exactly.

So, what IS the Foundation doing these days, if not pursuing the Capital Campaign?

I don't know how to do it, but we need to follow the money.

NO QUARTER.
Anne Wallace

If Thames has genuinely left the Capital Campaign to flounder, even the crassest member of the Board will have to conclude that he's fallen down on the job.

These days every state university has to get more people to give money.

Robert Campbell

Capital Campaign is stuck in neutral. Shelby gutted the Foundation with the hiring of Tim Ryan. Tim has turned into a tyrant who almost daily screams at the Foundation staff and threatens them with being fired. He has virtually no undestanding of the working of a foundation and has not bothered to learn anything about how they operate or how to PROPERLY raise money.

So far, every Development Officer who worked for the Foundation when Shelby was hired has been terminated or they have been abused to the point where they left for a cut in salary just to get out.

The business office staff has had about a 200% turnover since Tim came on board.

When Shelby took possession of the Foundation the Capital Campaign was at about the $85 million mark and the $100 million goal was reachable, even though the best estimate when it was kicked off was the Foundation would only raise about $40 million. Susan Hollandsworth had done a wonderful job in spite of Bill Pace throwing road block after road block in her path.  

In short, it appears that the pact Shelby made to get his dicatorship was to see out the Capital Campaign so that the Athletic Department could have a clear shot at anyone with money. The used car dealers and athletic supporters have had two years to raise money for athletics. The AD's development staff went from 1 to about 4. 

The USM Foundation has started to acquire new development officers, but there has been virtually no trainning for the new hires AND, for the most part, they are young. Development work is one area where grey hair is a major benefit. If you are under 40, you sholud mainly work with the entry level supporters, those giving their first endowment ($10,000).  Successful development is about long term relationships between the donor and the university. Most young people in development only stay at a university for 3 years maximum. 

While I could give a three day seminar on development, that is beyond this forum. What is important is the USM Foundation has never has any leadership. And the current head of the Foundation is rapidly destroying what little is still intact.

 

I have noticed the youth and perkiness of the new development officers and thought it didn't make sense to hire such young people to talk to those with money to give--most likely middle aged and older individuals closer to retirement.  I am sorry to hear that the capital campaign has essentially died. Reaching that goal could have been a source of great pride and accomplishment. 

The worst thing that Shelby did about the Foundation was to hire someone with no experience.  Tim Ryan was a telephone executive with no fundraising experience.  For USM's operation, a professional was needed.  Shelby hired a novice who will experience a 5 year learning curve.  Bill Pace was a Mississippi State graduate who should have never been hired.  He caused many USM alumni to be displeased.  It was Bill's bad attitude that caused athletics to demand a separate Athletic Foundation.  To hire a novice to replace Pace was a double whammy to the Foundation.  Thames evidently felt that getting grant money was easier than getting it from alumni and/or corporation gifts.  While USM does not enjoy the large number of well heeled alumni, the Foundation is needed to foster long term growth for USM.  It and the Alumni Association are being ignored by Thames.  It's too time consuming I guess or too little money from him with which to deal.

quote:

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Originally posted by: BogusBoy
"Isn't it time for someone connected with H-burg local media to spur them to ask a few honest questions of Mader & Company regarding the now-silent campital campaign and the USM Foundation... but particularly the campaign??"

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Freudian slip!  (campital campaign)

Why has Shelby failed to pick up the campaign banner and run with it?  Here's my take on it:

1.  This campaign was not launched by Shelby (very important).  It was launched by Horace Fleming.

2.  This campaign is/was chaired by Aubrey K. Lucas.  Shelby will not be overshadowed by his looming figure or legacy in anyway shape or form.  Remember, this is the man Shelby fired a shot at in his "it's not business as ususal" speech 1/17/03.

3.  This is a campaign to raise money from individuals, corporations and foundations, not government agencies or corporate research foundations which expect deliverables in return for their "grants" (an entirely different animal than a "gift"). 

In other words, this was a campaign that required an ability to court, and develop relationships with people who believe in the institution and the direction it is headed.  Shelby is interpersonally stunted in this area. For example, he operates in a "I win, you lose" framework in most everything he does (try this on a person you are asking for money) and he is dishonest about his vision for the university. 

There are two things that I find puzzling about the current state of the campaign:

1.  When the campaign was so close to being completed, even in a struggling economy with focus and determination, the $100 million goal could have been reached, WHY wouldn't the very person who could have been behind the podium accepting the accolades for USM's first successful campaign NOT get in front of the parade? 

2.  Aubrey K. Lucas must be mortified.  So why as campaign chair, is he not keeping this moving?  This was his Act II legacy.  I hope someone will follow up on this.

The bottom line is that development (not research) is about people and in many cases their wealth.  Shelby doesn't understand this concept and perhaps sadder, he does not care.  He cares about wealth, but is incapable of making the connection between being personally interesed in an individual and their interests (not his) in supporting USM.   This is why he made a poor hiring decision with Tim Ryan.  Tim is obedient, a very, very important quality in the Thames administration.  But Tim does not understand development. 

So, if you have a president who does not understand or care about development and alumni support and a development director who is equally unqualifed, the status of the Capital Campaign should not surprise any of us.

It is tragic however, given the struggle USM has experienced to gain financial support over the years.  I hope the next administration will recognize the value of proven, competent development professionals. 

Southern Mess to the Top!

 

 

 

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The way Thames has left the Capital Campaign dead in the water should be emphasized in letters to the people who run the Alumni Association.

Would any semi-reponsible university president neglect fund-raising and donor relations as Thames has?

Robert Campbell

The Foundation wrote off over nine million of the Capital Campaign last year because of noncompliance with acceptable accounting practices.