‘Limited Windows’
Even schools with larger enrollments but less prolific fundraising than their Ivy League peers are benefiting. Within the past year, Iowa State University received two gifts totaling $195 million and the University of California, Irvine, hauled in $200 million for its college of health sciences.
“Anybody can play at this level,” said Scott Nichols, senior vice president of development at Boston University, which recently announced a record $115 million donation, most of it to support research. “If you look at almost any institution, at the top of the prospect list are people – a few people – who can do this kind of stuff.”
Robert Weissman, who gave $36.3 million to his alma mater Babson College in Massachusetts and has helped lead fundraising for the school, said there are “limited windows” for soliciting donors.
“The smart finance committee and administration of any college should be looking at, is now the time to ask?” said Weissman, co-founder of Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. “If you thought that the market was high or at least higher than it’s been for some time and that your donors have not been touched with a specific program asking for money or some other commitment, now’s a pretty good time.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.