The Board of Visitors’ Advancement Committee discussed increases in undergraduate alumni fundraising engagement and technology improvements to the University's advancement operations at their meeting Thursday. The Committee also gave an overview of fundraising records for the fiscal year so far.
The Committee is responsible for overseeing the University’s fundraising, alumni outreach events and capital campaigns. Fundraising, especially, is a common topic of discussion for the Committee, and according to their meeting agenda, total commitments for the 2024 fiscal year stood at $618 billion through June 30, the second-highest fundraising year for commitments in the history of the University.
At the start of the meeting, Vice President for Advancement Mark Luellen gave an update on improvements to advancement and gift processing operations. He said the University finished last fiscal year with errors taking place on only .06 percent of 125,000 transactions of gift processing, which he said is below the best-in-class standard of 1 percent.
Luellen also said the University has made significant updates to consolidate outreach, analytics and payment processing technologies used across the advancement community. According to Luellen, the University is two years into a three year implementation of Salesforce, a customer relationship management software used to handle donations, which Luellen said should allow the University to save money by making financial processing more efficient.
“That's the side of the business that isn't always the most exciting, but it's very important to us as we think about overall relationships with donors and with the appropriate stewardship of their philanthropy,” Luellen said.
One of the fundraising campaigns that the committee oversees is the Honor the Future campaign — which was launched in 2019 to raise funds for the University’s pillars of democracy, research and education. The University surpassed the campaign’s $5 billion goal in December and totals stood at $5.3 billion as of Sept. 3.
Cindy Fredrick, senior associate vice president in the Office of Engagement, said that as the Honor the Future campaign winded down, the Office of Engagement increased efforts to get alumni to donate. She said the University set a record in the last year of 81,000 total donors, with 60 percent being alumni.
“Alumni participation goes much beyond the number,” Fredrick said. “It's a source of pride amongst our peers, and most importantly, it's an indicator of our alumni connection, involvement and love for the University.”
According to Fredrick, the University leads the way in alumni participation rates compared to other public institutions. She credited the success to the University’s creative strategic tactics and to the loyal alumni base.
One recent project that involved significant fundraising was the School of Data Science, and University President Jim Ryan concluded the meeting by thanking Scott and Beth Stevenson for their gift of $10 million to create the Stevenson Scholars program at the school. According to Ryan, the scholarships will provide students needing financial assistance with the ability to start a career in the growing field of data science.
Scott Stephenson, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumnus and founder of data analytics company SGS Capital, said putting together this program was natural for him and his wife because they knew the value of graduating from college debt free after all three of their children did. He said there is a cause and effect relationship between graduating with good financial standing and having freedom of action and movement in your career.
Stephenson also said that he and his wife believe the School of Data Science, a new program which started the last few years and whose building opened in the spring, carried great strategic value for the University, due to the field’s growth and importance in business.
“Our hope is that the methods which grow at the School of Data Science there at the corner of Emmett and Ivy find their way across the entire Grounds,” Stephnson said.
The Committee also confirmed Board of Visitors representatives to the governing boards of University-affiliated organizations, including Dr. Kenneth B. Botsford to the University of Virginia Health Foundation and W. Heywood Fralin to the Virginia Athletics Foundation.
The Advancement Committee will convene again during the December meetings of the Board.
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