Good afternoon, everyone. We've got a few extra people here hopping in on the call. We look forward to having a wonderful conversation with you all here over our lunch break. I'm Amanda Tribue, the Vice President of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement at Western Kentucky University. I'm also a member of the CASE District 3 Cabinet, and I'm thrilled to welcome you all here today for this together session, which is focused on the impact of transformational gifts at our institutions. Before we dive in, just a few housekeeping items. If you could please keep your mics on mute throughout the presentation so we avoid some of the background noise. This session is designed to be a conversation. So when you want to ask a question, please turn on your camera and engage with our panelists throughout the conversation. I'll be monitoring the chat, so feel free to post your questions there, and I can pose the questions to our panelists, or raise your hand on Zoom, and I'll be looking for those folks and ask you to chime in with your question. I do have a set of questions that will get us started today, and then we'll open it up for your questions for the remainder of the conversation. As many of you all know, transformational gifts have the power to reshape the future of educational institutions, fueling innovation, and expanding opportunities for students and communities alike. These gifts not only address immediate needs, but they also create lasting legacies that inspire others to invest in our missions. Today, we'll explore how visionary philanthropy can drive meaningful change and unlock new potential. I'm so pleased to have four distinguished panelists and philanthropy officers, executive leaders with us today who bring a wealth of experience and insights to inspire you to think bigger for your institutions. First off today, we have Mark Begley, who is a 25-year vet of the industry. He's currently the Associate Vice President and Chief Development Officer at William & Mary. Welcome, Mark. Thank you, Amanda. It's great to be here. Thank you for you and Adam Compton for organizing this and thrilled today just to be able to share a bit with you and hopefully learn from all of you. As Amanda said, I'm Mark Begley. I'm the Associate Vice President and Chief Development Officer at William & Mary. I am in my 13th, I'm sorry, in my 15th year at William & Mary. And I do have to say that the longer you're at an institution, the higher likelihood it is that you're gonna be able to work on a transformational gift or hopefully numerous transformational gifts. My career in higher ed philanthropy really took off at Virginia Tech where I had the opportunity to become the Chief Development Officer for the Pamplin College of Business back in Virginia Tech's first campaign, which was a billion dollar, or I'm sorry, their first $1 billion campaign, Invent the Future. And then I had the opportunity to come to William & Mary in 2010. I worked with a tremendous Dean at the Mason School of Business, Larry Pooley, who raised numerous transformational gifts. My role there was the Chief Development Officer. And then I had the opportunity in 2014 to move into the Associate Vice President and Campaign Director role here at William & Mary as we were about to, we were in preparation for our first billion dollar campaign at William & Mary for the BOLD, which we completed in 2020. During that time, my early time here at William & Mary, I got the chance to work on my first eight figure gift, which was a transformational gift to establish a center in our School of Business. And I will mention just a bit about that later, perhaps, but when I moved into the role with the Campaign Director, my boss, Matthew Lambert, asked me to focus very much on the top of the pyramid. And so the things, the areas that were reporting to me were principal gifts, planned giving, corporate and foundation relations, and then of course our campaign and directing the strategy on that. So it has really been a journey here at William & Mary in terms of principal gifts and transformational gifts. They used to be episodic. They're now happening with more regularity, which is one of the big goals. We put together a principal gifts team. It's a small team, but that has helped us really to focus the president on the top 10 donors to the institution. We had the wonderful privilege in July of announcing our first $100 million gift. And it was a gift to establish the Batten Center or Batten School for Coastal and Marine Science. I'm sorry, I'm getting that tripping over my tongue there, but Jane Batten and the Batten family made the $100 million gift. She is not an alumnus of the institution. She became very close to the institution over a number of years. Their first gift to VIMS, which was the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which is kind of, it's the state organization that has tasked William & Mary to track all things around marine science. And she made her first gift there in 1985. It was $1,000. Her and her husband, her husband came onto our board of visitors in the early 90s and then became involved with our business school, became close friends with the dean of the business school after he passed, after Mr. Batten passed away in 2009. Jane Batten continued to be very close. They had given some gifts to the business school that the business school did a great job of stewarding. And then she made a $10 million gift in 2018 to establish an online MBA program. Those gifts were because of the relationship. They were not passion gifts. Our president, Catherine Rowe, came in 2018. She and Jane Batten really connected and we began to talk. They began to talk around her real passion, which is the environment in the Chesapeake Bay. And that led ultimately to this $100 million gift. Subsequent to that gift happening, or shortly thereafter, we heard from another donor that had been a good donor to us but had only given six figure gifts. And that donor said, I'm interested in doing something very transformational also. And we began to have that discussion. We announced a $50 million gift for scholarships for our new undergraduate program in marine science in February. And so it's really been a journey. One of the things I would say is we became investment grade with that $100 million gift. It was the first gift of that size to William & Mary. And philanthropists, I assure you, watch your institution, my institution, other institutions to see where they can give through to make an impact in the world. So as much as it was a gift to William & Mary, it was a gift through William & Mary to make a broader impact in the world. So that's some of the stuff that we like to talk about when we talk about these gifts. Thank you, Mark. That's great context to help set up our conversation and the perspective he brings to our group today. Next, we have Jesse Brooks. Jesse currently serves as the senior consultant and principal with Martz & Lundy. Jesse and I had the great fortune to work on the district three cabinet together where his previous role was as senior vice president of institutional advancement at Spelman, where he had the opportunity to work on several transformational gifts. Hi, Jesse. Hi, Amanda. And I wanna thank Adam and Case for allowing me to be a part of this panel. This is an exciting topic and I'm excited to be here to speak on it. I'm Jesse Brooks. I have 26 plus years experience in frontline fundraising and also in management of fundraising teams as well. In addition to working at Spelman, which we began and completed campaign at Spelman, I've worked at UC San Diego, San Diego State, Thunderbird Global School of Management as well. So different institutions, a wide variety of opportunities and many different transformational gifts solicited and also closed. I'm gonna focus specifically for our purposes on one gift and I'm gonna go through the process in terms of how that gift came about. And it really goes back to years ago in my fundraising career when I worked at San Diego State. And we were definitely struggling and trying to raise money for a project called the San Diego State Bioscience Center. In this instance, the state had provided some funding but not nearly enough. And we knew at that point in time, it was gonna be critical for us to have private support to make it happen. It wasn't gonna happen without private support and we're gonna need a transformational gift. And transformational gifts can be at any amounts, but for this particular structure, the transformational gift was $5 million, okay? So it was incumbent upon me really as a chief fundraiser to really develop a strategy and a pool of prospects for the center. How I went about this is I conducted my research and I worked with advancement services team to develop a list of major and principal gift donors who I thought could make a $5 million gift and smaller gifts to help support, help supplement the $5 million gift. That was gonna be key. And advancement services, that role was important. I identified a potential prospect for the project who had no prior history to the institution or connection to the institution. What I did know was that this individual had made significant gifts to other institutions in San Diego, which means she had made a gift to, many gifts to UC San Diego. And if I tell you her name, you're from San Diego, you'll say, oh my goodness, who wouldn't know her? Significant gifts to UC San Diego and significant gifts to the University of San Diego, but no gifts to San Diego State and no prior history to San Diego State. So I researched her giving, I researched her interest and her expectations that she had from philanthropic organizations or from charitable organizations that she contributed to and developed really a strategic plan for engagement for her. And this really first started when I didn't know her, I had friends that knew her. And if you're in the San Diego community or other communities, sometimes people are a little bit territorial about giving you like an introduction to some of their key prospects. So I really had to be resourceful. So I met her at an AFP event. I walked up to her, introduced myself and just briefly mentioned to her about San Diego State. Talk with her about San Diego State and she says, I know about San Diego State, I'm not very involved with San Diego State, but send me some information in the mail. She was cordial, asked me to send her some information for review. Now, this story is a year and a half cultivation and engagement cycle. Send information about our research efforts, the impact on the students and the community. And I was crystal clear about our case for support. So during this past year and a half, over this year and a half, I saw her at many events. I'd go up to her, say hi, she'd say, hey Jesse, how are you doing? I'm getting your information. I gave you my email address, you're in my thoughts and you're in my mind. And she would always say, thank you for information and I'm reviewing it. What I found out was that was her typical way of interacting with fundraising organizations. That was her primary way. She wanted information by email sent to her so that she could evaluate it. I was consistent with my outreach. And fortunately, I had to relate to her the importance of the Bioscience Center and the importance of her support to the Bioscience Center because she had supported all of those projects in the city, but she'd not supported the project at San Diego State. So after a year and a half of working with her, after a year and a half of sending her information and also really kind of introducing her, not in person, but introducing her to the researchers, to the president, to everything that we're doing at the Bioscience Center, I saw her at an AFP chapter meeting. So this is a year and a half later. There were 300 individuals, colleagues in attendance at that meeting. And she was a featured speaker at this chapter meeting. And at the beginning of her presentation, she said, I am going to make a gift to an institution that I've never made a gift to before. And there's someone in the audience because of their consistent ongoing engagement with me, doesn't know that I'm gonna make this announcement but I'm going to make a gift of $5 million to the San Diego State Bioscience Center. It was phenomenal. And the reason I say that is that there are traditional ways that you can go about a transformational gift. There could be someone who has a connection to your institution. There are gifts that fall out of the sky. I worked for an organization that got a gift from McKinsey Scott. And I've also worked for organizations where we got transformational gifts that were facilitated by other organizations. But this was really a cold situation where I didn't know the individual and the individual was not connected with institution. So my suggestion to you is make sure you do your research. Don't necessarily look for all of the things that you think might be right, but think of people who can really help your organization and move your organization to that next level. So now at San Diego State, we have the Donald P. Shiley Bioscience Center and it's the first and only multidisciplinary center in the country to focus on research efforts on the nexus between infection, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. So that was really a gift that was transformational for the institution. So thanks, Amanda, for letting me say that. Yeah, thank you, Jesse. That's some really great context and gets into a lot of the things we'll chat about later on today in this conversation. Next, we have David Chambliss, who wins the award for the longest title of our panelists today. David currently serves as the Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations for the Peabody College of Education and Human Development. He also serves as the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives at Vanderbilt University. David, how are you today? Hi, Amanda. Thank you for having me. That's just a big fancy title for some of the good work we do here. And I'm just gonna keep this fairly short because I feel almost unfair following up with Mark and Jesse's good work. I'm also going to win the award for the most unfair transformational gift. While Mark and Jesse spent a lot of time and effort cultivating and building these relationships, I'm the Associate Dean at Peabody College, which is a great college of education at Vanderbilt, one of the best in the countries in terms of college of education and one area that we do a lot of great work around is special education. On January 3rd of 2023, I received a phone call from a gentleman who has no connection to Vanderbilt whatsoever, didn't go here. Kids didn't go here. They don't live in Nashville. And he said, my family and I have a interest in dyslexia. Peabody College is well-known for their Department of Special Education and Reading Intervention. We would like to build a school for dyslexia at Vanderbilt. I did what most of you did and said, are you being serious? I was thinking, is this a real call? This can't be for real. Next step, I called my Dean and said, is this something you'd be interested in? And by May 15th of 2023, that was less than six months from the call. We had signed a gift for just under nine figures cash to build a new dyslexia school and research center at Vanderbilt University. It obviously transformed my life as a development officer. It transformed Peabody College. It has transformed Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee. And by fall of 2026, we will have a new dyslexia school for first through fifth graders, over 140 students, all because this family wanted to use their passion and their philanthropy and use Vanderbilt as its vehicle. And so we'll talk a little bit about that in the call today, but I do win the award for most unfair transformational gift because those of you who work super hard on closing these gifts, and I'm over here just saying, I picked up the phone one day, but obviously there's more work to it than that. And we can talk a little bit about why I think this was such a transformational gift and what we did right before the phone call even happened and after in our call later, so. Awesome, David. Thank you for sharing that. As you said, really far reaching beyond the institution and the community impact, I think is something that we'll look forward to hearing more from you on as we continue in our conversation today. Last and certainly not least, we have Meg Dees with us. Meg serves as the Vice President of Development at Catawba College in North Carolina. Those of you that were able to join us in Orlando back in February, got the pleasure of hearing Meg participate on one of our executive leadership panels. And so we're so pleased she's with us today to continue sharing her knowledge and some really great gifts that she's worked on as a part of the staff there at Catawba. Hi, Meg. Thanks so much for letting me join. And a little bit like David, mine is, it's a lot of hard work, it's a lot of luck. And it's not necessarily something that we can replicate easily. However, I think there are a lot of lessons in it in that Catawba College, which is a small private liberal arts college in North Carolina, which probably most of you on this call have never heard of. And I hope we're changing that a little bit, has just been extraordinarily blessed by some truly transformational gifts. I mean, I would tell you, I'm going on my eighth year here. And when I joined the college, I would not tell you that we were in danger of closing, but we were definitely struggling. In fact, I used to say we were working really, really hard to survive. And now I feel like we're working really, really hard to thrive, which has been a great transformation. And our story really kind of started off in May of 2021. We had a donor in a meeting who asked me what would be something that would really make a difference. And honestly, jokingly, I said, paying off, if we had no debt, it would really be extraordinary because those debt payments every month are really painful. And within a month, we had a donor that paid off our debt. And I really, looking back, I think that really set the stage to create some great confidence with other donors, our trustees, even our faculty and staff. It was really kind of an exciting day. And I'm really thrilled that now, almost four years later, we still have no debt. Now, at some point, I'm sure the college is gonna make the decision to take on debt, but that really kind of started this great trajectory of events that happened. And in September of 2021, had a donor that I had been working with very hard, had a long connection with the college. And one lesson I would say is when you're working with someone on a transformational gift, maybe don't give the number. Because if I had given a number, I would have asked for way less than we got. In my mind, we were gonna maybe get $20 million. I thought that would just be the biggest gift this donor would consider making. And clearly that would have been extraordinarily transformational for us. But in the end, we got a $100 million gift and was just absolutely blown away. It was an anonymous gift. Two thirds of it, it was an endowment gift. Two thirds of it was unrestricted. And one third of it was to pay for some environmental education and sustainability programs at Catawba College. We kind of walked around in shock. The donor did not even necessarily want to talk about it. It was so private and so confidential. Finally, in October, I was able to get the donor to agree to sit down with the president and the provost and myself. And we had a conversation. And an hour later, the donor sent another $100 million. So the gift went from 100 million to 200 million. And I immediately went over to the donor's house and said, I just need to make sure that this wasn't a mistake, that you didn't accidentally send it again. And he said, no, you all were so excited with what you were gonna do with 100 million. I couldn't wait to see what you're gonna do with 200 million. So it was really an extraordinary journey. About a year later, we received a $42 million gift, which was another transformational gift. And I really credit the excitement and the other donors seeing what was happening with someone else wanting to step up and make a $42 million gift. And then this past July and July of 2024, we received another $200 million gift to our endowment, which was just extraordinary. Our endowment has literally gone from about $50 million to almost $700 million in five years, which is incredible. And the lessons are, listen, listen, listen, really know your donors, especially if you have a donor of high wealth. Just because someone has money does not mean they're gonna give you a big gift. And I've made the mistake in the past of just assuming that because someone has a lot of money, surely they're gonna love our mission and wanna give us a gift. It takes so much more than that. People have to really be passionate, excited about what you're doing. They need to have the donor confidence. And so, so much of what we've done here at Catawba is spent time listening to our donors to try to understand what is going to excite them, giving them exposure to our campus and our professors and our students and our staff, and really feeling like what they're doing is making a big difference. Thank you, Meg. That is truly incredible. And you, 50 million to 700 million. I mean, there's not a lot of us that can tell that story and really the way that it has changed everything for your institution and your community. So thank you for sharing that. We're gonna jump in here with a few questions. As I said earlier, please feel free to chime in the chat if you have any questions you'd like to ask of our panelists but Mark, I'm gonna start with you. And I'm thinking back to our pre-call yesterday and you mentioning a slide that is shared widely there at William & Mary and thinking about what it takes to close a transformational gift. Can you get us started today by talking about what a major gift officer should be considering when they're thinking about a transformational gift? Absolutely, Amanda. And I hope first of all, that all of you on the call are hearing a word that are, there's a word in my mind that I'm thinking and it's possibilities, possibilities. I mean, that's, we just need to be thinking all the time. I mean, it's amazing what people will do because they want to. So when we think about transformational giving here at William & Mary, really it's, it comes down to simplistically, there's five things that we talk about. First of all, somebody obviously has to have the capacity to make whatever size gift it is. And again, as Jesse said earlier, transformational gifts can be of any size. Sometimes a $500,000 gift is a transformational gift for the organization or Institute or whatever receiving that gift. But donor has to have the ability to give it but there needs to be a belief in the mission. They need to believe in the mission but also a deep trust in the leadership. So it's not just you believe in the mission but there's a trust in the leadership in that relationship being built. But, and then assuming those first three things perhaps the most important piece is the alignment of the vision and the passion, the listening well. We have a president who co-creates with donors and has done that with numerous donors. You can't do it with everybody. But there are donors who wanna do that. And there are presidents and deans who are capable of doing that. So alignment of vision and passion. And then finally it's the timing. And that's the piece that we can't control in many respects but we like Jesse, I mean, I love Jesse's example. He was giving, that was one of the most incredible things I've heard Jesse, but you were persistent and the timing became right for the donor. And so if those things are present, it doesn't matter what, don't think about the size of the gift so much, think about the impact. And those things being present will, that's what makes a transformational gift. Thank you, Mark. That's really great insight as we dive a little bit deeper here into this conversation. David, I mean, obviously receiving a phone call doesn't happen for most of us but I know that we're all trying to find those donors or think about those organizations and institutions that might have an interest in a transformational gift for our universities. And people on the call are probably wondering, how in the world do I find this person? What are your thoughts on ways to look for those prospects and identify those folks that might be interested? Yeah, I mean, I think my first answer is don't send random phone calls to voicemail anymore. If your cell phone's ringing and you don't know who it is, you might wanna answer it, because otherwise, I think Mark really hit the nail on the head with two things that he talked about and it's alignment with your university's priorities and the things that you already do well. And the other thing that I had thought about and Mark mentioned as well is what transformation means to each institution is totally different. So like you might hear Meg talk about 100, $200 million gift and think that could never happen to us or it may not be in the cards right now, but I think sometimes some of the most transformative gifts aren't always 200 million. They could be a million or 3 million or 500, depending on the size of your institution. The other thing you notice that's interesting is Mark and Jesse's story particular is these donors have passed giving elsewhere. So as major gift officers, I think it all behooves us to have good research and to render thinking about people who could do transformational gifts, who are people out there that have made significant gifts elsewhere and to use it. I wrote down possibilities with what Mark said. Think about how a donor's transformative philanthropy could happen at your institution, regardless of their connection to your institution. We all hear them like Mackenzie Scott and like my story where somebody called us no connection, but that really opened the door to thinking in addition to the alumni and parents and people who have some kind of connection, what is it about your institution or the nonprofit you work for that could be the vehicle for a donor's interest? Why is your institution? And it really opens the world of possibilities of people who have significant philanthropic interest or capacity to make a gift and then alignment to what is your university or nonprofit already doing well? And I think if you can make those cases, it opens a whole world of who could be a transformative donor to your school. It's not just your alumni base that sometimes you think I'm beating a dead horse on or we've asked all the same six people for gifts all the time. And so I think that really opens doors. And when you can think through that lens, it kind of the world is your oyster in terms of transformational prospects. The world is your oyster, David. And I totally agree with you on that. As I think about Western Kentucky University and our community of Bowling Green, Kentucky being the fastest growing city in the state. And we have a lot of industry, a lot of new folks moving into our community that don't have an affiliation or didn't have an affiliation with our university. And we're starting to really research and think about how do we connect them into the institution and find their passion to have an impact here in our community as well. Jesse, do you have anything to add? I know you touched a little bit about this in your intro of what you think about and how you try to engage other folks, maybe outside of just your CRM or your known prospect pool. First of all, I wanna just actually confirm everything that Meg, Mark and David are saying in terms of case for support and making sure that the prospect or the donor really knows the impact of your organization and how they can make a difference in working with the organization. And I thought about this question from a couple of different perspectives. So I'm gonna relate it to two organizations that I worked for previously. One is San Diego State and the other is UC San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. So within San Diego, UC San Diego is really the, it's the big fish, in terms of life sciences. I mean, they have an amazing research enterprise. They are the go-to institution that you seek out if you wanna do life sciences research there. So at San Diego State, you really have to be scrappy, creative in terms of finding donors for institution. And so first thing I would say is you need to have a great relationship with advancement services and your prospect researcher and make sure they can uncover everything they can for you and give them enough information to help assist you. The other thing that I would say is knowing your community extremely well. We needed to know our community extremely well in San Diego because we knew that UC San Diego had a lock on the market. So that meant that we had to gain a presence at all of the places in San Diego where life sciences executives, life science movers and shakers would be and then identify those individuals and then connect them with San Diego State and how we could bring them into our fold or engage with them. We also looked for our large industry trade groups like Biocomp, which is California-based trade group for biosciences. We had to make connections there. And so that created a pool of prospects for us who had significant wealth, who are not attached to the organization that we could tap into. So we really had to be creative and scrappy at San Diego State. The other institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which is where I work too as well in San Diego. It's unique. There's not any competition in San Diego. And honestly, there are very few organizations around the country that compete with Scripps Oceanography, probably Woods Hole and a few others, but not at that level. And also keep in mind, they only have 2,000, 3,000 graduates. So they're not a viable prospect and they're not making millions of dollars in terms of in marine oceanography. I'm just being, that's just the case. So we really had to be creative about how we went out and looked for individuals who could make transmission gifts. We really looked to see who existing donors were, how we could leverage them, but also too as well, we partnered with organizations like the Nature Conservancy and also Oceana, who have key donors who work with them who can make transformational gifts. So it was incumbent upon us to create a compelling case for support and a willingness for Oceana and Nature Conservancy to work with us so that we could tap into the donor base. Because honestly, our advancement services team couldn't provide us with enough information because they didn't have those connections. So we really had to do actually grassroots prospecting on our own at those two institutions. So it was interesting and we're able to really make a significant difference and actually bring some significant gifts to both those institutions. But it was because we really looked past traditional ways in terms of engaging individuals with the institutions. Thank you, Jesse. That's really great context. And Meg, thinking about now that we've identified some prospects and we thought outside of the box and we know we've got some folks that may have some interest in some transformational giving to our institutions. In your experience, what are those key indicators we need to be looking for to start that conversation and really start advancing that relationship with the institution? Well, I think, I mean, clearly you go back and you look at giving history and you look at the sort of the long-term engagement that the donor or the person has had with the institution. And you don't always have, it does not have to be huge gifts. I mean, we received like a $4 million estate gift from someone that gave us $100 a year but they gave it to us for like 55 years. And this person just ended up not having any children and had never married and left us their entire estate. That was totally off our radar. Those are the things that sometimes keep me up at night. So I think about who are the other people, how fabulous that this person entrusted us with their estate. And quite honestly, it was probably because they saw these other large gifts and they thought, okay, Catawba isn't a place where they can handle these resources. But I think it was a big lesson to me that you really have to pay attention. People aren't always going to give you five or six figure gifts to be on your radar. You look at those folks that give loyally, give every year, they attend events, they reach out, they have questions. Also kind of pay attention to when folks have sort of what I call a life event. They are selling a business. They are having a major real estate transaction. You know, they've inherited some money. Now that goes back to really making sure that you know your donors to have that kind of information. But we had a great luck with another gift that for us happened before these. And it was a $2 million gift, which was very transformational to us. But it happened because we realized that we had a donor who was selling their business. And so we were able to get in and have conversations and find a program that we knew that they were very passionate about and make an ask. And they gave us $2 million, which was that donor's largest gift in their lifetime. And it was really wonderful for us. So, so much of it is making sure you have engagement officers, advancement officers, folks that are really paying attention to the people that are interacting with your organization. We have a lot of donors that are not alums because our community is so rich in terms of wanting to engage with the college and whether they're coming to a sporting event or a performing arts performance, or we have lots of speakers. So we also really pay attention to who are those folks in our community that are attending our events that we need to be having conversations with. So, so much of it is really listening. And then a lot of it is planting seeds with these folks and hoping that a few of those seeds take off and bloom into opportunities. Thanks, Meg. I think those are all great points to think about. Jesse, let's jump ahead here and talk about internal stakeholder and institutional leadership alignment. And when you're trying to get transformative gifts for your institution, how critical is it? It's extremely critical, Amanda. So I'm gonna use a different institution as an example for this one. This kind of goes back to my time at Spelman College, which is small, private, liberal arts, historically black college in Atlanta, for those of you who do not know about Spelman, but a phenomenal reputation, a phenomenal reputation for graduating amazing young women who are doing phenomenal things. And so we embarked on a campaign to raise $250 million. And a part of that was $90 million for Center for Innovation and the Arts. And that, you know, when you look at Spelman raising $250 million is certainly a stretch, but fortunately we actually ended the campaign raising $339 million and we ended the campaign a year and a half early. But what was absolutely key and essential is that we wanted a trustee to support us in this effort and make a transformational gift. And a lot of people think because it's a trustee, they know you and they may be more inclined to give to you. But I would say that it's even harder when you have someone who knows you really well because they know how the organization functions and they know what goes on. And so we really had to develop a very comprehensive engagement plan for our trustee. The gift was $30 million. It was the largest gift for the Center for Innovation and the Arts, but it required focused and dedicated impact on the part of the president. So it really came from the top. So in terms of the president really kind of set the tone for the internal stakeholders. And they saw that she was on board with this. They saw that she was behind this project. They saw the impact it was gonna make on the institution. And everyone, the CFO, the faculty members, the department chairs got on board with the project. In addition, the other component was we viewed the chair of the board as an internal stakeholder as well. And that person was also a key part of our strategy. All of them working together, sending information to the trustee, keeping the trustee updated on what was happening with the project. In addition to bringing the architect and the construction team to meetings and showing what was going on and showing what was happening, it gave the trustee the reassurance that we could do the project and that we could move forward. So at Spelman, we can't build a new building. We have to have 100% of the funding. So we're not getting any kind of bonds or anything like that. So we had to make sure that we could raise that money and that trustee had to be sure that we could get the funding for the building. And so it's absolutely essential for all your internal stakeholders to be on the same page, but it's incumbent upon, I think, the fundraiser to ensure that they're in constant contact with everyone so that they're all on the same page. I think internal stakeholders are incredibly important and key to the success of any kind of transformational gift. Thank you, Jesse. I think that's such a great point to make about that alignment and thinking about how we're all staying in coordination when we're considering these transformational gifts for our institution. Mark, let's talk about how you balance that persistence and patience when cultivating the relationship. As Jesse just spoke through, we know these can sometimes be very complex programs, buildings, gifts. The processes are very, very long when we think about all the internal bureaucracy we're dealing with. So how are you balancing that and staying engaged and interacting with your donor or your prospect through that process? Well, I think something that's been mentioned already by I think a couple of our folks here, excuse me, is the importance of impact and to talk about impact and to not talk about the number, but to talk about what's going to happen. And so I think of an example, one of the first transformational gifts I had the privilege of working on was a eight-figure gift to establish a center in our Mason School of Business here early on in my tenure at William & Mary. And we talked with a donor about the idea in 2011. And we said, and at that point, he asked straight out, how much does this cost? And we said, $10 million. And we went two years without ever talking about that number again. What we did was there was consistent, we were putting, we put together stuff. This was a center in finance. So we brought him down to meet with our finance faculty. Every time we were in New York, there was, we would have something that we would take to him, went back and forth with a lot of PowerPoints and things like that. But it was about the relationship and it was about what was going to be accomplished. And when we finally sat down and put together the gift agreement, we hadn't even talked about with him about the number then. And we were on the phone at that time. And because it was, this was pre-Zoom and I'm on the phone with the Dean and the donor says, well, my wife and I were talking and I'll tell you what we're going to do. And we're looking at each other because we had also heard that the wife didn't want to give us as much money. And this is December. He said, we're going to give you 5 million before the end of the year. And then we're going to give you 5 million which we had proposed to pay out of 5 million, additional 5 million. It was, but it was the connection that this donor had. He actually came to campus for, we invited him for our, we do this Dog Street to Wall Street. So we bring our Wall Street people in and he spoke and it was actually in September. And he was in a meeting before that with our faculty member and he looked at us and he said, can I announce the gift tonight? And again, we hadn't even talked about the number or anything. And he got up that night and said, I'm going to make this. He said, I'm going to start a center here. He didn't talk about the number or anything like that. And so, I mean, it was this constant, but it was a persistent with him, understanding what was important to him and understanding that he had some questions that he wanted answers and putting those in front of him. And one of my old mentors in development used to also say in development, the unexpected touch is the best touch. And so when there are things that were not related to the gift that you could reach out and do, do it. So. Unexpected touch is the best touch. I just wrote that down. That is something I'm going to take away from this call. And Mark, I think that is such great advice as we think about that cultivation and those cultivation strategies. Switching gears a little bit here, David, I want to talk about us as fundraisers and talk a little bit about how have you managed the pressure and the expectation that comes along with pursuing and working through a transformative gift? So it's a big deal for your institution. And how do you keep your head focused and your head on straight as you're working through that gift process? I mean, I think the first two answers that come to my mind are coffee and happy hour, but I think there's probably more professional answers than that. So the thing that's interesting about our gift is the family wants to build a school for dyslexia here, but it isn't their first school. So it isn't the first university they've worked with on a transformational gift. So in addition to the pressure and expectations that we set on ourselves as an institution that we believe we should be top of the line in the way we manage the family and the way we go about this relationship, this family has expectations from other institutions and nonprofits they work with. We're not the first organization they've supported. So we're not only managing our own internal expectations, but we're managing what we believe is an expectation of excellence that other universities have set where they've made gifts at those schools as well. So we're looking at various institutions they've been involved in and saying, well, what did they do? The other thing is we often are talking about the expectations of the family that we're able to meet in a timely fashion. I mean, we're building a school. So this isn't just like we need to endow a program or a scholarship. And once the funding is set, we can start funding things. There's things with the community. There's the town and gown relationship that we had to really make sure we had with the city of Nashville, the neighborhood. We were tearing down buildings to build a new school. And so a lot of the expectations are about communication and what is reasonable and sharing those reasonable expectations with the family and vice versa, them telling us here's our expectations and how we can meet in the middle. We have lots and lots and lots of Zooms and in-person calls with the family and then internally about the timeline, who needs to be involved, a checklist of a million different things that have to happen. And we're constantly reporting back to the family so they know where we're at, where we're gonna be in three months, where we're gonna be in six months. So I think that takes a little bit of the pressure off of us because of the open communications. As Amanda mentioned, and some of the bureaucracy of higher education can sometimes really stifle quick movement. And a lot of these philanthropists, they want their difference to be made yesterday, right? They were gonna write you a huge check, but it's not, hey, you have 20 years to get this done. It's, we want this happening ASAP. And so we're trying to find that, strike that healthy balance between how do you have the most efficient and effective strategy to getting this, whatever it is. And for us, it's building a school and a research center while also making sure the family feels like we're doing this in a timely fashion. So that's really where the pressure has been. I think it all comes down to communication. It all comes down to everybody, all the stakeholders being on board and everybody having an appreciation for the size of this gift and also what the difference it can make when it finally gets stood up. And now that we've got a smaller transitional school going before the big school, people are seeing the real results. But it's definitely, as anybody on the call will tell you, the transformational gifts come with a lot of pressure and expectations. It's not just a thanks for your gift, move on type thing. It's a daily call and interaction with what's next and making sure the family knows, so. I think that lends itself really nicely to the next question I thought about for you, Meg. And really thinking about as you're communicating with that family and you're keeping that relationship going, how do you keep them meaningfully engaged? And then also work to engage them as a partner in future initiatives at your institution. Well, I think, I mean, it just all goes back to that relationship and it has to be constant. I mean, as David just said, it's daily. If it's not daily, it's at least weekly. And it's very thoughtful ways to engage. It's not constantly asking for money. It's giving impact reports on programming, on the various ways that this funding is impacting our students, our community, our physical campus. It's that really meaningful stewardship. It's looking at, as you get to know the donor, you're gonna know what's really important. So make sure, even though they received an invitation that you called the day before and say, hey, just wanna make sure you know this speaker's gonna be here tomorrow, or this student group is doing this program that I think you might really enjoy seeing. It's making sure that they have those interactions. It's not just the recognition. I think sometimes we think about recognition and clearly we have a donor, we have some donors that want recognition, that name recognition is very important. Our main donor wants everything to be completely anonymous. So this person could care less about naming a school for their family or having press releases where we thank them publicly. So that's even a little bit more challenging to figure out how you're gonna really impactfully make them feel good about the investment that they have made in our institution. We also try to do things like make sure they have interactions, really meaningful interactions with faculty. If faculty is doing something that we think this donor would be interested in, we create opportunities for them to have lunch and hear about the research or what the students are doing or the particular class that they're teaching. And I think as you think about what your future needs are, your planning, as you're planning for the future, I love to share things that we're doing that I think they'll be interested in, but I also love to share things that I don't think they'll be interested in and say, this is how we're trying to fund this. Because I think, again, we've got to show we're not just coming back to the same people all the time. We're really expanding our reach. I love to go over there and talk about my trips that I've had and the alumni that I've met or the other supporters or the parents that are making gifts. And it's not just the large gifts. After we got that first, when it became 200 million we advertised it. I had a lady who was an alum walk in the door. She made an appointment to meet with me. She was so excited. She said, I can't write you a check with as many zeros, but I want you to know I'm stretching as much as I possibly can. And I'm giving the largest gift I can give and it's because I want to be a part of what's happening. And it was a $2,000 check. And this person had never given us more than $200. So it really was a stretch for this person. And that story meant so much to our donor, just hearing that the donor had inspired other gifts. So I think it's just really important to kind of think about what are stories that you can share so that they stay engaged and they stay excited about what's happening on your campus. Thank you, Meg. I love that story. I think we've all had those stories that we've experienced as fundraisers over our career. And it's just as important and meaningful that for that $2,000 gift as it is for the $200 million gift. Jessie, as we begin to wind down today, I want to ask you a question for more of the 30,000 foot view. In what ways, we all know our philanthropic landscape has changed pretty dramatically in the last few years. And when you think about the context of MEGA and transformational gifts at our institution, you know, what are you talking to your clients about right now? And what would you advise our people on the call today to think about as you're thinking about those gifts as we move forward? Okay, Amanda, you put me on the spot as a consultant. Yeah, a couple of things. So we're kind of going through whiplash in a way because we went through COVID, we went through the COVID period. And so organizations had the ability to look at how COVID impacted them and look at how COVID impacted their fundraising organizations. And I'll say just from, I was at Spelman at that point in time. And so for us, we thought that we're gonna see a significant decrease in philanthropic support to the institution. What we embarked on is reinventing a case for support and making sure that we had a compelling case for support. And it was crystal clear, it was simple, and people understood what we did and what we were doing and the impact we made. We raised more money during COVID than we've ever raised in the history of the institution. And so what I would say as Morton Lundy, and as we look at the current environment, which is challenging, and it's challenging a lot of institutions across the board, whether you're a college university or an arts institution, it's really being very challenging. And I think what we're advising is, this is a time in which you can really start to look at your case for support and look at your impact. There's gonna be a lot of different things coming your way on a daily or weekly basis. And the key is not to get caught in all of the different changes, but to sit down with your leadership and with your researchers or in with your faculty members to really kind of come up with a short-term and a long-term strategic plan and really stick to that plan and not necessarily get distracted by something that's happening on a daily or weekly basis, but come put in place something that's gonna work best for your institution, make sure that you're able to relay why individuals should give to your organization and ensure that there is a value proposition in what you do and what you offer to the community and also to this potential donor so that they can see themselves making a difference in this uncertain time. You know, I think a lot of talk has been said about can philanthropy take the place of a lot of the cuts that are happening. From what I understand, that's not the case. And so we need to be very creative in terms of how we reach out to donors, but also to, as well, there are a lot of individuals out there who really wanna help. And so we really do need to continue those strategies for connecting with those major givers. And if they're gonna give, and this is an opportunity for them to give, you just need to make sure that the case that you have for your institution is the right case for them. Thank you, Jesse. I think that's really great advice. We've got about four minutes left, which gives each panelist about a minute to give one final closing thought. I'm gonna go through the list and I would like for you to share your advice, quick tip that you would leave our group with today as we wrap up this conversation. Mark, I'm gonna start with you. I might go back to that word, possibilities. Don't let what might not happen get in the way. I mean, one of the things our president always asks, a question she asks is, how might we? Whatever it is, how might we? And so I would say that just realize that there's a lot of money out there and people wanna make a difference in the world and they wanna make a difference through organizations and they're looking for organizations where they can give to make an impact. And so as I think that's the big thing, the big takeaway, think about how people can give through your organization to make a broader impact in the world. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for being with us today too. Jesse. I would say quickly, Amanda, if you receive a transformational gift, make sure that you've had a conversation with the donor and you understand what their intentions are and your organization is able to deliver on what they want. That's really important, because you can get a transformational gift and it may not be exactly what you want it for, but it's a big gift and you really want it. I think it's important to make sure that that gift is in line with what your organization needs and it's what the donor wants to support. That's what I've learned. Great advice. Thank you, Jesse. Thanks for being with us today too. David. I think as major gift fundraisers and as people in philanthropy, we often think about raising dollars and big gifts and we see big numbers. We mentioned this a few times on the call earlier, but I think if you really believe in your institution and you lead conversations with impact and the difference people can have and let the numbers come last in a way, you'll do much better in your career when you think about talking to people about what difference they can make and then back ending that with how they can do that with philanthropy rather than always thinking about how do I get a hundred million dollars? How do I get $200 million? And I just want to say everyone's doing really great work at their institutions. I hope you remind yourself of that when the news sometimes can feel like everything's hitting the fan. We're all doing good transformative work. So keep up the good fight wherever you're at. And agree more, David. Meg, take us home. I just think the biggest thing is it's all about relationships. So listen, listen, listen. You can learn so much by listening and try not to talk. And when you do talk, be ready to try to inspire the donors to invest in your institution. Don't give a lot of meaningless conversation, really try to make it impactful. But listening to me is the most important thing in this business. That'll really help you understand the donor and what they're trying to do and let you give them a better proposal. Awesome, Meg. Thank you so much. Thank you to all of our panelists for joining us today. I know I sure got a lot of great takeaways from this conversation. I hope you all did too. CASE is recording this conversation. It will be sent out and it will be housed on their website and the communities portal. So you'll be able to access this at any time. Thank you for making time to join us today. Please look for additional opportunities to engage when they hit your email. Hope you all have a great afternoon.

transformational gifts

higher education

donor engagement

philanthropy

mission impact

donor relationships

personalized stewardship

transformative philanthropy

leadership trust