By Gregory A. Volk
Executive Vice President
In September 2003, Lawrence’s vice president for business and administration, William F. Hodgkiss, retired from the college. President Richard Warch appointed vice president for development and external affairs, Gregory A. Volk, to the new post of executive vice president with responsibilities for both offices.
Gift income from private sources totaled $14.82 million* in fiscal 2003. Although this represents a decrease of 20 percent over the previous year’s $18.53 million, it is worth noting that the 2002 figure included nearly $2 million in a single gift-in-kind, the appraised value of coin collections received from the estate of Ottilia Buerger, ’38. When adjusted to a cash basis, fiscal 2003 gift receipts declined by a more modest 11 percent. Given the significant challenges for fund raising due to the economy, it is reassuring to note that 2003 was the fourth-best fund-raising year in Lawrence’s history.
In the six years since concluding the Lawrence 150 sesquicentennial campaign, the college has raised approximately $100 million, with average annual gift income of $16.25 million. While the continuing growth and progress of the development program serves us well, the college’s trustees have begun a planning process to ensure the college’s future strength and promise through a campaign that will be a priority for the college’s next president.
Use of funds received
Of the $14.8 million total, $3 million was received for The Lawrence Fund;
$642,000 in other budget-relieving gifts; and $604,000 in restricted current
gifts, bringing the total of expendable support to $4.25 million. Gifts
to the endowment totaled $8.74 million; $126,826 represents life-income gifts;
and $1.69 million was directed
toward the physical plant.
The Lawrence Fund
Gifts to The Lawrence Fund provided
$3 million, comfortably ahead of its $2.7 million goal and a seven percent
increase over the preceding year.
This represents
the second time that The Lawrence Fund has exceeded the $3 million mark.
Trustee support of The Lawrence Fund was the key element in these strong results, as trustee gifts for this purpose totaled $649,157, versus $600,595 last year, an eight percent increase.
Membership in The Founders Club, our leadership annual giving society, climbed to 554, from 524 in fiscal 2002, an increase of 6 percent, and Founders Club members contributed $1.9 million to The Lawrence Fund versus $1.7 million last year, an 11 percent increase.
Alumni donor participation
While we were pleased to have The Lawrence Fund reach $3 million and
to increase the ranks and support of The Founders Club, our efforts
to bolster
the alumni
participation rate failed to return Lawrence to the 50th-percentile
level. The participation rate reached 48.4 percent, versus 49 percent
last year.
Alumni donors totaled 7,084, versus 7,187. The average alumni gift
to The Lawrence
Fund reached $313, versus $292 in fiscal 2002.
Efforts of the Viking Gift Committee to encourage more young alumni to begin the habit of annual giving succeeded in bolstering the ranks of younger donors. In addition, the Milestone Reunion Gift Program for alumni in classes celebrating their 10th, 25th, 40th, and 50th reunions produced a number of new records: the Class of 1993 generated the largest 10th reunion gift, and the Class of 1978 accomplished the same result for the 25th reunion gift; the Class of 1963 quadrupled its giving in fiscal 2003; and the Class of 1953 achieved the largest class donor participation rate of all time, with 77.3 percent of the class contributing to the reunion gift!
Endowment and physical plant
Additions to the endowment from gifts totaled $8.74 million, versus
$9.1 million last year. Endowment gifts continue to constitute
the largest
percentage of
total gift income — 59 percent in 2002-03. Distributions
from two large bequests, Ottilia Buerger ($1.39 million) and Olin
Jessup, ’30 ($5.76
million), were the principal factors in these robust results. Gifts
for the plant fund totaled $1.688 million, versus $4.989 million
a year ago.
National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge
Since receiving notification in December 2001 that Lawrence had
been awarded a $500,000 challenge
grant from the NEH to endow
Freshman Studies, we have
made significant progress toward meeting the goal of securing
$2 million in new gifts (a 4:1 match) by July 31, 2005. As of June
30,
gifts and
commitments for Freshman Studies totaled $1.47 million. Once
this endowment reaches
$2.5 million, the fund will be named the Nathan Marsh Pusey Freshman
Studies Endowment
in memory and honor of Lawrence’s tenth president, who
initiated the program in 1945.
Trimming fund-raising costs
The college has initiated a number of belt-tightening initiatives,
including a budget for fiscal 2004 that incorporates a 5 percent
reduction in non-personnel
areas.
While the development office provides a significant and essential revenue stream for the college, we, too, have found ways to contain and reduce costs and are able to report that expenditures in the fund-raising area came in almost $260,000 under budget in fiscal 2003. Such savings are obviously helpful to the college in this period of budgetary constraints, but they also serve to reassure our donors that their gift dollars are being put to good use in supporting teaching and learning.
In higher education, the national average of cost per fund-raising dollar raised is approximately 18 cents. Last year, Lawrence spent only 9 cents per dollar raised.
Thanks
The generous support of the college’s many benefactors contributes
mightily to the strength and stature of Lawrence. With your help, Lawrence
continues
to bolster its academic program, to provide much-needed
scholarship support to talented and deserving students, to make significant
investments in the
library and information technology, and to make improvements
to the campus in ways that benefit the teaching and learning environment
that is so integral
to the mission of the college.
The most visible and significant philanthropic enhancement of the college in the past year is the construction of Hiett Hall, our magnificent new student residence that is home to 183 lucky Lawrence students. Lawrence remains exceedingly grateful to Kim Hiett Jordan, ’58, whose generous gift made it possible for us to undertake this important project. The building is named in honor of Clara and Stanley Hiett, Kim’s parents, whose love of learning was conveyed to Kim and her siblings.
On behalf of all of us at Lawrence, thank you again for your generous support and dedication.
* Although the figures here presented are in compliance with standards adopted by CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) and NACUBO (National Association of College Business Officers), they differ from the presentation of gift income on the college’s financial statements. This report includes both gifts and payments on pledges received during 2002-03, but excludes new pledges received during the fiscal year. Financial statement gift income, on the other hand, augments these numbers by the value of new pledges received during the year and reduces them by the value of payments made on pledges received in prior fiscal years.
