The University raised $54.7 million in cash gifts in fiscal year 2013, an almost six million dollar decline from the previous year's $61 million total. While the Office of Development attributes this decline to a lack of major ongoing construction projects, it is still looking to alumni to increase its base of alumni contributors.crease its base of alumni contributors.

According to a statement from the Office of Development, "[t]he change reflects the fulfillment by donors of major capital and endowment pledges made during the recently completed Campaign for Brandeis." The Campaign for Brandeis was the last major capital campaign, which stretched from 2001 until the beginning of University President Frederick Lawrence's presidency in 2011.

In an interview with the Justice, Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship attributed the decline to the fact that there are no new facilities currently being built.
"When you're building-we're not building any buildings right now-that makes a huge difference in the numbers you report because if you're building the [Shapiro] Campus Center, if you're building the Mandel Center [for the Humanities] or the [Shapiro] Science Center, there's all this money coming in for those projects."

Donations for buildings are generally multi-year pledges, some of which are still being paid off by the donors, said Winship.

The University will also soon launch a new capital campaign, which will focus less on constructing physical facilities and instead emphasize gifts for student scholarships and fellowships, endowed faculty chairs and funding for the strategic plan.

"We're working on what the gift opportunities will be out of the strategic plan," said Winship. "What we need to do, and it's most important, it's a work in progress, is decide with the provost and trustee input, faculty input 'what are the priorities that we want to raise money for.'"

By the end of this year, Winship said the administration will have a refined gifts opportunities list, which will include endowed chairs and financial aid, among more specific options.
The Board of Trustees approved the final version of the strategic plan in May 2013.

Winship said once the capital campaign is launched, fundraising numbers "will start going up."

"I see us five years from now raising $90 million a year," she said.

The "quiet phase" of the campaign, which is when the University approaches its closest alumni and friends but does not publicize the campaign, will likely start in spring 2014, according to Winship.

As a broader trend, the University is shifting from being supported mostly by friends, who are nonaffiliated supporters of the University, to focusing on the potential of alumni giving.

"Alumni fundraising is going exceptionally well and I give the credit to [Lawrence]," said Winship. "We are in a transition from being supported mostly by friends, remember there were times when ... 65 percent of our money came from friends," she said.

"[Lawrence] is talking to a number of donors who are interested in making very large gifts to the University," said Winship.
In fiscal 2013, 21.6 percent of funds raised came from alumni, as compared to 15.8 percent in 2009, said Winship. That same year, 27 percent of alumni made a gift to the University, which is up one percent from the previous year and beats the average of the top 50 national universities in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, according to Director of Development Communications David Nathan.

The Office of Development said it is particularly emphasizing giving by young alumni. The Bold: Brandeisians of the Last Decade campaign has increased giving from 13 percent in fiscal 2011 to 17 percent in fiscal 2013.

"I would say that's a long-term investment. We invest in Bold. We do not expect that Bold alumni are going to be making large gifts. But what we care about is what percentage of them give gifts," said Winship. "It's all about looking into the future and making sure what we do here now, with the president and in development, prepares the way for future larger and larger campaigns."

The University also recently hired Patricia Fisher as the new vice president of alumni and university relations. Fisher previously worked in development at Dartmouth College for 25 years.