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"I put Max in front of donors, and within
ays, somebody says, 'I want to support what
that guy's doing because he makes sense,' "
May said. "He just has this wonderful style
- what a gift, to be a great researcher and be
able to talk with people. Those things aren't
always together, some people are just amaz-
ing researchers but they might have trouble
axplaining the complexity ofthat to a layman."
The hours can be long, especially in the
fall. May said many development officers rou-
tinely work 70 to 80 hour weeks, including
football Saturdays. Some Fridays, he'll attend
three dinners before the night is through.
When May focused on planning the Vic-
tors for Michigan campaign, his job was
about 70 percent internal, focused on plan-
ning the campaign's rollout and coordinating
with development officers around the coun-
try. In the run-up to the immediate launch of
the campaign on Nov. 8, it was between 60
, 70 percent external development again,
directly engaging with donors.
He added that University President
Mary Sue Coleman, widely lauded as one
of the most successful fundraisers in high-
er education, will spend about 40 percent
of her time around the campaign's launch
on development.
"She loves meeting strangers, she loves
building relationships," May said. "From
that perspective, she's an ideal fundrais-
ing president."
May said the University's deans will spend
little as 20 percent and as much as 40 per-
cent oftheir time on development for theirunit.
In the Wolverine's den
For donors at the highest level, a trip to
Ann Arbor can be a whirlwind of advisory
meetings, dinners with deans and faculty, or
even an exclusive Friday night soiree with
President Coleman, her husband, Ken Cole-
man, and May. Football weekends add anoth-
er element to the mix.
"All we do all night is just have a good time,"
May said. "We talk about things, they get to
do a Q&A with Mary Sue at the end of the eve-
ning, then the next morning, they may have a
breakfast meeting with a dean, or if it's an early
game, they might go straight to the president's
tailgate ... I might introduce them or other
people might introduce them to other people
who are in the same profession thatthey didn't
know. It's anetworkingkind of thing."
May usually sees only ten plays in a foot-
ball game. Being at Michigan Stadium usu-
ally means he's on duty - engaging with
alumni and donors, their families, and build-
ing relationships.
S-"Usually those weekends are fun week-
ends - especially if they bring their family,"
May said. "We want to know their spouses,
particularly the spouses that didn't go to
Michigan, because we want them to adopt
Michigan. We want them to have fun here,
we want them to have agood experience."
One of the most powerful stories is that of
students. Since student support is the Vic-
tors for Michigan campaign's top priority,
giving donors a narrative that will inspire
them is critical.
Friday's flagship kick-off event at Hill
Auditorium was meant to do just that: flashy
performances, professional motivational vid-
eos and well-scripted student speeches, all
designed to impress the University's biggest
donors and motivate students for the cam-
paign ahead.
Shifting focuses
The Michigan Difference Campaign
raised $545 million for scholarships and stu-
dent support between 2004 and 2008.
Phil Hanlon and Martha Pollack asked
money for scholarships," Rogel said. "It was
just not something people were that much
interested in. As they've seen the cutbacks ...
scholarship support has become increasingly
important focus of our alumni."
Since student testimonials and energy
will be critical to the success of the overall
campaign, the office of Development has
created an 18-member student campaign
committee to help motivate students to get
involved in the initiative.
LSA junior Monique Becker, one of the
members of the committee, said since one
of the main goals of the campaign is student
support, reaching out to students (and soon-
to-be graduates), is building the groundwork
and giving and alumni support will increase."
Matching the needs of the University
with the interest of donors is not always a
perfect fit. Niche research needs are diffi-
cult to raise money for - as is endowment
support for maintaining existing buildings
and structures.
"Sometimes a faculty member wakes up
in the morning and says 'I'd love to have a
building that does X, or a program that does
Y,"' Slottow said. "But the feasibility of that
may be close to zero. There may be no donor
in the world who is interested in giving to
that thing."
Victors for Michigan will also focus on
providing students with new engaged learn-
ing opportunities, both field excursions and
non-traditional ways of interacting with pro-
fessors, technology and peers on campus. The
final goal is fundraising for "big ideas" that
can confront global issues like sustainability
through research.
As federal funding for research declines
due to the federal sequester, an across the
board cut to federal agencies, including those
that support research endeavors, the Univer-
sity will increasingly rely on donors to support
and expand its research portfolio.
"This is a pretty high pressure business,"
May said. "I've made it out in a way that I see
it - and that's that it's a lot of fun. But it's a
business. And it's a high pressure business."
"We have to remind people that the donor
is the most important person in the process."
Expanding Blue's reach
As the University looks to the future,
development will continue to play a key role
even after the conclusion of the campaign.
One of the benefits of a campaign is that
after it concludes, annual giving stays up
higher compared to its previous level. People
get in the habit of giving more on an annual
basis than before.
May said there's some discussion of locat-
ing development officers overseas - with East
Asia as the first target. While it's prohibitively
expensive to do so now, he added that it may
become worthwhile to permanently station
University representatives abroad in the not-
to-distant future.
"It's very expensive to do internation-
al fundraising, it's a longer time horizon
because we're dealing with different cul-
tures, and some of those cultures don't have
the same philanthropic spirit that America
has," May said.
The University's bicentennial celebration
- which will begin in 2017 - will also be a
huge part of motivating donors and thinking
ahead to the future. The yearlong celebration
will have a time horizon spanning back two
hundred years. Jerry May is already looking
forward to the next two hundred.
"Whatever the motivations are, there are
people who then say, 'Ok, we realize Michi-
gan is in this for the long run, we know
Michigan is going to be here hundreds of
years from now, we can look in the long term
in our investments, I guess I'll give to one of
those things.' "
statement on the street: If you had $1 million to donate to the 'U,'
what would you want the money to go towards?
"C
in the record
"She, absolutely, had not been drinking alcohol. I want to
underscore that point in the strongest possible way."
- RICK FITZGERALD, University spokesman, about University
President Mary Sue Coleman's slurred speech in the Big House at this
weekend'sfootballgame.
"It's accurate - the most unyielding depiction of the
horrors of slavery we've seen released in this medium,
and it doesn't sympathize."
- AKSHAY SETH, Daily arts columnist, on thefilm "12 Years a
Slave."
"I mean, they're gonna boo. We just gotta stick together
as a team and just fight together."
- MICHAEL SCHOFIELD,fifth-year senior right tackle, on the
crowd's reaction after thefirst halfofSaturday's homefootballgame.
"Probably Lorch Hall. I'm
an Econ major, and it kind
of sucks. It's dilapidated
and they throw like 400
kids arm to arm in a
lecture hall, and then you
have Ross next to it."
"Theater scholarships ... It
can be hard to get donors for
kids who need scholarships,
and there's a lot of talented
kids out there and it's even
hard for me to be able to
come to the University."
Rebecca Gordon,
Music, Theatre & Dance
sophomore
"Printing pages for LSA
students. I don't have
enough pages every
semester, and I know
the problem is they can't
afford the ink to give us
more pages."
Justin Hart,
LSA junior
Nikhil Gtlati,
LSA junior
Australia labeled the
deluxe edition of Katy
Perry's newest album,
Prism, a potential
biohazard. According
to Rolling Stone. Perry
wanted listeners to
"spread the light" by
planting seed paper
included in the package,
but Aussies are worried
plants might not be native
JOEL RYAN/Invision/AP to the land down under.
A massive typhoon hit the Philippines this
weekend, devastating the country including
the city of Tacloban, where at least 10,000
deaths were reported, according to The New
York Times. Please, donate if you can help.
pmm
May to (nearly) double it. The goal for the
Victors for Michigan campaign will be $1bil-
lion for student support.
"I just have to say, we swallowed hard,"
May said. "We thought, well, we might be
able to get to $800 million, with a lot of hard
work and some really big gifts - like $25 or
$50 million gifts for scholarships - but the
provost made the case that we needed to
work harder ... They have said to the deans
that, 'We need everybody here to know that
this is our number one priority."'
While May said raising money for "peo-
ple" was something that donors have always
been interested in, Richard Rogel, the Michi-
gan Difference campaign vice chair, said gar-
nering support for scholarships before that
campaign was extremely difficult.
"If you had asked me two campaigns ago, I
would have said it was very difficult to raise
for a new generation of philanthropists.
"The Michigan Difference was the cam-
paign previously, but no (students) knew that
was a campaign," Becker said. "We really
wanted to get students involved and know
what's going on and know that it has an
impact on them."
The committee works closely with the office
of Development - which has made sure that
the students on the committee have had plenty
of face time with donors as well. Lastsemester,
the office of Development quietly held a plan-
ning event in Crisler Center with some of the
University's biggest donors, including Stephen
Ross, Penny Stamps and Richard Rogel.
"Recent alum support is pretty low for
U-M, even compared to other institutions,"
Becker said. "I hope that since this campaign
is showing that U-M is going to help ... future
students, hopefully that will increase morale
m
J
p
Miami Dolphins
offensive tackle
Jonathan Martin left
his team, citing bullying
by teammates including
lineman Richie
Incognito, who was
suspended. University
alum and team owner
Stephen Ross said he
plans to create a new
team code of conduct,
according to the Miami
Herald.
1
U.S. physicists designed a new type of
invisibility cloak - yes, there's been more than
one - that can now hide objects at varying
wavelengths and microwaves, according to the
BBC. The best part? Professors say it may be
possible to create a Harry Potter-style cloak.
F
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MMUMMMMEM