Accelerating the Process
While UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes is thoroughly engrossed in the university’s ongoing $600 million fundraising campaign, the most ambitious in the school’s history, he admits to allowing himself to occasionally think about the next campaign and the bold, round-number goal that might be attached to it.
“I’m not sure, but most of the flagships, after having a $600 million or so campaign … they’ll go after $1 billion, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t set that goal given where we are and the stature we have,” Reyes told BusinessWest. “We’re developing a stronger foundation, a stronger philanthropic arm of the university, and I have no doubt that we’re building such a strong foundation that the next one will get us to those levels.”
But enough about the next campaign and that statement goal.
The current initiative, called “Accelerate: The Campaign for UMass Amherst,” is still in its middle stages, with much work still to be done. To date, more than $452 million has been raised from nearly 100,000 donors, with several “transformative” gifts that are helping the school make major strides with the campaign’s three major commitments: revolutionizing access to higher education; growing investment in cutting-edge research, teaching, and creative endeavors; and magnifying the university’s impact on the common good” (more on these later).
Overall, the campaign is aptly named, said Reyes, adding that, through the campaign and the funds it will raise, the institution will work toward accelerating a wave of momentum that has seen the university and individual schools and programs, such as the Isenberg School of Management, rise in the U.S. News & World Report rankings and increasingly become a school of choice.
“I’m not sure, but most of the flagships, after having a $600 million or so campaign … they’ll go after $1 billion, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t set that goal given where we are and the stature we have.”
Its $600 million goal makes a statement in its own right, he said, noting that this number speaks to not only how high the state’s flagship public university has risen, but also to its plans to continue on that trajectory at a time when many institutions are struggling.
And while the goal of the campaign is to raise money — for individual schools, programs, capital projects, and initiatives, as well as an endowment currently at roughly $600 million, well below other major state universities — in the course of doing so, many other goals are met, said Reyes and UMass Amherst Foundation President Arwen Duffy. At the top of this list is the opportunity to tell the university’s story to those who might not know all the recent chapters, and connecting — or reconnecting — with members of many different constituencies, including alumni, parents, foundations, the business community, and others.
Javier Reyes says the campaign is an opportunity to achieve a new level of fundraising — and a new way of connecting with alumni.
“It’s not a one-time buildup; it’s getting to a new level of philanthropy, a new level of fundraising efforts, a new level of connecting with your alumni,” Reyes said. “If you can continue gathering and really nurturing those relationships for the future, it sets the stage for future contributions.
“You also try to make sure that this is a way to bring to light great things happening at the university that many may not have noticed yet,” he went on. “When you look at your extensive alumni network, you’re able to show programs that have had tremendous success in the past years and leverage that for the future.”
Duffy agreed. “We’re trying to stay close to alumni and present opportunities for them to engage,” she noted. “And often, that engagement sparks a desire to give back in other ways. When people know what we’re up to, when they see the work that we’re doing, that often inspires investment.
“The goals set forth for this campaign are ambitious,” she went on. “But the collective power of our community makes them achievable. Alumni cherish their ties to the university, carry that pride with them, and bring inspiring energy to serving as ambassadors for UMass Amherst.”
On-the-Money Analysis
As she talked about the “Accelerate” campaign, its goals, the money raised to date, and the work still to be done to reach its lofty goal, Duffy drew an autumn analogy.
“It’s apple season right now,” she said. “And after you pick all the apples you can reach from the ground, you’ve got to figure out how to climb higher into the tree. It’s the same with a campaign like this one. The people that we already know and have relationships with, we’re talking to — we know where they are. As you work through all those known friends, you’ve got to figure out what’s higher up in the tree.”
And in the process of getting higher into the tree, the university will do more of that connecting and reconnecting mentioned earlier, and “inviting people in,” said Duffy, adding that this is one of the more intriguing, and beneficial, aspects of a campaign like this one — as is the ability to tell the university’s story to a wide range of audiences.
“When you look at this campaign, it gives you that kind of notoriety and the ability to project to the nation and the world where you are. Some of your alumni that may not already be connected will be found, will be connected, through these efforts, so with the next campaign, you will have a stronger network, a stronger base from which you can continue to nurture and build relationships.”
Reyes agreed. “When you look at this campaign, it gives you that kind of notoriety and the ability to project to the nation and the world where you are,” he said. “Some of your alumni that may not already be connected will be found, will be connected, through these efforts, so with the next campaign, you will have a stronger network, a stronger base from which you can continue to nurture and build relationships.”
“Accelerate,” as noted, is the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the school’s 161-year history. The previous campaign, called “UMass Rising,” ran from 2010 to 2016 and raised $379 million from more than 103,000 donors.
“Accelerate” officially began in 2018, said Duffy, and was really just getting started when the pandemic hit, slowing things somewhat, especially when it comes to the face-to-face discussions that are critical when it comes to securing larger, transformational gifts.
But the campaign has certainly gained some momentum, she noted, adding that it has been helped by the generational transfer of wealth to the Baby Boom generation, a larger and seemingly more energetic alumni base, and the university’s rise in stature and the rankings.
Arwen Duffy says large, transformative gifts create opportunities to connect the university’s philanthropic priorities with the specific interests of donors.
Duffy noted that, while there are several constituencies being approached for support, the alumni base is the largest and, in many ways, the most important.
There are now more than 300,000 alums, she said, and they are scattered across the country and around the world. But there are several dense pockets — Massachusetts, obviously, but also the New York City area, Washington, D.C., the West Coast, and, increasingly “warmer climates.”
Among the foundation’s challenges is finding them, keeping them informed, and engaging them in the university and its future.
Gifts That Keep Giving
As noted earlier, the campaign has three main focal points: improving access to higher education; investments in research, teaching, and creative endeavors; and magnifying impact on the “common good.” And all of these are reflected in transformative gifts from donors. These include:
• A $21.5 million naming gift from the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation to the College of Nursing, which is supporting student scholarships, an endowed professorship, the work of the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, and mentoring and research initiatives that create access and equity for nursing students from a variety of backgrounds;
• A $20 million pledge by Douglas (’71) and Diana Berthiaume to the Isenberg School of Management to create endowed faculty positions, endowed doctoral fellowships, a new behavioral research laboratory, and expanded faculty research at the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship; and
• A $10 million gift from Jerome (’60) and Linda Paros to endow the Paros Center for Atmospheric Research at UMass Amherst, a center of excellence where students and faculty conduct high-impact research projects in atmospheric sciences, distributed geophysical sensing, and hazard warning and mitigation to revolutionize the nation’s ability to forecast, plan for, and respond to climate and weather events.
The Paros Center is an example, said Duffy, of how philanthropy often provides seed money or next-stage funding — situations where donors’ interests and philanthropic priorities converge with the university’s, “and you start to get some really interesting things happening.”
Reyes agreed. “With a campaign like this, you want to elevate the institution to continue to be of national prominence, find the areas in which you already have a certain level of excellence, and strengthen them,” he explained. “When you look at what we’re doing in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, Nursing, Food Science … you find the pillars where you’re already strong and say, ‘we’re going to double down on those.’ And we need resources to bring more students into those programs, retain faculty through endowed chairs, or providing support for facilities.”
As for access, that is a huge focal point of this campaign, said Reyes, adding that, at a time when the cost of higher education continues to rise and challenge students and their families, improving access is critically important.
“One of the most important things is finding ways to make higher education affordable,” he noted, adding that, with funds raised from the campaign, the university will focus on all aspects of affordability — not simply tuition, but also the “cost of living,” as he put it, and the costs associated with undertaking an internship, such as travel and, in some cases, living in a different city of country.
Meanwhile, this campaign will place additional emphasis on reinforcing the university as a force in economic development across the state.
“When you think of community engagement, community-engaged research, reaching out to the community and being not only a partner, but a collaborator … it really is a different era for the university,” Reyes said. “And we’re going to start showcasing that as part of this campaign, since some of the resources that we’ll be able to gather from this campaign can help with that community engagement, with that outreach.”
Bottom Line
Overall, “Accelerate” comes at a pivotal moment — for the university, higher education, this region, the country, and the world. It is a critical initiative for an institution that has generated large amounts of momentum and wants to create more.
It was launched with the goal of raising $600 million, but also the larger, even more important goal of taking philanthropy at the state’s flagship university to a new level, one where the goal for the next campaign may, indeed, be $1 billion.
“Campaigns are not just about the dollars today,” Reyes said. “Campaigns are also about building the stature and the connectivity of the university such that, in the future, this support and this engagement with your alumni network and those that have a stake in the university continue to be strengthened, grown, and maintained.”
That’s what “Accelerate” is all about, and thus far, it is certainly living up to that name.
