Brown University is leaving the preliminary stages of its new fundraising campaign considerably richer than when it started.
So far, Brown has raised $575 million toward its goal of $1.4 billion. That means that during the effort's "quiet phase" -- which has lasted for the past two years and was just wrapped up with the formal announcement of the campaign -- the university has already surpassed the yield of its last campaign, which lasted from 1991 to 1996.
Ronald Vanden Dorpel, Brown's senior vice president for university advancement, said that planners felt they could set a target that is nearly triple what their previous campaign produced in part because of confidence in their "strong strategic plan" for the university.
"We first and foremost looked at what our needs were, and then we did a feasibility study," Vanden Dorpel said. "We decided this would be a stretch goal for us."
The ultimate goal of this campaign is to increase the standard number of donations the university receives, even after it ends in 2010. The university has typically brought in $85 to $100 million in years past.
"Campaigns are about raising the plateau," Vanden Dorpel said. This campaign is "going to get us up well over the $100 million-dollar range."
A key portion of Brown's total was provided by alumnus Sidney Frank, the creator of Grey Goose Vodka, who gave $125 million.
Vanden Dorpel said that Frank's gift was unanticipated by the planners.
"Normally a gift of that size doesn't come along until later in the campaign," Vanden Dorpel said.
Brown is entering the public phase of its campaign at a time when many other universities are either planning or in the midst of major campaigns. Dartmouth, for instance, is hoping to raise $1.3 billion dollars in its current campaign.
John Zeller, Penn's vice president for development and alumni relations, said that all the Ivy League universities, including Penn, are "in various phases of campaign planning."
At any given time, "most institutions in the U.S. are actively in a campaign or actively planning," said Zeller. "I don't think any institution will ever be able to" stop thinking ahead to the next campaign.
Penn is currently in the quiet phase of its next campaign and plans to start the public phase in the fall of 2007. The University's last campaign ended in 1994.
"We're looking at priorities below the Penn Compact," Zeller said, referencing President Amy Gutmann's three-pronged plan for improving the University. "The goal is still being refined."
Penn has proven its fundraising prowess recently. The school ranked third after Stanford and Harvard universities in the group of Penn and its peers, Ivy and otherwise, in total cash receipts last year.
This, along with the institution's large size, suggests that Penn will set its sights higher than Brown has. Zeller expects Penn's goal to be in the multibillion-dollar range.
Zeller emphasized that a successful campaign is about "more than putting up a big number."
A campaign "gives a context by which to pull together large groups of people connected to the University," Zeller said. "They basically stretch the institution and those who want to support it to a new level."
