Fundraising update? – updated

I’m hearing rumors that Brandeis had a success in fundraising this year, and that something like 12M dollars will be put into place to plugging our endowment-created deficit. Does anyone have any specifics on this? Will Faculty get their 401(k)’s back now?

P.S. – Kudos to Ariel Wittenberg at the Hoot for updating during the summer, if only just a bit. Big news still happens over the summer months, and our publications should recognize that fact by at least trying to inform when it happens. edit:The Justice would like to point out that they broke the story before their summer publication. Good, but the point I was trying to address here was “updating news sites over the summer,” not “who got to break the story first”.

update: We’ve got a copy of the message. First, the numbers: We raised 78.3 million dollars total this year, which is 12.1 million less than the $90.4 million we raised last year. Still, this is spun as a success because of the rough economy, and Jehuda points out that 78.3 million is still the 4th largest gift in Brandeis’ history. I’ve sent him an email asking if this accounts for inflation. We’ve also raised 11.6 million dollars to help with the current budget, but only $600,000 of that exceeds projections, so don’t expect any big news there.

It’s a bit frustrating that Jehuda didn’t see fit to inform students of all this. I realize that maybe he didn’t want to spam our inboxes, but come on. How were we supposed to find out about this? I love Brandeis and want it to succeed, and I’m not the only one. We are eager to hear more of this sort of news. It’s not even on his website.

Here’s the text of Jehuda’s message, dated July 13. I advise you to take it with a grain of salt; he has a vested interested in making these numbers look good. Still, hooray?:

I am pleased to report that Brandeis University has raised $11.6 million for current use budget relief. This exceeds our target of $11.0 million by $600,000.

In this difficult year, the development staff, with the help of members of the Board of Trustees and others, exceeded expectations and secured $78.3 million in cash gifts to the University. Last year $90.4 million was raised. The result for Fiscal 2009 is an incredible amount, given the economic uncertainties this year, and represents the 4th largest total cash gifts ever to Brandeis.

New cash and pledges in recent weeks have brought the Campaign for Brandeis to a total of $875 million. This is 71.7% of the $1.2 billion goal. The highest priority for the Campaign continues to be securing scholarships and fellowships, although this is challenging in this environment.

These fundraising efforts have been successful due to the hard work of many people, especially Nancy Winship and her staff. During her 15 years with Brandeis, Nancy has assembled a group of dedicated people, who orchestrated more than 200 events; created and sent internet appeals; coordinated a seven-figure scholarship challenge grant; designed viral marketing and email blasts; planned direct mail letters and phonathons; and visited hundreds of people throughout the U.S. on behalf of Brandeis.

My congratulations to the development staff, to the entire campus community, to the Board of Trustees, and to all those donors who stepped forward in this difficult economic environment to make particularly generous gifts.