BGSU Fund Raising!!

[BourbonFalcon]

This doesn't have to do entirely with football, but I noticed that in a few threads the topic of fund raising had come up. The general attitude seems to be negative on how successful BG has been in courting donors and raising necessary monies for the expansion of the university and namely the athletic complexes (Sebo Center).

According to this story BG has received a record amount of gifts this year! I'm not here to say that BG has more money than other MAC schools, but we are improving. This must mean that current strategies and methods have been somewhat successful. I think the main thing we need to remember is to be patient. I feel that we've made all kinds of strides in the last few years and from the numbers given in this article, we are well on our way! Hopefully private funding will continue to climb higher!

Here is the link to the article, which was on the main site.

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/pr/news/2005/news12552.html

[BGDrew]

The problem isn't that people aren't donating. The problem most have issues with is how limited the "public" phase of the raising of funds is. Also, some don't realize you can't just expect to raise $6 million in a few months. It's pretty possible that a loan will have to be taken out this year to start construction.

[NWLB]

The Family Campaign annoys me, not because people give money, but that they have to dip into the staff's personal pocketbooks to bring in cash. Its like robbing Peter to pay Paul. If it has a positive effect, it fosters closer ties between the University and the immediate community.

A lot could be said about the centennial campaign. Not the least of which is how much of the 79.5 million "already raised" came from everything from multi-million dollar estate donations and almost any major gift we have long since known about. It isn't "new" money, and almost seems silly to even link it to the centennial campaign. Much of that was lumped into the "silent" phase either wasn’t part of the “silent” phase, or was being used to prime the pump for other donations. It's a game of double dipping for marketing reasons, so be it.

Whatever their actual intent, it has been part of a marked improvement in annual giving, which is really the most positive aspect of all of this. The centennial campaign is doing a fair bit to anchor efforts to promote giving to those that haven't, and in more distant areas were giving hasn't much tradition and such. In the end, what we are seeing is the start, but hardly either the end, or even the middle of a very long process for BGSU.

Things being what they are nationally, state-wide, and locally, BGSU will have to fight and scrap for private money indefinitely. Campaign stunts have their place. What really makes me happy is seeing the bottom dollar increase each year, if only by a few million.

[Class of 61]

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A lot could be said about the centennial campaign. Not the least of which is how much of the 79.5 million "already raised" came from everything from multi-million dollar estate donations and almost any major gift we have long since known about. It isn't "new" money, and almost seems silly to even link it to the centennial campaign. Much of that was lumped into the "silent" phase either wasn’t part of the “silent” phase, or was being used to prime the pump for other donations. It's a game of double dipping for marketing reasons, so be it.

Whatever their actual intent, it has been part of a marked improvement in annual giving, which is really the most positive aspect of all of this. The centennial campaign is doing a fair bit to anchor efforts to promote giving to those that haven't, and in more distant areas were giving hasn't much tradition and such. In the end, what we are seeing is the start, but hardly either the end, or even the middle of a very long process for BGSU.

Things being what they are nationally, state-wide, and locally, BGSU will have to fight and scrap for private money indefinitely. Campaign stunts have their place. What really makes me happy is seeing the bottom dollar increase each year, if only by a few million.

NWLB,
I personally know someone who's heavily involved in the fundraising...this person told me that BG had NEVER come close to the dollar amounts we're kicking around here... I think that BG had somewhat neglected the public fundraising as such until fairly recently, when our esteemed state legislature began to cut back even more on the amount of state aid to our university system. Of course, we didn't HAVE to make places like UT, Akron, Cincy, CSU etc. "state universities" either...but that's another argument for another time.

As to our state govt., just look at what's happening to tuition rates across the state, and you'll see what I mean. The bucks have got to come from somewhere...and right now it's almost totally out of the current students' families pockets.

[NWLB]

I'm assuming you don't mean they said the published numbers of 79 million raised aren't close to whats on the books.

I know they haven't come anyplace close to the annual numbers they are getting, which is why I think its such a great thing.

Things really seemed to catch fire after Marcia Latta was brought onboard.

[Class of 61]

I'm assuming you don't mean they said the published numbers of 79 million raised aren't close to whats on the books.

I know they haven't come anyplace close to the annual numbers they are getting, which is why I think its such a great thing.

Things really seemed to catch fire after Marcia Latta was brought onboard.

Yes, I'm saying that the numbers being tossed around ARE accurate, but that we'd never come close to any of those before...the person (my source) even said something to the effect that they'd reached their original goal, then adjusted it upward when they did that....thus, some new "record giving" numbers are being posted.... Would like to see some of our heavy hitters, besides the Sebo's, come through with some major help...have to be some of them out there somewhere. We need another MAJOR contribution ala Scott Hamilton's, to hopefully trigger some others to give more.