Financially troubled Fisk University’s battle to raise badly needed cash by winning court approval to sell part ownership in its priceless art collection could hurt the school’s overall fundraising efforts and those of other colleges across the nation, say college fundraising experts around the country.
The implications of Fisk’s move could have negative consequences for other HBCUs in particular, says one of the experts contacted recently, explaining that donors see historically Black institutions through a single lens.
Most interviewed say they were unfamiliar with the specific details of Fisk’s situation or its legal efforts. Still, when given the legal scenario of a gift recipient using financial hard times as an argument to win court approval of proposed exceptions to legal restrictions on a gift, the experts were unanimous in characterizing such a move as troubling for the school directly involved and the higher education community at large. Fisk has asked a court in Tennessee to exempt it from some conditions of a major gift, in this case an art and photo collection, so it may monetize the collection to raise seriously needed money.
“The public mindset would be to help the university, if the university was in a critical place,” said Atlanta-based fundraising veteran Charles Stevens, adding that he thought it would be “hard hearted” to say the art should be preserved at the expense of saving the school.
“There are implications” however, added Stevens, who works with Skystone Ryan, a well-established, deep pockets fundraising organization.
“If I were a philanthropist and had art and wanted to preserve it after my transition, I would be a little concerned,” Stevens said. ”I would be a little leery about giving that gift.”
Stevens, who has run national fundraising campaigns for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), among others, said the Fisk action might have implications for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) “in particular,” since the giving community tends to lump HBCUs into a single group.
