Independent of global warming, the climate of philanthropy
is changing in the United States. In his second year in the
job and nearly two decades in the field, Paul Sheff, vice
president for development and alumni relations, offers his
perspective on philanthropy and Holy Cross.
By Elizabeth Walker
Q: In an address to development professionals
from the Northeast, you said that the climate in philanthropy
is changing. What is driving that change?
A: In a way, everything is changing. What I tried to articulate
were some of the dynamics at the core of the change. The
first is the exponential growth in the number of people
described as wealthy. In 1982, this country had 13 billionaires.
In 1997, there were 170 billionaires, 250,000 deca-millionaires
and 4.8 million millionaires. That is a tremendous explosion
of wealth. The very existence of this wealth changes the
way we think about wealth itself and who might have the
capacity to help us at Holy Cross.
The second dynamic is the inclination exhibited by this group to make gifts that
are targeted rather than unrestricted. People have described this as the inclination
to invest, not simply to give. This group often thinks of itself as social engineers — people
who are goal-specific and who expect outcomes. It’s a very different dynamic
from what has come before.
The third dynamic, I think, is an ever-escalating importance of the role of the
large gift. The days when 80 percent of our achievement might come in from 20
percent of our constituency are behind us. Now 95 percent of our achievement
comes from a handful of people, perhaps no more than 5 percent of our population.
So it’s ever more important to know who that handful of people is. Furthermore,
in the area of higher education, as much as 60-to-70 percent of your results
will come in as gifts of a million dollars or higher.
Q: What implications does
this changing climate have for development and alumni relations efforts at
Holy Cross?
A: Two implications immediately come to mind. The first,
of course, is that it is ever more important to know
which people within the Holy Cross family have the greatest
capacity to make significant gifts — gifts which
would really, as I see it, transform Holy Cross — not
transform it into something unrecognizable to our alumni,
but transform our ability to enrich the educational mission
of the College.
The second implication is a critical need for us to
define in clear and compelling terms why gifts of this
type are being sought and the impact they will have
at Holy Cross. Remember the new philanthropist, allegedly at least, is a
person who will be very specific in his or her interests
and expect results. The days
of raising the purple and white flag up the flagpole and expecting, as a
consequence, that people will make a gift are not necessarily
with us anymore. Our audience
wants to know what we are trying to accomplish and how its gifts will affect
this.
Q: What distinct advantages and special challenges does
a private college with a religious affiliation have in
raising needed resources?
A: I think our advantage is we’ve got it right,
so to speak. By this I mean that our education includes
a religious dimension — one in which the possibility
of transcendence is not excluded. This possibility is
allowed on the table as a legitimate topic for intellectual
inquiry. If you’re in marketing, then you could
say, this is our competitive edge — a unique story
to tell — a truly unique story that is not shared
by our colleagues on the national liberal arts scene.
The challenge though is to constantly re-interpret our message, to make it
fresh for every generation of students that comes to Holy Cross. I would say
also to make sure the story is being heard outside of Holy Cross, in secular
corners, and to make it accessible.
Q: In your opinion — based on nearly two decades
in development work — why do so many alumni/ae,
parents and friends give so generously to Holy Cross?
A: At one level Holy Cross alumni, parents and friends
give for the same reason everybody else gives, namely,
because the institution makes an effort to ask them. Not
too many people volunteer philanthropy, but they will
be philanthropic if asked. We have a set of programs that
brings the asking dynamic to the front. But, of course,
that doesn’t fully describe our results or our alumni’s
degree of participation.
To see why so many people give is to examine the passion people feel for Holy
Cross, their sense of loyalty to the institution. Maybe what explains it more
than anything is their strong belief in the mission of the College. People
really seem to understand the mission. Not only do they understand it, they
buy into it. They demonstrate that buy-in on an annual basis by making gifts
to Holy Cross. If you examine institutions with high percentages of giving,
you will find these same dynamics.
Q: How do you introduce students to philanthropy — to
the habit of giving?
A: Decades ago, philanthropy was an aspect of life that,
generally speaking, parents felt an obligation to discuss
with their children. Fathers and mothers would talk to
their sons and daughters about their obligation to support
institutions important to them — schools or churches
or the social service agencies. I’m not sure that
that is part of the dynamic anymore. The responsibility
is now more school-centered.
One way we do it — introduce students to the habit of giving — is
to invite the members of the senior class to give a gift to the College on
the occasion of their commencement. Another way is to incorporate students
into the work of alumni and development. A third way is by sharing with students
that they are scholarship recipients — that they are here because of
the generosity of those who preceded them. Finally, we do it by putting up
plaques and other notifications that concert halls and classrooms were built
through the generosity of alumni/ae, parents and friends.
Q: With a new century dawning in the coming months, in
what direction are development and alumni relations headed
at Holy Cross?
A: On a fairly regular basis, institutions head into large-scale
fund drives. Surely, at some point in the future, that
will be true for us. This is still something that’s
in the talking stage, but most certainly — and sooner
rather than later — we’ll be at the point
where we’re involved in one of these campaigns.
Secondly, I would say that we are trying to expand the level of professionalism
and the level of service we bring to our work. Alumni/ae, parents and friends
of the College are, among other things, consumers of services and consumers
of information. If we are to compete in this marketplace, even with this legendary
Holy Cross loyalty, I think we have to become better at what we do.
Thirdly, the Holy Cross family is a far more diverse group than it once was.
We now have enormous numbers of women; we have people of color. Our students
come from a broad array of states, and once graduated, move into broader reaches
of our society. So our family is more complex, and the society in which our
alumni live is more complex.
How do we serve that group today? We once served it completely through our
alumni club structure and through class newsletters. While those mechanisms
still work, I’m not sure they’re going to carry the freight as
completely as they once did. So how do we put people together who might be
put together? Should people of color or women or people who share a profession
have opportunities to gather based on these affiliations? I think those are
some issues we all need to think about.
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