President Machen the Fundraiser
In today's Gainesville Sun an article says that fundraising is a key part of UF President Bernie Machen's contract. Specifically, the "trustees grade him on bringing in more endowments, alumni gifts, scholarships and new faculty." The article also notes that under the system that evaluates Machen's performance, "60 to 70 percent of his evaluation is tied in some way to bringing more money into the university." I was kind of surprised to see that 60 to 70 percent of Machen's evaluation was related to fundraising, but perhaps I shouldn't have been.
Also, UF has launched a "capital campaign" under which Machen is "expected to sell, and sell hard."
The article says that this December Machen will be rated on his three-year goals, and the trustees expect the campaign to have raised $300 million. Right now supposedly $205 million has been raised. In 7 years, the campaign's aim is $1.2 billion -- at least.
Would you all have thought that fundraising is such a big part of a university president's job? What do you think his pitch is when he's asking for money? (We have a great football team!) Do you think that this job requirement varies at universities depending on their size and stature?
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Machen's office on a typical day.
Also, UF has launched a "capital campaign" under which Machen is "expected to sell, and sell hard."
The article says that this December Machen will be rated on his three-year goals, and the trustees expect the campaign to have raised $300 million. Right now supposedly $205 million has been raised. In 7 years, the campaign's aim is $1.2 billion -- at least.
Would you all have thought that fundraising is such a big part of a university president's job? What do you think his pitch is when he's asking for money? (We have a great football team!) Do you think that this job requirement varies at universities depending on their size and stature?
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Machen's office on a typical day.
posted by Anonymous @ 1:28 PM
4 Comments:
At 7:38 PM, September 10, 2006,
Giselle said…
This actually isn't surprising to me in the least. I would imagine that in looking at Dr. Machen's day-to-day activities, the majority deal with fundraising (and consequently public relations) as opposed to other "president of the university" duties, whatever those might actually be. He's the figurehead for a large, well-known university with very vocal alumni, and it's his job to help make them happy so that in turn, they'll donate to this astronomical capital campaign.
Speaking of, does anyone know what the goals of the campaign are? All I've heard is that UF is conducting a billion dollar capital campaign, but there's no mentions of what this billion dollars (I feel like Dr. Evil every time I say billion, so insane is that number to me) will actually do for the university. One has to wonder if perhaps this is part of Dr. Machen's push to become a Top 10 university, which might include the "prestige" of achieving a billion dollar goal (yup, I'm a cynic). Maybe the goals haven't been publicly articulated yet because I believe (Richard, correct me if I'm wrong) the campaign is still in the "quiet phase." However, I'd love to hear any insight anyone has on this topic.
At 10:31 PM, September 10, 2006,
Richard said…
I've had my concerns and doubts about this capital campaign for some time.
The College of Journalism's goal is to bring in roughly 85$ million for the campaign--for us, the money would be used to update computer labs and the TV/radio stations.
If the information in the article is correct, then Machen may not receive such glowing reviews come December. Still $95 million short of the $300 million targeted.
The silent phase of the capital campaign generally lasts until about 33%-40% of the campaign's total is raised. We're still far below that point, yet I thought UF announced it this summer. (Though I may be wrong in that!)
Throughout the summer, the UF Foundation had several key people in different colleges on campus resign. It really makes you wonder if this campaign has been thought through.
The push behind it is to be that top 10 school, but let's face it, who exactly are we going to be knocking out of that list? If UF raised more money to spend on improving campus conditions and not on the Gator Nation campaign, then maybe that would help.
But then again, they didn't ask for my opinion...
At 12:09 PM, September 11, 2006,
Richard said…
Just as a side comment, the Deans of the various colleges spend a considerable amount of their time involved in fundraising as well.
Our newly departed dean spent nearly 2/3 of her time involved in relationship cultivation and solicitations with donors.
At 5:11 PM, September 11, 2006,
Evelyn said…
I am not surprised either by Dr. Machen’s responsibilities to do some fundraising efforts for this university. I think that his annual (base) salary of $404,000 justifies a variety of activities for him to do develop.
Fundraising in an education institution such as UF has an enormous potential to be successful (as I understand it is). The university has so many “causes” to reach its diverse potential donors. I would like to throw some ideas for the UF fundraising department and for Dr. Machen. I think that the department can concentrate its efforts in reaching the sports fans that we are all familiar with (football, basketball, soccer, etc). They can also do fundraising activities for patients that have been saved in the vet hospital or in Shands hospital. I can speak for myself about this, since when I first I arrived to Gainesville (I had a month here in the US) and I got very sick and Shands hospital and its competent personnel practically saved me from getting a peritonitis. So I think the experience with Shands could make me a potential donor since that will be a way for me to thank them. I think that also arts could be a potential area for people to donate. The fundraising department can also focus on students work and the need to attract more funds for materials to use in class or to donate them to low income students.
These are some of the many ways that Dr. Machen can use for his “capital campaign”
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