Officials pleased with MU's fundraising campaign
Different accounting practices explain why other schools met their goals quicker.
Published Nov. 14, 2008
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MU's For All We Call Mizzou fundraising campaign recently reached its $1 billion goal. The drive, which lasted eight years, took longer than similar campaigns at other schools, but MU officials say different accounting procedures are to blame.
Eight years after beginning MU's fundraising campaign For All We Call Mizzou, the $1 billion goal was reached, but the pace at which other institutions met similar goals shows that MU might have been off-beat with its campaign strategies. But that's not the case, said Beth Hammock, director of Development Communication.
"Major private universities have been participating in major fundraising for decades and this is all new for MU," Hammock said. "Twenty years ago there were only gifts of $13,000 for the College of Business. There were no million-dollar gifts."
During the campaign, 138 separate gifts of at least $1 million were given to the university.
Such a large change in donations does not come without proper planning and execution, Hammock said.
During the preliminary planning stages of the campaign, MU officials consulted with Grenzebach, Glier and Associates, a national fundraising consulting firm. Under the guidance of Martin Grenzebach, Hammock said the campaign began with proper direction.
Grenzebach "has knowledge of what works and doesn't work from other institutions so we don't have to re-create the wheel," Hammock said.
With Grenzebach's help, Larry McMullen, one of the three co-chairpeople of the campaign, helped create a strategy that propelled MU into a well-oiled fundraising machine.
"We devised our own strategy which was to reach out to the broad MU alumni base and try to energize our alumni about the good things that were happening on our campus and the need for additions to our campus to make our goals come true," McMullen said.
MU passed the $1 billion mark last week, but MU initially appears slow in reaching its goal compared with other public institutions.
North Carolina State University began its campaign for $1 billion in July 2001. As of September, NC State has raised more than $1.37 billion, exceeding its goal in a shorter time span than MU's campaign.
Although that appears more efficient, Grenzebach said there are several variables to take into account before comparing fundraising campaigns.
"It's very hard to compare one to another because of differences in accounting," Grenzebach said.
Grenzebach explained some universities count their gifts differently. For example, when a family says it will donate $1 million upon their death, some universities count that money as already in their pocket, though there is no specified time when they will receive that funding. These accounting differences, Grenzebach said, are the reason some campaigns might appear more efficient than others.
Looking at another university, one might assume the University of Tennessee is poised to exceed its goal much quicker than MU. Tennessee began its campaign in 2006 and has already has raised more than $723.5 million as of June.
Again, Grenzebach said there are fundamental differences when comparing MU's campaign with TU's.
"The reason Tennessee has done better is because Tennessee raises money as a five or six campus system, and MU only has one campus," Grenzebach said. "If you want to compare MU to TU, you'd have to include Rolla, UMKC and St. Louis."
Regardless of how fast MU met its goal, Hammock said she and her colleagues are satisfied.
"We're very pleased with the success of our campaign and how fast we completed it," Hammock said.
With reaching the $1 billion mark, Hammock said she sees several essential by-products.
"There are two real lasting contributions," Hammock said. "One is the money and the other is the infrastructure in place for future fundraising."
