Hoping for donors, YSU targets alumni

The university picked up 800 new donors last year, most of them alumni.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University is making a concerted effort to expand its base of philanthropic contributors, and graduates are a key group the university is determined to reach.
There has already been some early success, said Dr. George McCloud, special assistant to the president for development and public relations.
The university's Annual Fund campaign picked up 800 new donors last fiscal year, most of them YSU alumni, McCloud said.
A telemarketing program targeting alumni helped the effort and the number was higher than anticipated, McCloud said, adding the goal is to attract at least as many new donors this year.
Annual Fund contributions totaled $602,482 last year, coming from a total of 3,573 donors.
Only about 6 percent of about 70,000 reachable alumni -- those for whom the university has addresses -- give to the university.
That's on the lower side for institutions like YSU, McCloud said, noting that reaching a 12-15 percent mark would be considered quite good.
Reaching out
This is the first time the university has made a decision to reach out to alumni to show them they are an important part of the ongoing university, he said.
People give to things they believe in and care about, and it's the job of the development division and related departments to help develop that support among the alumni, he said.
The obvious immediate goal is to raise some money, but the long-term target is creating a broader base of support needed to carry the university into the future, McCloud said.
"The business of raising private money is no longer optional," he said, pointing out that the state of Ohio was underwriting YSU's annual budget to the tune of 53 percent when he came to the university just eight years ago.
This year, state participation has dropped to 33 percent, he said.
It's a basic change in the economics of higher education, he said.
The budget make-up
Student tuition makes up 65 percent of the budget, and the rest must come from various other sources, including philanthropic donations.
The work done by the development division is increasingly important to the university's continued forward momentum, and that's why the division is gearing up, McCloud said.
A study done of other similar institutions showed they were raising an average of $6.9 million in all campaigns in fiscal 2004. Youngstown State raised $6.1 million, McCloud said.
However, the average development staff among those other institutions was 15.3, while YSU had only five.
A national consultant recommended that the university hire 16 more people, but YSU settled on three additional staff and set a very ambitious fund-raising goal for its Annual Fund, major gifts and planned gifts campaigns this fiscal year, planning to raise a total of $10 million, McCloud said.
Donors decide where their money will go, though the university offers a wide range of possibilities for using the funds, he said.
There is already at least one big-ticket item on the horizon, a proposed new Williamson College of Business Administration building.
Plans haven't been drawn for the facility yet, but it's a project that Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, said he intends to have built with private funding, just as YSU built a new $12.1 million student recreation and wellness center, which opened last month.
That type of development requires leadership from the top, and Sweet has provided it, McCloud said, pointing out that the president spearheaded the fund raising for the recreation center.
Expanding the base
Such campaigns rely on the generosity of the university's friends, but you can't keep going back to the same people, McCloud said, stressing the need to expand the philanthropic base, particularly among alumni.
Alumni giving is very important, but contact with alumni is also about building identity, and there is a need for YSU to develop and sustain that too, he said.
gwin@vindy.com