Donor Relationship
20. - Managing frustration
- Effort is never completely wasted
- Engaging faculty and academic leaders
- Pace matters
- Team/Organizational readiness
Lessons Learned – The Education Idea
21. The Academic Vision
- Engaging faculty and outside partners
- How to build distinct and authentic ideas
- Role of development in building/guiding these
ideas
- The skill of writing
- Selling the idea to the donor
22. The Business Model
- Our skills in building a business model
- Budget calculations and partnership with CFO
- Depth of transparency
- Institutional “carrying costs”
- Future modeling of endowment
- Communications plan
23. - Understand the business framework of the
donor
- Better prepare the academic leadership
- Engage key stakeholders – Internally/Externally
- Gift helped us reimagine what is possible
- Initial vision scaled to include the entire campus
- To date has returned 4X the initial gift
Lessons Learned from Information
Initiative at Duke Gift
