Fundraising

1. Fundraising GBC 2012

2. Fundraising Issues Overview • Issue 1 – Fundraising Outreach • Issue 2 – School Outreach vs. Student Outreach • Issue 3 – Maintaining Corporate Sponsorship • Issue 4 – Maximize Limited Funding Sources • Issue 5 – Formalize Fundraising Efforts • Other Thoughts

3. Issue 1 – Fundraising Outreach • Standardize outreach process across student clubs. • Develop and present letter, presentation, sponsor value propositions, and discuss the sponsors right’s (would it be co-branding, how much exposure, etc.) • Start with alumni, but also consult faculty who likely have good relationships within the industry. • If fundraising done for an event, in-kind requests often more successful than $’s. • Have in-person meetings rather than email/phone outreach

4. Issue 2 – School Outreach versus Student Outreach • Many loops in order to go through school administration • School already has a process set up • Alumni board, Fundraising board, etc. • If it’s well run, student run clubs can become self sufficient • Ensure School administration is on board and understand student actions

5. Issue 3 – Maintaining Corporate Sponsorship • Important to communicate the benefits of sponsorships to corporations • Sponsors need to understand the value proposition of their sponsorship. • $’s versus in kind. • Keep them in the loop with regards to ongoing activities and how their sponsorship is helping. • Involve sponsors in activities and engage in discussions regarding student help

6. Issue 4 – Maximize Limited Funding Sources • Clubs typically funded by members or through limited “activity fees” through School. • Think about opportunities to collect data among students or within the community and sell it to local organizations. • Some schools even sell “human resource” services • Funding for charity events

7. Issue 4 – Maximize Limited Funding Sources (cont.) • School owned concession/vending machines or bars: • Money spent by students goes back to the school • Consulting or company projects where the funding goes back the clubs. • Involvement with 180degreesconsulting • This may be in conflict with class-sponsored projects that allows interactions with companies. • Merchandise sales to alumni

8. Issue 5 – Formalize Fundraising Efforts • How can School formalize fundraising efforts & instill it as ongoing process that includes relationships with stakeholders (i.e. corporations & alumni)? • Have fundraising director (transfer knowledge, maintain database) • Run clubs as separate entities with unique corporate relationships • Provide opportunities for club and corporations to interact. • Work with fundraising director

9. Issue 5 – Formalize Fundraising Efforts (cont.) • Find platforms to facilitate sponsorship exposure via advertising: • Televisions on campus • Booklets to incoming students • Website – structure information in such a way as to ensure maximum exposure

10. APPENDIX

11. Issue Potential Solution Martha – sponsorship best practice “packages,” get clubs tapped into database that funders can access. Inder (Schulich) – Schulich doesn’t rely on admin to provide sponsorships – reach out on student level instead of faculty reaching out – adding value to clients later on, whereas admin may have rigid system to reach out – clubs have own sponsorships, funding doesn’t come from GBC – clubs have their own networks - make sure that more than one club doesn’t reach out to same clients (through shared database) • Denise (Foster) – Need ideas for sponsorship of club and other MBA events • Processes and tactics for obtaining and maintaining sponsorship (and to avoid competition with current funding)

12. Problem Solution Inder (Schulich) – make sure that when cold calling, you actually reach out to the person in charge/in interest in donations – don’t make proposition on phone, meet in person or email • David (NCCU Taiwain) No regulation on school funds, looking into sponsorship without controversy, program support, size and frequency of events, admins saying they should, database is just list of corporate names – just cold calling - student body is divided (50% local, 50% foreign) – not a lot of funds

13. Problem Solution Colin(Duke) – At Duke, everything is processed through b-school, processes are put in place: everything is through fees, no club fees – may be slower but covers you liability-wise (travel, insurance) and better for tracking money – logarithm separates money into clubs from large student fee fund, in addition to slush fund if you want to apply for more money – MBAA survey determines how clubs are doing—you’re able to follow – funding based on how many people responded • David – no supervision or regulation over bank account (GBC considered extracurricular)

14. Problem Solution Inder (Schulich) – Giving GBC autonomy avoids conflicts of interest, but understand about benefits of auditing Brad – Things can vary as to which club leaders are proactive, they rely on admin a bit, but it is mixed bag – depends on what event it is and what time of year it is. Denise – Push ownership to clubs and GBC just acts as oversight, don’t mandate on how clubs spend the money Colin – Hard with year-to-year sponsorship – better to do it with large student fees, baseline money amount for each club, big event each week that is co-sponsored each week by different club from big fund – hard to ask incoming students to become good fundraisers Martha – expensive events are extra in addition to set fee • Martha (Rotman) – inconsistent approaches to student sponsorship, they seek sponsors in silos (who doles out sponsorship? Does GBC combine forces with clubs?)

15. Problem Solution Colin – Problem may be resolved with extended contracts (5 year contracts) – that’s not how Duke does it, but relationships are directly managed by clubs - • Inder – Inconsistent sponsorships (60% student levy, 40% sponsorships) – companies don’t see value so they don’t continue – How do they allocate money to best of ability?

16. Problem Solution Martha – (THIS IS MORE OF AN INSIGHT ABOUT THE PROBLEM) Club just wants money, but corporate sponsors want to send someone there to talk. Colin – Sponsors want to be involved in events that are applicable to them as opposed to undergrad vs. grad. There is distinction between events that are social and events that are applicable to them. • Brad – How do you keep donors involved after the fact? • Dean – They have very strong BBA program, not much cooperation between BBA and MBA • Colin – Lack of long term relationships – inconsistent/awkward fundraising “asks”

17. website gets a lot of hits. They thought about all of the different platforms to sell advertising and built it as part of campus media. Ads are sold. They are currently working on formalizing this because they do not want to take funding out of their own budget. • Formalization of Fundraising: How can a school formalize their fundraising efforts and instill it as an ongoing process that includes relationships with stakeholders, i. e. Corporations and Alumni?

18. Copenhagen business school owns canteens and bars. This is for the entire school, but the MBA School gets the benefit. The school was able to beat the existing, private deals. There is an issue of continuation. In Copenhagen, the president actually takes a year off school to run the business. • Concessions/vending machines on campus • Made funding a non-issue. Their issue was how to prioritize the funding.

19. Additional Suggestions • Develop and present letter, presentation, specific sponsor value propositions, and present the sponsors rights (would it be co-branding, how much exposure, etc.) • When you approach a company, start with Alumni, but also use the Faculty who have good relationships with the industry. • Sometimes fundraising is done event by event. If you ask for something specific rather than general, it is easier to get items. Example of football tournament was used where the school asked Nike for balls. They also got jerseys. Energy drinks was also sponsored. All of these items reduce costs, which in and by itself is a form of fundraising. • NUS Business school (Singapore) runs celebration case competition. Had two oil companies…made one the principal sponsor which the case was based on. The other was only an event sponsor with less visibility. Other Universities may not want to be associated with Oil companies. Oil companies are low hanging fruit with respect to funding. They would always like to associate themselves with business schools. Before going to companies, you have to have your value proposition right, otherwise you may struggle.

20. Clubs have fixed budget that comes from student funding. Or students pay for membership to clubs. Funding can also be achieved by selling data to corporations: • Problems with data security in Singapore. • Difficult to access alumni information. • Anonymous survey data could be possible….data such as people’s preferences, participation rates given certain activities…data that could have value for people outside of university. Shift from fundraising to selling. • If schools don’t prevent it, think about human resource selling. Clubs reach out to organizations and offer pre-screened candidates. Sell the contact details of these pre-screened candidates to companies. • Specialized companies sponsors specialized clubs, works well with consulting. Need companies to sponsor professional clubs on a continuous basis. • What about targeting local corporations such as a local brewery where the benefits can be mutual? Works well if there is an alumnus at the company.

21. How do you maintain corporate sponsorship on a continuous basis: • The global financial crises played a role in corporations pulling back • Need to continuously update the corporations on what they are getting and who is seeing their product. For example, send the Corporations photos of their exposure or their “involvement” in events to keep them abreast of things and provide statistics of how many people were exposed to their product. Media coverage, etc. This will illustrate the value proposition of their sponsorship and help keep them engages. • Thank them and keep them in the loop. Brainstorm with them on ways to help them as well. It is a two-way street.

22. School fundraising outreach versus student outreach: • Alumni Board vs. Fundraising Board. There are often many “loops” that need to be gone through. • CMC sends out events to corporations. Allow corporations to buy into it. • If it’s well run, the student clubs can become self-sufficient and reach out independent of the CMC or Administration. • Work with advertising agencies. Need to sell the platforms where they can provide a value proposition that speaks to the amount or extent of exposure. • If CMC and administration understand the value that the student clubs bring, they will be ok with it.

23. 180 Degrees Consulting (medium that allows students to engage with consulting companies on projects) School conducts consulting assignments to corporations. With the current arrangement, schools get the benefit of the money and it does not necessarily go into a “for student benefit” pot. • What if students directly worked with corporations as part of their clubs and that way generate money for the students. We need to think about the potential issues here with regards to whom actually gets the money. Does it go back to the club only or a wider audience?

24. Additional Ideas • What is attractive to funders? Big $ v. in kind donations • Attracting Big $ club accountability prize “club excellence” – ask recruiters ->not fruitful ~$500/sponsor eg.“GE Prize for Club Excellence” – put your name on this prize synonymous with excellence, speak to their brand • Raising the requirement for asking for club sponsorship. All clubs asking the same companies for funds. Formulate a consolidated effort – centralize and standardize. Present to them clearly let them know the cost/benefit leading to recurring annual sponsorship. • Advertizing in IT Lab other areas of the school • Membership dues - $ money one time at the beginning of the program-> pays for social events, not able to attend events unless dues are paid, independent of tuition separate account away from University account. Executive mandate to spend the money at the end of the year so there is no profit. • Fundraising for charities – much easier than asking for social activities • Extracurricular activities – recruiters host a tailgate, sponsor the event, but there is not profit • On campus fundraisers need to be done on the university account -> bureaucratic, paperwork, annual fees - Use external acct • Ads books in student interest books/accepted students – a letter from the Student Body hard mail or pdf • Competition for vendors – already donated to school in another capacity • Starting the fundraising culture (not US) – historical precedence private funding exists in the US, fundraising is ingrained roots of the - offer Alumni a good/benefits in the future • Have a single fundraising director – long run benefits, transferable knowledge – create a database to update year after year

25. Private and public funds – funds that are set up my private persons, from large companies • Assign a role/position to comb through possible leads for qualification • Wine tour, Red Wings/sporting events • Merchandising – target to alumni • Goal of fundraising to make student lives better the MBA experience more fruitful