Eastern has more than 70,000 alumni, and Jill Nilsen expects development directors in the Office of Philanthropy to visit as many of them as they can.

To do this well, the development directors are expected to travel in preparation for Eastern’s $40 million fund-raising campaign, which developed after President Bill Perry put emphasis on fundraising in his January 2008 letter to the university.

The campaign is the largest attempted at Eastern.

“We need staff out there,” said Nilsen, vice president for external relations.

The campaign, which would address needs of students, faculty members, academic programs and facilities, is currently in a silent phase and has not been launched.

The silent phase is where major gifts are arranged. To come out of a silent phase, half of Eastern’s goal – or $20 million – must be met.

“That is when you are trying to raise your major gifts,” Nilsen said. “That requires a lot of face-to-face contact.”

Four major people on campus, including Perry, spent about $13,315 toward travel for fund-raising trips from Aug. 1 to Dec. 15, according to travel vouchers obtained through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Ultimately, those fundraising trips will contribute to the campaign, which addresses four areas of the university.

Money toward students entails scholarships and financial aid. Money toward faculty would go to professional development, such as conference trips and research opportunities.

Money toward programs would go to academic programs, such as general improvements to the nursing program. Money toward capital would go to improvement projects for Eastern’s facilities.

From Aug. 1 to Dec. 15, Perry spent $3,834 for fundraising trips.

The other three major people in fundraising are Karla Evans, director of the Office of Philanthropy; Jackie Joines, development director of philanthropy for the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences; and John Schmitt, development director of philanthropy for Chicago.

Evans spent $4,122 on fundraising trips between Aug. 1 and Dec. 15. Joines spent $3,597. Schmitt spent $1,762.

Another major person for fundraising, Nilsen, devoted all of her trips in the fall semester to legislative and lobby work. Nilsen spent $523 for those trips in the fall.

Perry said travel allows the university to establish and sustain contacts for potential gifts during fundraising.

One of his trips during the fall semester included a visit to Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys quarterback and alumnus, and Mike Shanahan, former Denver Broncos head coach and alumnus.

That trip, which took Perry from Charleston to Denver, Colo., cost the university about $354.

Perry said travel does not comprise a large portion of the university’s overall budget. He said, on average, he makes a fundraising trip once a month. He gave the external relations department three to five days a month for fundraising travel.

Destinations visited by the four people varied from Las Vegas to Durham, N.C., to Chicago to St. Louis to Monticello.

Money for fundraising trips can also come from a variety of budgets on campus.

Perry said his office has an overall travel budget, while the Office of Philanthropy has a travel budget specifically for fundraising.

He added on certain occasions, he visits alumni while on a personal development trip such as a convention.

“I just roll that in it with it, so that we are able to get more impact with our travel dollar,” Perry said.

Evans said her office has $71,500 allocated for total travel for fiscal year 2009. Most of the travel dollars are for fundraising trips.

Joines said her primary duty is to acquire major and planned gifts for Lumpkin College. She said her donor list is comprised mostly of alumni. She also receives $6,000 to $8,000 a year for travel from the college.

She added Nilsen could supplement her travel funds if she uses all of her travel budget.

“It doesn’t take very much to go through my budget, but I still need to function to do my job,” Joines said. “You can only e-mail, call and write letters to a certain extent.”

Perry said Eastern officials always try to take the lowest hotel rate and lowest airfare in an area and be as economical as possible.

“By a combination of resources, we are able to make the kind of contacts and the kind of visits we need to do,” Perry said.

Doing a lot with a little

Eastern historically has always had a smaller philanthropy office compared to other public universities.

Although that trend is changing slightly, the philanthropy staff will be expected to raise $40 million in the next five years with limited resources.

Nilsen said Perry and former President Lou Hencken made fundraising a priority.

“The more people you have meeting folks, the better it is in terms of raising money,” she said.

In fact, to provide more resources for the major campaign, the university hired three philanthropy directors in the fall semester. The three people equal two full-time positions.

Nilsen said, combining all part-time and full-time directors, the Office of Philanthropy has four-and-a-half full-time fundraisers. Each director can receive anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 for travel.

Conversely, Western Illinois University has eight full-time directors who annually receive $12,000 to $15,000 for travel.

Dan Hendricks, vice president for advancement and public services at Western, said the directors devote most of their time to fundraising and are each responsible for a different college.

Western has five colleges and an enrollment of 10,785.

The University of Illinois Foundation has nine regional directors each responsible for a geographic area. The directors represent three campuses: Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.

Donald Kojich, assistant vice president of marketing and communications for the U of I Foundation, said each college on each campus has a chief developer officer that might have two to three people devoted to fundraising.

Because the foundation is in a $2.5 billion campaign, Kojich said the foundation’s travel budget is essentially limitless in order to raise such a large amount of money.

“I couldn’t begin to give an answer,” Kojich said.

The Urbana-Champaign campus has an enrollment of 30,935. The Chicago campus has an enrollment of 25,000, and the Springfield campus has an enrollment of 2,889. The colleges on the three campuses total 31, including two graduate colleges.

Eastern has five colleges and an enrollment of 12,040. Joines is the only person to represent a college, while three other directors are responsible for the athletics department, Chicago, Springfield and Florida.

Many retired alumni live in Florida.

Eastern’s small philanthropy staff, however, could receive additional help in the future.

Evans said her office is in the process of aligning the directors not assigned to a region with deans and vice presidents of the university.

She added more donors from the different colleges would be covered once the directors are assigned to working with deans and the vice presidents because communication would be streamlined.

Travel necessary for relationships

In order to develop relationships, fundraising directors are expected to travel.

Evans said a full-time director receives $10,000 a year for travel. A part-time director, who devotes 80 percent of his time to fundraising, receives $8,000 a year for travel. A part-time director, who spends 60 percent of his time to fundraising work, receives $6,000 for travel and so forth.

By applying that model to the 10 development directors in the Office of Philanthropy, one director in the office receives $10,000 for travel, three receive $8,000, three receive $6,000, two receive $5,000 and one receives $2,000.

Evans said each director also has a portfolio of potential donors who belong to either a region or an academic program. Evans expects the directors to cultivate those potential donors to acquire major gifts. Cultivation can take from 18 months to two years, she added.

In order to cultivate donors, the directors need to maximize their travel budget.

Evans gave a hypothetical example. If a full-time director makes $60,000 a year on a $10,000 travel budget, they are expected to raise $600,000 for the university. The general standard is a director is expected to earn 10 times his salary, she added.

“I could never justify putting $10,000 on a director and then not having them produce,” Evans said.

When on the road, Evans expects her directors to be busy. She said, in general, directors should visit five different donors per trip.

In early February, Evans went to Phoenix during a weekend. On that Friday, she had three scheduled visits. From 10 to 11:30 a.m., she met an individual donor. From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., she attended a lunch meeting with donors. From 5 to 8 p.m., she visited donors for dinner.

“That is about eight hours of face time, which is a lot,” Evans said. “It’s more about listening than talking, but.it’s exhausting. That same thing happened Saturday. It’s an intense process.”

Perry, likewise, said he wants his days busy during fundraising trips.

Many times, the director who knows the donor or alum will accompany Perry on a trip. That director is in charge of compiling background information on all the people Perry will be visiting.

“You have two or three, four days sometimes, of these meetings,” Perry said. “At the end of the day, I’ll jot down notes from my meetings or in-between meetings.”

Perry said that while traveling, many one-on-one meetings with multiple donors take place during one day. In those instances, Perry said he could meet donors and alums during a breakfast, mid-morning lunch, an afternoon meeting and an evening meeting. He added sometimes he has four personal meetings in a day, other times he has five.

Alumni events are another way the president meets potential donors. Those gatherings, Perry said, usually take place during a social event. For example, during the summer, Perry met a group of alumni for lunch in Wrigleyville and then they all went to a Chicago Cubs’ game.

Evans said travel is vital to developing relationships with potential donors because sitting in an office and making phone calls to raise money is not enough.

“When people give to people, they want that face-to-face interaction,” Evans said. “They want that eye contact and the ability to gauge non-verbal communication.”

Joines said she enjoys the process of developing relationships with donors. She added she enjoys hearing donors’ stories about what led them to Eastern.

Joines has been involved in philanthropy at Eastern for 10 years and was the first person hired to represent a college. She said the key when meeting with a donor is to listen. She added that with her job title, donors know why she is visiting.

“That’s no big revelation,” she said.

Joines said sustaining a relationship is no different from a person keeping in contact with friends. She added the more time a director spends with donors, the more time the director gets to know them. Because of this, Joines knows when certain donors are busy during a particular time of year, or she will send condolences to a donor when the anniversary of the death of a family member comes around.

She added she makes sure donors understand she is not simply trying to take money from them.

“To me, this is a relationship,” she said. “Giving back is supposed to be fun. That’s why they call them gifts.”

When Joines cultivates donors, she said she educates donors about the needs of Eastern, the mission of Eastern and the news surrounding Eastern.

When she has to make an offer, she said the trust between her and the donor already exists.

“They know it is important. They don’t question the need,” Joines said. “Trust is very, very important.”

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].