UW donations hit nearly $1 million a day

A million dollars today, a million tomorrow, a million six days a week. Pretty soon it starts adding up to real money.

For more than six years, the University of Washington has been raising cash at the eye-popping clip of $1 million every 29 hours.

Final receipts were being tallied Thursday night, and the UW Foundation was expected to announce today that it has reached its $2 billion fundraising goal — nearly 18 months early. It will keep raising money anyway, until the eight-year campaign expires in June 2008.

When the campaign started, the fundraising goal was the most ambitious attempted by a public university and among the loftiest for all colleges. Since then, however, the benchmark has gone way up — three private universities, Stanford, Columbia and Cornell, are in the midst of $4 billion-plus campaigns. And Harvard University's next campaign is expected to leave the others in the dust.

For public institutions like the UW, such campaigns mark an increasing reliance on private money to help pay for everything from buildings and labs to salaries and student scholarships.

About 150 people work on the fundraising campaign at an annual cost of $17 million, most of which comes from interest earned on unspent, invested gifts. Included in the fundraising staff are 12 full-time researchers who scour public records — company-ownership lists, property transactions, probate documents — to find wealthy potential donors.

So, in Seattle, how do you raise $250,000 before breakfast each morning? Senior UW Foundation staff members explain:

• By maintaining a database of every living UW alumnus with a valid address, about 300,000 people in all, and another database of everyone who has given money to the UW since the 1970s.

Then sending out mailings to 350,000 people. Those who give money stop getting the mailings; those who don't get up to five a year: free return-address stickers, a note saying the stickers were sent (and how about sending some money?), a holiday card with an image such as a Husky in a snow globe, a dean's message, and a final reminder to donate. Nearly 19 percent of UW alumni donate each year, higher than the 12 to 13 percent average for similar public institutions.

• By developing personal relationships with donors who give more than $25,000 or have the ability to give that much. That can include regular chats, invitations to special functions and inside access to the UW. The deans of each of the UW's 17 schools and colleges play an active role in cultivating these donors. And about 50 or 60 "frontline fundraisers" are assigned to this group.

• By carefully handling the elite donors who give more than $1 million. That can include private dinners with the UW president, regular contact with deans and constant attention from the foundation staff — unless that attention is unwanted. The foundation also takes particular care to limit approaches to the big donors so they don't feel like every school is chasing them for money.

Cultivating the elite donors — sometimes called "principal prospects" by foundation staffers — is one of the most important aspects of the campaign: More than 228,000 people and organizations have donated some money during the campaign, but two-thirds of the money has come from just 420 of them.

• By having the Gates family on your side. Bill and Melinda Gates have donated far more than anyone else — $242 million to date, or 12 percent of the total. And Bill Gates Sr., a UW regent, chairs the UW Foundation. His gravitas and stature in the Seattle community have proved invaluable to the effort, say staff members.

UW Foundation President Connie Kravas said some of the immediate benefits of the fundraising efforts include the creation of the new Department of Global Health; the launch of a new program called Students First, which should pump up to $75 million more into needs-based student scholarships; and an ability to attract and support top genome and stem-cell scientists.

"It's gone beyond our wildest dreams in many ways," Kravas said.

Gates said he feels a sentimental attachment to the university, having received two degrees there. He said even though his famous son and daughter-in-law did not attend the UW, they give it high priority anyway because of the UW's ability to drive technology developments and contribute to the state's commercial and intellectual well-being.

But while the campaign may sound glamorous at the elite level, it's a hard slog for the 70 or so students who work at a phone bank just off campus, trying to sign up new donors and renew commitments from others.

"The majority of people enjoy us getting in touch and being able to ask a live student questions," said Gunnar Berg, 20, a junior studying pre-engineering who works 12 to 14 hours a week at the phone bank to help pay the bills.

Berg said that many people have suggestions about how to improve the university, and he takes notes to pass on to various departments. Of course, suggestions can sometimes turn into rants: The university is too liberal. The Huskies can't play football. And what's up with the basketball team?

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com