Fundraiser confident in future campaign

As UNC gears up for another major fundraising campaign, its new vice chancellor for development is optimistic that existing relationships and passion will bring success.

The University’s new head fundraiser, David Routh, is just two weeks into his position, but says he is already seeing signs that the school’s extensive upcoming fundraising campaign will be a success.

Routh said the campaign is expected to launch about 12 to 18 months from now.

“The great, great news for Carolina is all the ingredients are here for a successful campaign,” Routh said.

The campaign is still in the early stages of planning but Routh said it will last for years. The last major campaign, Carolina First, raised $2.38 billion from 1999 to 2007.

“We’re going to be at this for the next eight, nine, 10 years,” he said.

The campaign will aim to support the individual priorities of UNC’s different schools.

“The neat thing is there’s been a lot of really good quality work done at the level of the schools and units — about what their priorities are,” Routh said. “That’s really where the content lives that will support the campaign.”

Routh said the collaboration of different schools’ deans will be key to a successful campaign, which adds additional urgency to the current search for a dean of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

“(The dean) is the key person for fundraising,” said Bradley Shafer, associate dean of advancement of the school. “He is the face of the business school.”

Both Shafer and Routh said they felt confident in the capabilities of Interim Dean Jack Evans to support fundraising efforts of the business school and the University as a whole.

“He is so capable, he will be able to continue the planning work to get us ready,” Routh said.

Evans served as dean of the school from 1979 to 1987 and has acted as interim dean twice before.

“Having Jack Evans as the interim dean gives us the unique opportunity to reconnect with former donors,” Shafer said.

Routh said that former donors will be important to the University’s campaign but emphasized the need to develop new relationships as well.

“It’s not a challenge that will be difficult at all, but that challenge is to engage more people,” he said. “What we will want to work on is expanding the audience of people who are engaged and people who give to support this next campaign.”

Routh identified individuals, significant families, foundations and corporations as past donors and also as sources for potential new donors.

“We can’t rely on only the families who have supported us in the past,” he said. “We have to appreciate those historic contributions but we also have to find new.”

Routh said current students are also a potential source of revenue. UNC’s Director of Student Giving Programs Jordan Farthing said it is important for students to donate to the University, even while still enrolled.

“We want students to include the University when thinking about their charitable causes, even before they graduate and become alumni,” she said in an email.

Farthing said the Heelraisers Student Giving Council, a student fundraising group, has not made specific plans for the upcoming campuswide campaign, but said their efforts will most likely grow in combination with the development office’s efforts.

Kayla Blevins, vice president of Heelraisers, said UNC costs $2 billion to operate each year.

“A lot of the things we enjoy — that we kind of take for granted — are made possible because people are so generous and want to give,” she said.

Blevins also said private donations are crucial to cover costs.

Routh said he was confident in the ability of the UNC community to meet the budget challenges in the future.

“Stepping into this job, it is so powerful to see how engaged and passionate people are about Carolina having the resources to be all that it can be. And that gives me great confidence that this next campaign will be successful.”

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