You’re probably starting to hear more about the University of Michigan’s Look to Michigan fundraising campaign, which is a coordinated effort across all three campuses and kicked off its public phase in late October. But this latest comprehensive campaign has actually been going on for about three years, says UM-Dearborn Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement Casandra Ulbrich. That’s typical of big fundraising pushes, which try to raise about a third to a half of their total fundraising goal from big donors in a “quiet” or “private” phase before courting a larger base of small-dollar donors in a “public” phase. Ulbrich says campaigns are organized this way for a couple of reasons. First, a private phase is a great test of whether your message is going to resonate with people. “The majority of your giving is coming from a small percentage of people. And you’re not going to be successful unless they’re on board with your vision,” she says. Second, demonstrating that your cause already has momentum can help make public-phase donors feel more confident about supporting your cause.
This campaign differs from UM-Dearborn’s last big push — fundraising for the Engineering Lab Building — in that it’s what development staff call a comprehensive rather than a capital campaign. Ulbrich says university capital campaigns typically raise money for something very specific, often a building. Comprehensive campaigns target donors who feel passionately about a wide range of causes, and priorities typically include specific programs and scholarships, though it might also include buildings. In some ways, this makes it much easier to fundraise. “With a comprehensive campaign, we have priorities that give us guideposts, but if a donor comes to us with something they’re passionate about that falls out of the official case for support, we can likely find something within the university that they can support. So we’re not pigeonholed for what we’re raising money for," Ulbrich says.
For the Look to Michigan campaign, UM-Dearborn’s general guideposts are fourfold: student experience and success, faculty and staff excellence, holistic excellence and economic sustainability. And within that structure, Ulbrich says a few priorities seem to be especially resonating with donors. First, people are really getting behind the university’s prioritizing of need-based financial aid. The free-tuition Go Blue Guarantee is the flagship program in that area, but under the university’s new financial aid scheme, families who don’t meet the GBG’s income requirements are still often eligible for some need-based aid. Second, Ulbrich says donors are excited about the university’s practice-based learning initiative. “As soon as you talk to them about the theoretical versus the hands-on, that makes total sense to them,” she says. “And here at UM-Dearborn, that includes things like internships, study abroad, experiential learning — so there are a wide array of things donors can support.” Ulbrich says they even played up the practice-based learning theme with a soft launch gift that was mailed to recent donors and prospects. The custom Block M Lego set with a Dearborn base came unassembled so supporters could get a little taste of the hands-on ethos at UM-Dearborn.
So who exactly is our donor base this time around? Ulbrich says this campaign is a little different in that we’re relying most heavily on alumni support. “This has changed a lot at Dearborn over the years,” she says. “Our fundraising used to be more heavily skewed toward corporations and foundations. But a lot of corporations have cut back on giving, and foundation money has become much more competitive. Now, the majority of our fundraising comes from individuals, the vast majority of whom are alumni of the institution. Larger gifts also tend to be alums.” She says most large donations come in the form of planned gifts, where donors pledge to give a certain amount of their wealth after their deaths. “This is an attractive option for a lot of people because it allows them to support something they believe in and be recognized for it without having to reorient their finances while they're alive,” she says. Ublrich also expects this fundraising campaign could have a different shape than the typical donor pyramid: The rule of thumb is that 80% of your fundraising comes from 20% of donors. But with a little more grassroots support from smaller donors, Ulbrich says the donor pyramid “might start to look a little more like a rectangle.” So far, Ulbrich says we’ve raised about $26 million, which puts us “ahead of where we’ve been in past campaigns.”
With the public phase in full swing, the development team will continue to seek out big-dollar donations, but a lot of energy will now turn to social media, newsletters and direct mail efforts that court small-dollar donors in the wider UM-Dearborn-connected community, especially alumni. Another big thing to look forward to: On May 1, the university is hosting a gala at the newly renovated Michigan Central Station. “We decided on a soft launch for the public phase for a couple reasons. We didn’t want to compete with the 50 events happening in Ann Arbor. But we also wanted to have an event at a location that was significant historically for us, and with our connection to Ford, we had our heart set on Central Station. With the renovation, they simply weren’t ready for us,” Ulbrich says. Details for that event are still forthcoming, but Ulbrich says they’re planning to have a discounted faculty-staff ticket price.
In fact, though alums make up the lion’s share of the donor base, Ulbrich doesn’t want faculty and staff to overlook their role in supporting the campaign. One of her talking points with bigger donors is that a large number of people who work at UM-Dearborn also choose to give. “Faculty and staff giving is hugely symbolic, because it’s a show of faith in the institution,” she says. “I give to the Go Blue Guarantee. And so I can say that to a donor and explain why it's important to me to give. To show a donor that the people who know the institution best are willing to support it with their own dollars — that can be very persuasive.”
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Ready to make a gift? Find a cause you're passionate about and donate now. Story by Lou Blouin
