Stephen Golding will say the university, whose balance sheet he is responsible for, has two steady revenue streams — State Share of Instruction and tuition.
There’s a problem with those streams, as Golding, Ohio University’s vice president for Finance and Administration, would tell you, because when OU’s revenues are adjusted for inflation, the university received 4.43 percent less in government support in the 2012-13 school year than during the 2002-03 school year, according to a previous Post article.
That’s where Bryan Benchoff, OU’s vice president for University Advancement and president and CEO of the Ohio University Foundation, comes in — filling the gap between what tuition and SSI funding can’t cover.
By fundraising private dollars, Benchoff and his Division of University Advancement can provide a “margin of excellence” that will allow OU to program, hire and perform in ways it could not without extra money, Benchoff said.
What that means is being able to offer an academically talented prospective student a scholarship or offer accomplished faculty members salaries that will attract or retain them at OU, he said.
“I view my role — and what I was brought here to do — to build a sustainable fundraising model ... a team, a plan, a strategy that will allow us to continue on a steady plane,” Benchoff said.
As the university has come to rely more on private funding, more money has been allocated to the Division of University Advancement’s operations — the office’s budget increased more than 25 percent from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2013, according to the division’s budget data.
OU’s endowment increased from $176.3 million in fiscal year 2003 to an estimated $446.75 million for fiscal year 2013, according to Advancement data.
“Will it ever replace (SSI) dollar for dollar? No,” Benchoff said. “We’ll never be able to raise all the dollars the university needs, but (we ensure) that we do our part.”
The endowment took a hit in 2009, a product of the recession, and did not rise to its 2007-08 fiscal year levels until the 2011 fiscal year, according to the data.
Benchoff assumed control of the division, the foundation and OU’s $450 million Promise Lives Campaign in July 2011.
As of Oct. 31, the campaign has raised $431.2 million toward its goal.
Public universities are typically late to the fundraising game, with only 8 to 12 percent of alumni donating to public institutions each year, on average, Benchoff said.
Total private giving to Ohio public universities has increased from $2.02 billion during the 1971-72 academic year to $31 billion during the 2011-12 academic year, according to data from the Council for Aid to Education, a national nonprofit organization that conducts policy research and advocates for corporate support for education, according to its website.
Private annual giving at OU’s main Athens campus alone rose from $1.1 million in 1969 to $53.85 million in 2012, according to the council’s data.
“Private fundraising is a crucial component of the budgeting process in higher education, and presidential involvement signals its value,” OU President Roderick McDavis said in a statement. “Each dollar raised heightens our ability to provide transformative educational experiences to students.”
Moving forward, Benchoff said he hopes to create a five-year plan that will put the university on the way to having a billion dollar endowment, and give the Division of University Advancement the opportunity to become self-sufficient.
“We’re all about, frankly, how do we become a billion dollar foundation?” Benchoff said. “When we arrive anywhere close to that point, I think we will be very close to conducting our operations in a self-sufficient manner.”
dd195710@ohiou.edu
@WillDrabold
