November 5, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
THE PHILANTHROPY 400 – No. 229
(Table of Contents)
Year founded: 1854
What it does: Educates students who are interested in science and engineering careers
Number of staff members: 430 full-time employees, including 12 fund raisers
Spending on fund raising: $909,411
Largest single gift in 1997: $11.8-million bequest from Donald Othmer, a former professor at the university, for the institution’s endowment
Location: It has a campus in Brooklyn, N.Y., with satellite campuses in Westchester County and Long Island.
World-Wide Web: http://www.poly.edu
How Polytechnic University reached the top: Like many colleges and universities that saw significant jumps in giving in 1997, Polytechnic University benefited from the start of its largest fund-raising campaign. The university expects to bring in $275-million by 2000. The money will be used primarily to increase its endowment to $200-million — an amount the university says it needs to compete with other top engineering schools in attracting faculty members and students. Money raised during the campaign will also be used to build Polytechnic’s first-ever dormitory on its Brooklyn campus, as well as to construct an athletic center and refurbish the university’s main academic building. Much of the increase in 1997 came from its own trustees, who contributed more than $23-million to jump-start the campaign. Polytechnic will see another stratospheric leap in fund raising in 1998, when approximately $140-million of a $175-million bequest from a former faculty member and his wife is expected to reach the institution’s coffers.
Biggest fund-raising challenge: Officials at Polytechnic University say that the most difficult fund-raising challenge right now is seeking foundation grants for the capital campaign. Richard S. Thorsen, the university’s vice-president for development, says that, unlike asking individuals to make big gifts, going after grants from foundations is a more ”bureaucratic’’ and ”labor-intensive’’ process. ”It’s not that the ‘asking the wealthy person for a million bucks part’ is over,’’ he says, ”but a lot of that is now behind us.’’
Fund-raising climate for colleges and universities: Colleges and universities on the Philanthropy 400 list saw an 10.7-per-cent increase in money raised last year. Much of the jump was driven by the proliferation of ambitious, billion-dollar campaigns and by one-time gifts that routinely reached eight figures. Colleges and universities have also benefited from the strong bull market of the last few years by encouraging major donors to contribute stock directly, therefore allowing those donors to take a tax write-off for the full, appreciated value. Public universities, which a decade ago relied almost entirely on government dollars, continue to be increasingly ambitious in their fund raising.
‘A Lesson Learned’
”For schools like ours that do not have a tradition of fund raising, the lesson learned here is that people have to believe and share your vision of what you can be. This means that prior to the campaign, there is a lot of internal effort to develop that sense of confidence, that sense of trust, that this school is not going to waste this opportunity.’’
— David C. Chang, President
