William B. Bynum, Jr.
Q: What financial insights can you offer to HBCU administrators? Are there particular strategies that you have found to be effective in raising funds, for instance, growing grassroots support, boosting enrollments or growing endowments?
A: I’m just getting started, so I won’t say a whole lot about fundraising, but there are some key points. The first is we’ve got to be very good stewards of what we do currently have and receive from state and federal governments, alumni, students, corporations and foundations.
Unfortunately, HBCUs, because of our lack of infrastructure in some of the key areas, specifically development and advancement, haven’t done as good a job in terms of tracking gifts and thanking people for the gifts that they do already give. You would be surprised what a letter will do in terms of encouraging a person to continue to give; whereas, if a person doesn’t receive acknowledgement, that person is likely to be a one-time donor only. That’s the first thing. We’ve got to be very good stewards of the resources that we currently have.
The second is we’ve got to produce happy students. We’ve got to make sure we’re getting back to our foundation—our roots—and really nurturing students. There are too many students who are leaving HBCUs who are mad. They’re mad because processes and procedures were not in place or people did not treat them with the respect they thought they deserved based on the investment they were making.
That’s why that student-centered approach I’m talking about bringing to Valley is so important. When students are happy, they recruit for you in terms of bringing other students to the institution. They talk very positively about their own institution. That shows when they’re on the job. And then, of course, they’re in a position to give back. They’re more apt to give back if they’re happy. We’ve got to make sure of that.
In terms of endowment, that’s got to be a major focus of HBCUs because, when it comes to state funding, we’re simply not going to get more. As you know, state institutions are pulling back on the amount of funding they’re giving to higher education institutions. As a result, we’ve got to make sure that our endowments are growing, as well as our enrollments. We’ve got to come up with different revenue streams.
