Under his watchful eye, the fledging effort to raise over $1
billion for the needs of the UCLA community soared to the point
where it now anticipates accruing three times that amount.
In what became the most ambitious fundraising effort the campus
has ever attempted, Campaign UCLA will also become one of the
enduring legacies of Chancellor Albert Carnesale’s tenure at
the university as he gets ready to step down from his post at the
end of the school year.
During the nine years that Carnesale will have functioned as the
head of UCLA, the fundraising initiative is likely to raise close
to $3 billion, making it the most fruitful campaign in the history
of public and private higher education.
“I didn’t ask for all that money, I didn’t do
all of that fundraising. But it’s my job to provide an
environment for which those things can happen,” Carnesale
said.
When Campaign UCLA was being forged in the mid-1990s, the
development staff said they dreamt of creating a comprehensive
campaign aimed at bringing the campus together by soliciting
donations for everything from construction projects to student
scholarships.
Campaign UCLA funds from the 2004-2005 fiscal year were
specifically earmarked for the following areas: faculty support,
student support, departmental support, capital programs and
research programs.
When Carnesale, previously the provost of Harvard, became the
eighth chancellor of UCLA, he brought with him the skills and
experience necessary for attracting donors.
His familiarity with fundraising included playing a key role in
Harvard’s own $2.1 billion campaign which was launched in
1994, one of the largest initiatives at the time. Carnesale’s
understanding regarding the importance of establishing a tradition
of alumni-giving was also needed, according to the UC Board of
Regents, which hired UCLA’s new head in 1997 in part because
of his fund-attracting skills.
Arriving at his office in Murphy Hall that year, Carnesale
walked onto the campus as Campaign UCLA was getting ready to unveil
its public phase. An initiative which began in 1995, the
fundraising effort evolved when in 1997, development staff called
for sculpting a new, more public face of donating ““ something
for which the chancellor has been given much credit for.
“You have to say he was an excellent fundraiser; the
results are really incredible for any school, let alone a public
institution. He knew when he could add value and when he did he
certainly evidenced a passion for UCLA and the mission of
UCLA,” said Bruce Willison, dean at the UCLA Anderson School
of Management.
The results included constantly raising the bar for campaign
goals.
While Campaign UCLA initially started with a goal of $1.2
billion to be raised over seven years, that bar was raised more
than a few times and the timetable lengthened.
In April 2000, Carnesale announced UCLA would set its sights for
$1.6 billion to be raised by June 2002 and in 2000, that goal was
extended to $2.4 billion for 2005. That most recent goal has
already been surpassed with over $2.8 billion having been
solicited.
“My role is to get people excited about UCLA and where
it’s headed. To be confident that it’s got a sense of
direction, that it’s worth investing in, that it’s
excellence and excellence is expensive,” Carnesale said.
One of the chancellor’s strategies for soliciting funds
included letting the deans do the talking.
“He wouldn’t say he’s raised every dollar. His
strength lies in giving the deans an opportunity to let people know
what they’re doing. … His leadership shines a spotlight on
other faculty members,” said Rhea Turteltaub, associate vice
chancellor for development.
That partnership with UCLA’s leadership led to the
campus’ single largest gift in May 2002 ““ $200 million
from entertainment mogul David Geffen for the School of
Medicine.
“It was another one of those large thinking notions. …
Instead of just asking for donations, it was the idea of looking
for someone who would be able to endow the entire medical
school,” Turteltaub said.
And so while Carnesale may not be single-handedly responsible
for many of UCLA’s donations, his grand ideas about
attracting large sums of money is part in parcel of the
school’s ability to consistently surpass its goals.
Among another of the chancellor’s big-thinking ideas was
the ongoing Ensuring Academic Excellence Initiative, a five-year
plan to raise $250 million specifically for helping to recruit and
retain the best of faculty and students.
“That was his forward-thinking idea to address the
ever-growing gap between the resources,” Turteltaub said,
referring to the lack of funds from the state needed to support the
UCLA academic community.
In terms of how the chancellor and his development staff
actually went about accruing large sums of money for the
university, a unique model and way of thinking was undertaken at
the beginning of the campaign. That is, UCLA decided it would ask
for funds as if it were a private university.
Now standard operating procedure at public universities across
the country, UCLA decided in the early 1980s that it could no
longer depend on funding from the state and so, like many private
institutions it would request much of its funding from alumni and
non-alumni alike. This notion was at the center of Campaign
UCLA.
“When I first came here about 10 years ago we received
about 21 or 22 percent of our funding from the state. Now
it’s about 15 percent. The whole point of all these
fundraising efforts, especially in the public university sector is
that we need to be able to rely on a stable source of
funding,” Turteltaub said.
With the concept of soliciting a majority of its funding from
private donors, Campaign UCLA became the umbrella name for a
campuswide initiative. It garnered funds for everything from
specific endowments, such as the construction of the new Glorya
Kaufman Hall, to the UCLA Fund, a broad pool of money used at the
chancellor’s discretion.
The chancellor, his development staff and deans throughout UCLA
brought in the donations through a wide variety of means ““
everything from hosting large-scale fundraising lunches to
Carnesale hosting small intimate dinners at his home for potential
donors, Turteltaub said.
“I’ve seen him in action. … He is very charming,
very socially gracious and very experienced,” said Tony Chan,
dean of the physical sciences about Carnesale’s role.
Yet the chancellor continues to downplay his part in Campaign
UCLA.
“My role has not been to be the super-duper fundraiser. My
role has been changing the way we do it, and I hope contributing to
people’s enthusiasm as an institution in which they want to
invest because they’re confident in it’s future,”
Carnesale said.
And while the chancellor may shy away from his role in leading
UCLA to achieving fundraising goals, he and his development staff
are also quick to note that the campus’ next chancellor will
have to do even more when it comes to soliciting funds.
“As the chancellor always says, we’re not trying to
be the best of public universities, we’re competing with the
best universities in the world, public or private.
“As he prepares to pass the baton we will need to build on
that legacy and define a vision that compels even more people to
invest,” Turteltaub said.