I think this is reading too much into a harmless engagement campaign. Seriously people, it's just a name the *blank* contest
The capital campaign, part of a larger comprehensive fundraising campaign, is based on a feasibility study conducted by an outside consultant stating that there is both ability and willingness to support the project."
How much did the consultants charge for that report? The university needs to stop hiring consultants for “advice.”
Count me among those who raise a wary eyebrow whenever I see consultants being hired in higher ed settings. For specific, niche tasks outside the expected competence range of university leadership, I can see the wisdom. But all too often, big money is shelled out to consultants because a school’s own pertinent leaders should have clue but don’t.
I know of consultants being hired at other schools to determine whether the institution is capable of a major fundraising campaign. Uh, um, isn’t this why you have a President, Development Director, and Board Chair? It’s especially pathetic if you spend six figures on a consultant to tell you that you don’t have the capacity to stage a capital campaign. Duh.
Holy smokes, bullwinkle, I thought you guys were making up that squirrel thing. That’s absolutely copy/pasted from some development webinar. Nothing in that says Valpo, not even the sample names. How many hours of human-power went into this? I’m dying to see one of those certificates, but not for $20 of my own money.
I think this is reading too much into a harmless engagement campaign. Seriously people, it's just a name the *blank* contest
It also looks like a profit-less campaign. 20 people at $18.59 is just shy of $400. Their goal is $2,500. If you’re going to “name a blank,” make it relevant to your campus. This only makes me think my beloved Valpo has been infested by rodents since the time I graduated.
As a young alumni, this is viewed as a very “millennial” thing. I’m sure that this didn’t require a tremendous amount of work. In fact, I’ve already had multiple people saying “did you see the squirrel…”. This was seen as a fun way to engage alumni with the school. It’s not like they were asking for a large amount of money. Even a small fundraiser will help with a students scholarship, fund campus improvements, etc. This was created to be a small and light hearted fundraiser. It got others talking about it, didn’t it? Plus there are a ton of squirrels around campus…
A dumb, boring, lazy way to rake in cash, which is likely going towards Padillas retirement booty. We gotta do better than this crap.
This is a way to cultivate younger alumni to begin a tradition of giving. It's a small ask, so doable, with a fun hook that will feel more relevant to those that are on campus a lot. Many young alums who are still paying off student loans are understandable annoyed by asks for money from their university but it's also important to get alums in the habit of giving early. This is a way to do the latter without triggering the emotions of the former. Not every event, ask, fundraising activity, is going to speak to everyone. This literally cost nothing to do and if it gets young alums talking and engaging it's more than worth it.
The Valpo Fund is also unrestricted endowment which is definitely a necessity in more financially tight times when restricted funds limit your ability to respond where the need is at that moment, copy that with the capital campaign probably pushing bigger donors to the Nursing building/program goal and you need to find ways to off set giving that might move from the Fund to there.
Pretty sure there are a lot of ways to criticize advancement(like why did we not get the Lily grant like so many other Indiana schools!) But this seems like a silly thing to decide speaks to the downfall of the university.
Hmmm.
You mention the Lilly grant miss? So why didn't we get the huge Lilly grant?
And does the squirrel money really get "squirreled away" into "unrestricted endowment?" That's what you said. Then how are you raising cash gift money that applies to the current budget?
The bond rating companies are probably less interested in any endowment growth this year than the budget deficit and gift income trending. If I send $18.59, could Padilla buy a one-way train ticket to Chicago?
Looking at the way the email was written, it was certainly to attract younger generations of alumni. (Which someone here provided information to prove it was effective in doing so). This is further proof of the doomer mindset some are taking towards any effort to improve conditions. Right now it seems like every effort the university tries to do is met with hostility from some. For Christs sake people, do you not see how silly it is to make claims that this is going to Padilla's retirement.
It was a harmless campaign. Calm down.
Cmon man I was joking about Padilla, who needs to take some grief for the struggles at Valpo.
Here are some facts about the squirrel campaign:
- It’s pretty generic.
- Only 23 people have given. That’s $427.57, so it’s not terribly successful.
- Everyone needs to calm down. No one’s embezzling money, but at the same time, this isn’t an innovation to celebrate.
The "squirrel campaign" may be sort of cute and a small effort, but it is not consistent with the professional type of fundraising that Valpo needs to pursue. For instance, Donald Fites and his wife graciously donated $4M for a new health sciences building that has an overall expected cost of $90M. Valpo needs $86M more to make that happen, which requires serious professional fundraising and perceptions that Valpo is a serious fundraising organization (which admittedly is unlikely to begin with Pres. Padilla still at the helm). The squirrel campaign might be cute and take little in the way of resources, but it sends a wrong message regarding Valpo's fundraising priorities.
The "squirrel campaign" may be sort of cute and a small effort, but it is not consistent with the professional type of fundraising that Valpo needs to pursue. For instance, Donald Fites and his wife graciously donated $4M for a new health sciences building that has an overall expected cost of $90M. Valpo needs $86M more to make that happen, which requires serious professional fundraising and perceptions that Valpo is a serious fundraising organization (which admittedly is unlikely to begin with Pres. Padilla still at the helm). The squirrel campaign might be cute and take little in the way of resources, but it sends a wrong message regarding Valpo's fundraising priorities.
Is there some sort of rule against running multiple styles of campaigns to generate cash? I assume any professional donor will either
1. Not care about a harmless engagement bait fundraiser.
2. Will likely ask about it, to which the response will be "we are looking into getting younger generations of alumni involved. Campaigns like this really click with younger folks in a way that more formal donation campaigns do not" to which the professional donor will likely....still not care in the slightest.
So called "serious fundraising organizations" to small campaigns like this all the time. Is it an oversaturated market for these things, absolutely, but no "formal" donor is going to get a bad taste in their mouth over his. If Valpo were to only do this type of campaign and not engage in formal fundraising efforts, then there is a conversation to be bad, but Valpo still has formal fundraising efforts on their docket
Fair points. Yes, you can run two campaigns and target two audiences. I can relax a bit. But........these points are also true:
1) Yes, there might be some merit in a cute gimmicky appeal to an age segment.
2) But, I got the squirrel email. I am over 60 years old. I gave some $500+ gifts when Harre was president.
3) Yes...squirrels gather nuts in the fall so that's a cute thing. But it's a bad time of year to do click response gimmicks in a serious Valpo need in October. In that month your older, charitable, and capable $1,000+ donors are already thinking of tax year timing for IRAs etc. Yes, they can ignore the squirrel. It just looks dumb.
Just wanted to check in. I did a little research and found that naming squirrels on college campuses has become a pretty big thing of late. Ole Miss, Miami (OH) and TCU were all schools that have run recent campaigns about this and I'm sure there are many more.
So my original point stands that this is just a copy/paste job from other institutions, with no effort at personalizing it for Valpo.
