College administrators are focusing their efforts on strategic planning and small-scale fundraising initiatives in anticipation of a future capital campaign under College President Jim Yong Kim, according to Senior Vice President for Advancement Carolyn Pelzel. Although Kim is currently operating without a designated capital campaign, the College's strategic planning process led by Provost Carol Folt is currently assessing areas in need of institutional improvement and will likely contribute its findings to a capital campaign agenda, Pelzel said.
Once strategic planning has made recommendations that require sources of funding a process that can take approximately 18 months the College will begin to consider a long-term capital campaign to meet those needs, according to Pelzel. In the "nucleus phase" of the campaign, proposals will be presented to stakeholders, including members of the Board of Trustees and other major supporters, who can choose to launch the campaign publicly. Trustees will then vote on a target monetary goal, she said.
Priorities for the capital campaign will include "support for more faculty" through filling new professorships, Pelzel said.
Economics professor Christopher Snyder said he agrees with the focus on faculty recruitment as a central goal of College revenue-raising efforts.
Past fundraising activities have relied heavily on capital campaigns with broad strategic goals, according to history professor emeritus and unofficial College historian Jere Daniell. Every College president since former College President John Sloan Dickey has initiated such a campaign, Daniell said.
"Private educational institutions have to raise money constantly just to exist," he said. "The cost of tuition pays for roughly half of what the cost of the enterprise as a whole is."
The College is currently working to gather the funds necessary to digitize library collections, a goal that was not met during the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, which ran from 2002 to 2009 under former College President Jim Wright.
The campaign raised $1.3 billion, reaching its initial goal, despite the onset of the financial crisis in its final year. Approximately 70 percent of alumni contributed to the endeavor, which focused on academic operations, residential and campus life, financial aid and annual giving, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Kim's experience in leading the College through a financial crisis will be beneficial as he prepares to launch a campaign of this nature, according to Snyder.
"They've managed to trim expenditures without cutting too much muscle and bone," Snyder said. "You have to increase revenues and decrease costs and you're always trying to balance those."
While Pelzel said it is too early to examine the statistics associated with Kim's performance as a fundraiser, she noted that Kim has attracted record turnouts at many Dartmouth clubs, demonstrating the willingness of alumni to engage with the College.
"He understands that philanthropy done well is about giving meaning to people's lives," she said. "He is very open to engage in give and take with donors and to be candid about what we do really well at Dartmouth and what we could do better."
In order to implement changes, the College is currently focusing on "mini-campaigns" as its major source of fundraising, according to Pelzel.
"The number one priority right now is the Dartmouth College Fund," she said. "More than 20,000 alumni make contributions through the fund every year."
The Dartmouth College Fund, the College's annual giving fund, typically covers between 8 and 10 percent of the College's operating budget, Pelzel said.
"It plays a very important role in helping to fund the student experience," she said.
Kim has contacted faculty to solicit input for establishing funding priorities, Snyder said.
The importance of capital campaigns also extends beyond their monetary dividends, according to Pelzel.
"[They] bring alumni, parents and other supporters into closer communication with the institution about its strengths, weaknesses, aspirations and most importantly, what this philanthropy is going to accomplish," she said. "It also conveys to the general public and to prospective students that this is an institution that is focused on continuous improvement."
Capital campaigns create a framework for institutional objectives and ensure that individuals beyond a college's administration are able to voice their opinions, Lisa Lapin, vice president for university communications at Stanford University, said.
"[A capital campaign] is the organizing principle behind all fundraising activities," Lapin said. "It establishes the fundraising priorities for the university and is based on extensive research on the needs of faculty and students."
Major capital campaigns are in operation at six of the eight Ivy League schools excluding Harvard University and Brown University according to each school's respective website.
