Legacy fundraising
Three presidents of Grand Valley State University work together to help the university achieve fundraising success
By
Thomas J. Haas,
President, Grand Valley State University
A history of success in shared fundraising
On April 2, 2008, I had the privilege of hosting the annual Grand Valley State University dinner that brought hundreds of students who receive scholarships together with hundreds of donors whose gifts make the scholarships possible. More than 200 privately endowed and annually funded scholarships, supported by friends, alumni, faculty and staff members, parents and organizations, distributed more than $1.2 million in the 2007-08 academic year.
That evening, I told the crowd, “These scholarships cover nearly every discipline. They reward merit and help with financial need. Others carry on the memory and values of loved ones. Many of our scholarships make the difference between a successful education and a long difficult road full of obstacles.”
I am guessing that so far nothing you've read sounds out of the ordinary. If you had been in the audience that evening, however, you'd have seen Grand Valley's three living presidents greeting students, thanking donors, and even announcing new gifts in their own names. My predecessors, Mark A. Murray and Arend (Don) Lubbers remain part of our campus community and eagerly help the university fulfill its fundraising mission. Their presence is both unusual and wonderfully helpful.
University presidents today serve an average six years, and most leave the community for new positions or new lives as retirees. Some depart happily; others less so. The result is that fundraising demands fall largely upon the new president, who, in many cases, is a face unfamiliar to donors. The result can be disruptive in development momentum.
Grand Valley's story is different. The university, which will be 50 years old in 2010, has had just four presidents.* Don Lubbers served 32 years and is now president emeritus. Mark Murray followed Don and served for five years before becoming president of Meijer, Inc., a major Midwest retailer. Both still live in Grand Rapids. I arrived in 2006 to find them associated with Grand Valley and helping with donors they themselves had cultivated. As a result, our transition in fundraising was at once smooth and successful. Critical support came from a superb development department, headed by Vice President Maribeth Wardrop, which delivered seamless staff work.
Don is Michigan's senior statesman in higher education and at the time of his retirement was the nation's longest continuously serving college president. He was a prolific fundraiser as president, and the Board of Trustees wanted him to remain engaged at Grand Valley. As the principal architect of today's Grand Valley, Don needed no persuasion. “But,” he recalls, “I didn't want my presence, in any way, to affect Mark's position as the new president. Remaining connected to donors I'd attracted to Grand Valley seemed the proper avenue.”
Mark was delighted with the arrangement. “Don was generous with his time in all sorts of ways, as a mentor, counselor, and friend. He sought only to enhance the university. We didn't miss a beat.”
While now fully occupied with the work at Meijer—a grocery and mass merchandise chain—Mark's continued involvement with Grand Valley is assured. “I am pleased to have the opportunity to assist Grand Valley,” he said recently. “I do this for two simple reasons. Most important is the very high regard I have for the work occurring at Grand Valley. Second is because the stronger Grand Valley becomes, the stronger Michigan becomes. Meijer is based in Michigan and has half its stores located in Michigan, so a stronger Michigan helps us in business.”
Continuity is key in fundraising
At this year's Scholarship Dinner, Mark and his wife Elizabeth announced a new scholarship, The Mark A. and Elizabeth C. Murray International Travel Fund, which will help our students cover the extra costs associated with international study. “I think every business is touched by international competition, every local school, every nonprofit,” Mark said. “Today's graduates must have some understanding, some engagement with the breadth of the world's interactions.”
Evidence of Don's and Mark's work is seen across the university. Saturday football games are played in Lubbers Stadium. Third- and fourth-year students reside in the Mark A. Murray Living Center. On our downtown campus, the Nancy Lubbers Gardens enhance the beauty of our signature DeVos Center. These named places and programs do more than honor past presidents and first ladies. They represent continuity—an essential feature of development. When we ask donors to join our vision for the future, they need to see value in what we have done with earlier gifts.
If success is measured by development campaigns, then Grand Valley's presidents should take a collective bow. We've never failed to reach an announced campaign goal. One example is the recently concluded $5 million dollar campaign for the John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering, which supports the university's Seymour and Esther Padnos College of Engineering and Computing. Donor Joyce Tassell Wisner typifies the continuity that is so important in development work. Joyce is president of the Tassell, Wisner & Bottrall Foundation and daughter of the late tool and die industrialist, Leslie Tassell, who was a successful supplier in the automotive parts business. Joyce's father was an early and generous benefactor to Grand Valley. Joyce and her husband Tom have followed and built on his example, with gifts in engineering and health care education. “All three of the presidents made a point of talking to me,” Joyce said.
Grand Valley also is in the closing stages of a $5 million dollar campaign for the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, a center of excellence made possible only by continuity in relationships. The university's program in philanthropic studies was an early venture between Grand Valley and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Some years after its creation, the founding president of the Council of Michigan Foundations, Dorothy A. Johnson, was nearing retirement. CMF approached Don Lubbers to gauge the university's interest in enhancing the program and naming it for Dottie. agreed. Mark later authorized the campaign for additional enhancement. And I will preside over the campaign's successful conclusion.
Placing the Johnson name on the door was another feature of continuity. Dottie was by then a member of the university's Board of Trustees and is now serving her second eight-year term; appointed by the Governor of Michigan, she succeeded her late brother-in-law, Paul Johnson, who served on the Board for 26 years. Don Lubbers' predecessor, James Zumberge, first brought the Johnson family into Grand Valley's orbit. Don sustained and expanded the relationship, joining the family to every major fundraising campaign under his watch. Mark supported Dottie's reappointment to the board; and I was attracted to Grand Valley's presidency by, among other assets, the success of this legendary relationship.
A single vision
The bridge upon which my predecessors and I stand was built by generations of engaged donors attracted to the university by skilled leaders. That bridge must now support us as we will soon begin the university's first-ever Comprehensive Campaign, a $50 million investment that will touch every corner of Grand Valley. All three Grand Valley presidents will serve on the campaign's honorary committee.
Why do we feel we can succeed at such a daunting challenge—in economically stressed Michigan, no less? My predecessors and I have a passion for this university—a place, in the words of Don Lubbers, “that is still in the process of becoming.” Our single vision, spirit of collaboration, and regular communication ensure that we speak with one voice. I marvel at Don's and Mark's selflessness, lack of ego, and commitment to serve. This shared commitment to the university and its students is elemental to our success.
What can others learn from our practice? I grant that Grand Valley's experience is not typical and may be difficult to replicate, but no campus should overlook its available legacy leaders. There may be good reasons for new presidents not to share the stage with presidents from the past. But there are myriad ways to involve legacy leaders. Presidents emeriti can fill critical niche roles that extend the power of presidential prestige in fundraising. This can be rewarding to past presidents, as retirement today no longer means playing golf and watching television. Past presidents with ties to current donors can add strength to the heavy lifting that is now expected of our higher education leadership. Wisdom, experience, and continuity are assets to be deployed in the ever-more competitive work of campus enhancement. Boards and presidents, past and present, should not hesitate to collaborate as they cross the bridge to the future.
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Vol. 2, #3