Compile a list of the most prestigious American universities, and you'll quickly find they have two things in common: great faculty and plenty of money. While FIU continues to attract top-rate professors in nearly every field, its pockets have never been deep. Funds for things like state-of-the-art facilities, research centers and institutes, and academic-program enrichment plays an important role in creating a first-class institution. This is the story of how FIU is securing the resources to make it happen.

In the fall of 1993, a small group of highly driven individuals set a course for dramatic, far-reaching changes at Florida International University. Armed with a 19-page plan that one of them recalls as a manifesto of sorts, this "gang of four" earnestly made a case for an all-out fund-raising drive on behalf of FIU. As members of University Advancement's development office - the school's fund-raising arm - they had undertaken months of research to assess the feasibility of a capital campaign. FIU President Modesto A. Maidique and the FIU Foundation Board of Trustees eventually gave their blessing to what seemed like a respectable and challenging goal of $50 million. The players began a period of intense strategizing and in February 1996, touting $30.25 million collected during the "silent phase" of the campaign (a standard fund-raising approach), publicly announced The Campaign for FIU and a revised target of $65 million.

Early last year, still almost two years shy of the original December 1999 campaign closing date, Advancement was faced with a welcome reality: The campaign had not only reached the $65 million mark - its totals had leaped to more than double that, with every indication of more gifts to come.

Paul Gallagher, then vice president for University Advancement and leader of the fund-raising pack, met with President Maidique to discuss the pros and cons of extending the campaign. Although its success to date had greatly exceeded expectations, a few component goals, such as raising the balance of a $10 million goal for an art museum building, had yet to be achieved. While the overall numbers were impressive, one donation in particular - the $75 million Wolfsonian Museum on Miami Beach, the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the State University System of Florida - accounted for more than half of the bottom line. Additionally, the promise of positive responses to gift proposals already in the works and the emergence of new needs in the recently established School of Architecture and other areas convinced Gallagher and the president to ride the momentum.

"To do otherwise would have undercut our ability to quickly address the diverse needs of our expanding university," Gallagher says. "So much has changed since we started planning the original campaign. With FIU growing at breakneck speed, we had to adjust our aims and objectives to keep up." Gallagher met with his development officers, the individuals charged with making contacts and bringing in the money, to talk about officially setting their sights higher. Two hundred million was the number to consider. Could they raise $60 million more to reach that goal by the close of 2002?

"I basically asked them if they had the energy to go the extra distance," Gallagher recalls. "Of course, I had no doubt they'd answer `yes.' After all, these are some of the most motivated people in the world."

Private funds helped complete the Roz
and Cal Kovens Conference Center.

Still, finding the additional commitments would be no breeze. A series of planning meetings and an out-of-town retreat, which included Advancement's support and operations staff as well as members of the Office of Alumni Affairs, helped the group prepare for the next phase.

The need for a capital campaign

FIU embarked on a capital campaign because it needs the money to fund the excellence to which it aspires. Tuition, among the lowest in the country, covers only a small percentage of the University's expenses. State funding pays for operating costs - such things as salaries, electricity and building maintenance - but not "luxuries" like endowed chairs, research professorships, student scholarships, campus museums and more.

Despite its position as one of the nation's top-ten states in terms of overall economic growth, Florida is in the bottom five in per capita allocations for higher education. Prior to the mid-1980s, the legislature set aside between 11 and 14 percent of the general revenue per year for its public universities. State funding plummeted to a low of less than six percent in the early '90s, and it is now approximately seven-and-a-half percent, explains Dennis Ross, chairman of the Board of Regents, the State University System's governing body.

"The universities must be more entrepreneurial," says Ross, who encourages partnerships with businesses and the seeking of grants from public and private sources. He believes that capital campaigns projects could well become a way of life on Florida's public campuses and stresses to administrators that an appreciable increase in state monies does not appear forthcoming. "Any other mind set would not be productive for the universities," he states.

Cutting into that small pie of available public funds are private colleges and universities. Many receive state dollars for specific programs (such as the University of Miami's medical school) not duplicated at local public institutions.

The Ryder Business Building recognizes
the first multi-million-dollar donor to the campaign.

At FIU, in particular, state appropriations per student, when adjusted for inflation, have declined by more than 40 percent at the very time that enrollment has jumped by more than 75 percent. While separate, additional state revenue sources have made possible new construction on both the University Park and North campuses, these too remain inadequate in light of the university's phenomenal growth.

The nine other schools in the State University System have also felt the pinch. Currently, at least three are in the midst of their own capital campaigns. "We, at every opportunity, talk about the fact that here at USF we get less than 50 percent of our budget from the state," says Vicki Mitchell, associate vice president for Development at the University of South Florida, currently in a $220 million campaign. "Public higher education is no longer, if it ever was, solely the responsibility of the public coffers," she says, adding that her office is always in a campaign, be it one with a formally announced target or an internal goal.

Pierre Allaire, vice president for Institutional Advancement at the University of North Florida, where the groundwork for a future campaign has been laid, says that local businesses and individuals want to do their part in the face of dwindling public support. "The community contributes to building the university because that's good for the community," he explains.

The state has provided its universities with a juicy incentive to raise private dollars: state-matching funds. Depending upon the size and nature of the gift, the Board of Regents has made available additional monies that increase, sometimes by as much as twice, the value of the donor's original contribution. Highly effective in helping to turn potential donors into major contributors, the Trust Fund for Major Gifts program has meant a respectable $233 million to the state universities over the past 18 years for endowments. (A separate program has matched gifts for building renovation and construction.) The program, however, may soon undergo significant changes, a victim of the universities' collective fund-raising success. At press time, the Regents were considering changes to the program that might reduce payout percentages or establish caps, all in efforts to keep the program solvent.

Major hurdles

When The Campaign for FIU started, it faced a combination of potentially defeating obstacles. Several surfaced during Advancement's initial research and planning stage.

Not least was the economic drain of Hurricane Andrew's August 1992 landfall on the community. South Florida's transient population also presented a possible fund-raising barrier. As recently noted in a cover story on philanthropy in Florida Trend magazine, business executives and retirees who move here from other parts of the country often hold allegiances elsewhere that call upon their bank accounts, limiting what they can give locally. South Florida's dearth of Fortune 500 headquarters didn't help either.

The Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center
acknowledges the couple's support of the performing arts
and the School of Music.

Internally, the University claimed a relatively small and young alumni base. With fewer than 60,000 graduates at the time - the majority of whom had been out of college less than 10 years - the university lacked a solid, home-grown source of potential gifts. To be sure, a small percentage of alums had pledged support by contributing to annual appeals. The level of alumni financial backing needed to make a significant overall impact, however, won't exist until sometime around 2020, when half of today's alumni reach their 60s. Only at that age do many people feel financially comfortable enough to begin making contributions in the four-figure and higher range.

Finally, although FIU had continued to gain national recognition as an affordable, comprehensive university with several highly regarded programs and centers, it lacked the kind of prominence that guarantees big-money gifts. As a young institution, albeit it one with an already impressive record, FIU could take nothing for granted as it began its multi-million-dollar push.

"We didn't have many of the advantages that older, well-known universities count on to pull in contributions," Gallagher says. "In many ways, things seemed stacked against us. Typically, though, we overlooked the negatives and concentrated on the positives."

Big successes

Despite the laundry list of possible problems, The Campaign for FIU took off running. With a staff of just five development officers, vice president Gallagher and his then associate vice president/campaign director, Dale Chapman Webb, undertook their ambitious plan.

"We were young and gutsy with a lot to learn," remembers Webb, who in November took Gallagher's place as vice president of University Advancement. "We turned our youth and enthusiasm into our greatest assets and got on track quickly. It also helped that we were selling an attractive and very worthwhile product, namely, FIU."

Among the first major successes of the campaign was a $2.04 million pledge from Ryder System, Inc. to establish the Ryder Center for Logistics in the College of Business Administration. The size of the gift - considered a "lead" gift because it helps bring in others - represented a major breakthrough for Advancement and the University.

"Ryder had confidence in FIU early on," said Dwight Denny, executive vice president for Miami-based Ryder and a member of the FIU Foundation board. "Ryder is proud to have been one of the early significant donors to the campaign. If the Ryder gift had the effect of priming the pump and leading to the flow of other gifts, then I am especially pleased."

The gift led, in short order, to a pledge for the same amount from Knight Ridder, parent company of The Miami Herald, to establish the Knight Ridder Center for Excellence in Management, also in the College of Business Administration. Magnifying the impact of these two important commitments was the state-matching program; they qualified for a 100 percent match, doubling their value.

Other major contributions would soon follow. President Maidique helped clinch the largest gifts by meeting with potential donors whom the development officers had already familiarized with FIU and its needs. The provost, deans and several key faculty also lent their assistance, as did members of the FIU Foundation Board of Trustees. That cooperation made possible numerous triumphs that together achieved an impressive bottom line. Seemingly overnight, FIU fund raising had taken on a new legitimacy and importance within the University community.

The Sanford and Dolores Ziff and Family Education Building
bears the name of major contributors to the College of Education.

"Before, no one on campus really knew who we were," Webb says. "As the money started to come in, however, people began to take notice. Suddenly, we were no longer a `rag-tag team.' We were professionals who could deliver."

Meaning of the campaign

Chasing six-and seven-figure gifts makes for a lot of excitement in the Advancement office. It's the way the money is used, however - not the numbers themselves - that keeps everyone working overtime.

"Accepting a $500,000 check puts us all in a good mood," Webb agrees. "Knowing that it will buy more resources for the library or make life easier for financially needy students really makes us feel great."

To decide in which areas to concentrate their fund-raising efforts, the development officers collaborated with the deans of the various schools and colleges to identify needs and establish priorities.

At the School of Hospitality Management, Lee Dickson, interim dean, can't say enough about the impact of campaign gifts like those from Metromedia Restaurant Group and the John W. Kluge Foundation. Together, the donors made possible a $1 million minority scholarship endowment.

"I can think of one student who came to me and said, `You don't know what this (scholarship) means to me. Without this, I would not have been able to go to school,'" Dickson explains.

The commitment of national beverage distributor Southern Wine & Spirits to help build the $1 million-plus Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Studies Center, currently under construction on the North Campus, will likewise make a difference.

"Not to boast, but it's going to give us the finest teaching facility," Dickson says of the 4,500 square-foot center, which will house a temperature-controlled wine cellar, a 36-seat tasting lab, and a 76-seat classroom. "Right now we have to transfer glassware and wine to one of the regular classrooms. This is really going to be a quantum leap forward."

Helping create a million-dollar program endowment in Hospitality Management are proceeds from the annual Florida Extravaganza, an event launched in 1997 that features wine tasting, food from South Florida's leading chefs and an auction. Coordinated by the school's development officer, the event has drawn nearly 2,000 guests and more than $100,000 in contributions each year.

The nationally regarded Southeast Environmental Research Program (SERP) in the College of Arts and Sciences has in the last year alone attracted $1.5 million in private gifts, all eligible for state matching funds. They will provide for endowments in support of an eminent scholars chair and graduate research fellowships.

"It's almost life and death for us," says Ronald Jones, SERP's director, of the private money. While SERP has attracted research grants for specific projects, less restrictive private contributions provide freedom and support to conduct work that would not otherwise be possible. For example, a student working on a master's or doctoral degree in biology can now bring in water samples for analysis without concerns about the cost of equipment and a technician's time. "We can distribute these (private) dollars in services back to the University," Jones said.

Among the most important goals of the campaign was the growth of endowments - pools of money set aside for investment purposes and designated to benefit, for example, specific academic units, selected centers and institutes, scholarship funds or the libraries. These investments, whose principal can never be spent, ensure the University's financial future by generating income in perpetuity.

At the campaign's outset, FIU's total endowment - the sum of all smaller endowments - stood at $8 million. Today, through gifts and investment, it has more than tripled.

"That's one of the most important achievements of our fund raising," Webb says. "No matter what happens down the road, FIU now has a base on which it can expand. We still have a lot more to do, but at least we have in place something that will never disappear. In that sense, we truly are creating a legacy."

The next $40 million

At press time, the campaign had reached the $160 million mark. Shoring up the needed support to reach the final goal will take plenty of hard work. Previous donors will be tapped to increase their giving, and potential new ones are already being courted.

Adding a new measure of pressure to the extended campaign is the mandate to elevate FIU to Research I status, which would position it among the ranks of the country's major research universities. President Maidique last year met with faculty and the administration to emphasize the importance of scholarly research and established a task force to investigate how the university might best attain the desired ranking. Gifts in support of research - such as those to construct new or update existing research facilities and to establish eminent scholars chairs, which provide supplementary funds for research expenses and graduate assistants - take on increasing importance.

"We need to build the infrastructure that will help our faculty conduct research," said Mark Rosenberg, FIU provost and acting president. "Private support is an important catalyst in our quest to be nationally competitive in the research arena."

The College of Engineering, whose departments are research-driven, will shoulder much of the burden in getting FIU to Research I. Accordingly, a development officer has collaborated with selected members of the faculty to draft proposals with the greatest potential to secure large gifts. A recent victory occurred in December, when the college received a $1 million grant from the Whitaker Foundation for a new Biomedical Engineering Institute. Similar requests are currently under consideration by other potential donors.

Other areas targeted for the remainder of the campaign include the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the new School of Architecture, neither of which yet claims a substantial endowment. Other academic units, too, will see a renewed push for private gifts, and those that have already achieved impressive results will continue to build on their strengths. Notably, at press time the drive to raise $10 million for the construction of the much anticipated Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Art was nearing completion.

Despite the steady progress toward their goal, Webb and her staff show no signs of shifting into low gear. If anything, they're picking up the pace.

"Now's the exciting time," says Webb, who spends more hours out of the office making calls on donors and potential donors than on campus. "Each of us is caught up in our own little world right now, doing what we need to do to make sure we stay on target. Rarely a week goes by that one of our proposals doesn't bear fruit."

And once they reach $200 million?

"We'll have a party," Webb says with a smile. "Only then will we all finally relax and, for a short time at least, stop talking business."

Realistically, Webb knows the experience and precedence of a $200 million drive can lead down only one path. "We're already planning the next campaign," she says. "There will be little time to rest on our accomplishments. It's a crowded world out there, and we need to keep the interests of FIU in the forefront."