The University projects a balanced budget for fiscal 2010, primarily due to $7.4 million in savings from the one-year suspension of retirement contributions and a better-than-expected endowment return for fiscal 2009, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French wrote in an e-mail to the Brandeis community yesterday. The University also raised $78.3 million in cash during fiscal 2009, according to Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship, despite an economic climate she characterized as the worst she has seen in 15 years.

According to Vice President for Budget and Planning Fran Drolette, the University closed the fiscal 2009 budget gap through a combination of budget reductions, added revenue and use of unrestricted reserves. The unrestricted reserves refer to liquid assets-money that is part of the endowment that the University can access. She stated that Brandeis used less of its reserves than was previously anticipated for fiscal 2009.

Additional budget relief came from the $6.3 million that mainly consisted of bequests solicited during the University's fundraising effort. According to Winship, the bequests were one-time donations that will not necessarily repeat. "You can't plan a budget based on bequests," she said.

In March, the University projected an $8.9 million operating deficit for the current fiscal year, French explained, and the administration presented a plan to close that gap to the Board of Trustees in May. That plan included the one-year suspension of the University's matching contributions to employees' retirement accounts.

At that meeting, French wrote, the administration also revised its endowment return projection to 20 percent from an earlier March projection of 30 percent. "The actual endowment return in FY 2009 was -17.3%," French wrote. He added that "Brandeis's [sic] endowment return compares favorably with many of our peers'." French referred to a Bloomberg news report, which found that U.S. endowments on average fell 24 percent, with Brown and Yale University estimating a 24 percent decrease and Harvard University a 30 percent decrease due to the changes in the stock market in which they are invested.

Despite this projection, "there continue to be concerns related to key budget areas, including tuition, financial aid, investment returns, and fundraising," French wrote. He stated that the University projects annual operating deficits for fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2014, ranging from -$7 million in fiscal 2011 to -$2 million in fiscal 2014.

"These projections assume that the University will be successful in its efforts to increase enrollments by 400 undergraduate students and decrease the Arts & Sciences faculty budget by $5M or by roughly 35 full-time equivalents," he wrote. If this does not occur, deficits are projected to expand to up to $12.1 million in fiscal 2014.

The $78.3 million fundraising figure includes restricted and unrestricted money that flows through the operating budget in the current fiscal year or in a subsequent year, Director of Development Communications David Nathan explained in an e-mail to the Justice. Funds for capital projects and that endowment are also part of the $78.3 million total, he added. The restricted and unrestricted funds used in the operating budget in fiscal 2009 included $11.6 million primarily for arts and sciences support, including financial aid; $13.2 million for targeted program support, including graduate education, the International Business School and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and $6.3 million from large bequests and one-time resources to help close the budget gap. With $11.6 million, the University beat its budget-relieving target by $600,000, Nathan wrote.

Winship emphasized that much fundraising support came from alumni, trustees, the Brandeis National Committee and other friends of the University, including members of the Jewish community. Funds were also raised through the Phonathon program, which involves students making phone calls to alumni in order to solicit donations. Additionally, students spoke directly to donors and wrote them thank-you notes to encourage cooperation for the future.

Winship said that a significant contribution of $600,000 came from a Brandeis fundraising initiative called the Krupp Scholarship Challenge, which was established by Boston community leaders Liz and George Krupp. The Krupps agreed to contribute up to $1 million by matching $1 for every $2 raised for scholarships. According to Winship, other donors were encouraged by the promise of the Krupps' additional contributions.

Last fiscal year, Brandeis raised a record $90.4 million that included a one-time $10 million gift from Robert F.X. Sillerman '69 in July 2007, which established the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy.

Winship said that raising money for student financial aid was her office's highest priority. "Instead of soliciting someone for an endowed gift, . we instead asked them to give whatever they could give [for current use]," Winship said.

"When we hit May we were very far behind. . I was concerned about how we would make our goal, and so we just put nonstop effort to it," Winship said. "I was blown away by my own development staff. June 30 [the last day of the fiscal year], that night was a Wednesday; at 10 [p.m.] there were still people working the phones calling the West Coast. It was phenomenal." She went on to say that "[University President Jehuda Reinharz] is a great fundraiser; he worked extraordinarily hard to bring in large gifts from donors to fund financial aid." Overall, the University processed 50,000 gift transactions, according to Winship.

Winship said her office has also focused on student need in its outreach to donors, stressing student need online in particular by using viral marketing campaigns. "The Faculty Senate sent an e-mail to around 20,000 alumni and asked them for support; that was something we'd never done before," she said. The office sought to engage alumni using online video seminars with Brandeis professors and created a video featuring Brandeis mascot Ollie the Owl geared toward attracting younger alumni as well one focused on the importance of scholarships to students. Another video focused on the importance of scholarships to students. "People will respond to the need to provide" students with aid, Winship said, particularly "students who are already here" and whose parents may have fallen on hard times.

Given the financial challenges, donors over the past fiscal year were also less likely to make long-term commitments, said Winship. "Up until this year, people looked to the future financially, maybe making more and more, thinking their savings would be growing," Winship said. She continued, "All of a sudden, the rug was pulled from under them, and people's ability to project what kind of finances [they would have], everything was thrown up in the air."

Another method the Office of Development and Alumni Relations used to solicit gifts this year was to obtain stretch gifts, Winship explained, asking donors to give slightly more than the original amount offered given the need that Brandeis faces. Winship expressed concern about using the same strategy for the coming year as "it's very hard to tell [people] the same story again next year," she said.

This past semester the Development Office also formed a Faculty Development Committee, Winship said. The committee members act as liaison between the Office of the Development and the faculty, representing a sounding board for ideas and strategies and helping with highlighting faculty accomplishments, she said. The Development Office also discusses with the Faculty Development Committee ways it can help raise money for faculty projects or other areas of the University, according to Winship

Winship added that many faculty members make donations and help reach out to unrealized potentials among alumni. The Development Office has identified 174 alumni who could have the potential to make significant gifts to the University but have not yet done so, according to Winship.

French wrote that the University would be engaging in a continued review of the financial and budget planning process with the Brandeis community before presenting updates to the fiscal 2010 budget and the fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2014 budgets at the October Board of Trustees meeting.

French explained that the administration always projects multiple financial scenarios, including worst, middle and best. "At the conclusion of fiscal 2009, the University's financial status can be characterized as slightly stronger than the middle-case," French wrote. The University ended fiscal 2009 "with a modest positive operating result of $500,000" through increases in revenues and decreases in expenses.

Winship says that her office is already focused on fundraising for the new fiscal year. "You don't really know if you've made [the exact total raised] until July 12, [after the books close]", she said. "[But] as soon as we hit July we start at zero again."

Looking into the future, "we're just in the process of planning our strategy [for the coming fiscal year], but most likely our focus will again be to raise as much current use funds for student financial aid and student programs as possible," Winship said.

Jeffrey Apfel, who will soon replace Peter French as EVP/COO, noted that "every institution works on integrating its fundraising opportunities with its overall financial goals."

Apfel added that "what fundraising in higher education is all about is . finding ways to link donors' passions to the mission and direction of the institution. From what I can see, Brandeis has done that well.