With the ongoing state budget crisis proving that state funding for higher education is unpredictable, University officials are committed to finding ways to make the University more self-sufficient. While some schools within the University, especially Law and Darden, are well on their way to supporting themselves through tuition and private donations, other schools and programs perennially land at the mercy of the state budget rollercoaster. Such schools, in particular, have set high goals for increasing fundraising in an effort to get off that bumpy ride.
Private support for the University has taken off in the past decade. Nonetheless, development officials still say they want to increase the proportion of University alumni who give back. They also would like to convince donors to give to traditionally underfunded areas and schools at the University.
Since President John T. Casteen III took office in 1990, private gifts to the University have increased several-fold. The University raised $51 million in 1992, the first year of a major capital campaign. It has seen steady growth in fundraising since, and last year, the University raked in an all-time high of $255 million.
Fundraising has grown significantly for every school and division within the University in the last several years, said Bob Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs for the University.
Two different state budget crises and corresponding bouts of budget cuts -- the first wave coming in 1990-1991 and the second ongoing since last year -- convinced officials that the University needed to wean itself from state support.
"Our only opportunity to achieve our aspirations as one of the truly important American institutions of the next century is going to be through philanthropy," Sweeney said.
The University receives much less money from the state per student than it did 12 years ago: about $8,500 projected for 2003-2004, compared to $16,600 in 1990-1991, corrected for inflation. Both numbers are in 2002-2003 dollars.
Sweeney said he wants to see the University operate under a "private [university] philanthropy model," meaning more money, from more alumni.
Currently, the University ranks near the top among public universities in the percentage of undergraduate alumni and parents who give back, at around 29 percent. But the University ranks around the middle when compared to private universities, Sweeney said.
However, the percentage of alumni donating hasn't increased much in the last decade, he said. Instead, the growth in fundraising has come mainly from better success in securing large gifts.
Strings Attached
Most who give to the University don't just give to the University at large: they specify a school, department, or other unit which they want their gift to benefit.
"If you're an alum of the College, you might give to the library, athletics, the College, the Alumni Association or 20 other places on Grounds," said Tom Jennings, associate dean for development of the College.
Between 8 and 9 percent of all private donation dollars go toward athletics, Sweeney said.
He added he would like to see donors give "unrestricted" donations to a specific school or even to the University as a whole, but recognizes that is unlikely in most cases.
"Nationally, donors are much more likely to designate than they used to be because they believe it gives them assurance the money will get results," he said.
Spreading the Wealth
Some of the schools most dependent on state funds -- and, therefore, the ones hardest hit by ongoing budget cuts -- lag behind in alumni giving.
The College and the Nursing, Architecture and Education Schools are suffering the most because of the budget slashing, Sweeney said. In contrast, the Law and Darden Schools are virtually self-sufficient, and the Commerce, Medical and Engineering Schools all fall somewhere in between.
The College raised more money than any other unit of the University except the Health System in 2002, Jennings said. But it also is by far the largest school and one of the more dependent on state funding.
Although many College alumni may have given to other parts of the University (for instance, most donors to the Virginia Student Aid Foundation were College alumni, said Jayne Riew, assistant director of development for the Architecture School), only 11 percent gave directly to the College last year, Jennings said.
Contrast that with 43 percent of Law School grads who gave back to the Law School or 19 percent of Architecture alumni who gave back to the Architecture School.
The alumni population with the lowest rate of giving may be those holding graduate degrees from the College, Sweeney said, while those graduating from professional schools have the highest.
"Those are all very natural phenomena present in almost every university," he said.
Many College alumni give to the University as a whole or earmark their donations for buildings, said Arts and Sciences Council President Elizabeth Huff, who sits on the College Giving Committee.
"If you're in the College, it's so big you don't think to give there," Huff said.
Jennings said his job is to "put people in touch with their best instincts about U.Va." That may involve connecting them with the academic departments in which they majored, he said.
"It's important for people to know that without their donations, academic programs don't run," Huff said.
Sweeney said the College has had much more success in recent years in convincing dual degree holders -- alumni who hold undergraduate degrees from the College and graduate degrees from professional schools-- to give to the College.
"The College really didn't emerge as a fundraising power until the mid-1990s," Sweeney said.
Still, the College doesn't often get the kind of "mega-gifts," or $10 to $25 million donations, that the Law and Darden Schools occasionally have raked in from patrons such as David A. Harrison III, Jennings said.
Casteen has ordered the Law and Darden Schools to contribute money to the rest of the University, Sweeney said. Meanwhile, other schools will try to woo donors by demonstrating the gaps in their budgets created by state cuts.
"We're plugging holes," Riew said.
Leaving an Immediate Legacy
Development officials recently have focused on targeting a population of alumni who are underrepresented in giving: young alums.
The Young Alumni Council created a program this past year called MYDCAV, short for My Yearly Dollars Count At Virginia, which seeks to recruit young alumni who may not be able to give large amounts of money. University alumnus and New York Giants running back Tiki Barber is the spokesman for the program, and has appeared on the big screen at Scott Stadium before home football games this year urging young alumni to give to the University, even if only $25.
The program has been "very successful," Alumni Association Director Jack Snyder said.
The Young Alumni Council is a part of the Alumni Association, which raises money for the Jefferson Scholars program as well as various endowed scholarships and other projects. It also supports the efforts of the fourth-year class trustees and the Class Giving program, which seeks to convince every fourth-year student to make some financial donation before graduation in the spring.
Alumni's willingness to give depends upon an awareness of the University's needs, as well as a sense of pride in the University and the memory of a positive academic and social experience here, Snyder said.
"At the end of the day, it takes making the case, telling the story, and that's often done best face-to-face," he said.
Sweeney sounded an optimistic note when looking toward coming years.
"If any public university can come up with this new model of a privately financed or self-sufficient institution, it's this one," he said.
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