Black colleges get creative in raising cash

[GramFan]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/07/23/blackcolleges.ap/index.html

Wednesday, July 23, 2003 Posted: 11:13 AM EDT (1513 GMT)

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) -- People driving around Charlotte, North Carolina, have been getting an eyeful of Elizabeth City State University, a small, historically black school on the other side of the state.

Despite being six hours away from Charlotte, the school is running billboards in the city touting Elizabeth City State as "Your Place to Succeed."

Other schools are running comic strips and signing up celebrities for their promotions -- part of a national trend that has seen black colleges turn to unconventional, aggressive advertising to boost enrollment and endowments. The colleges say such creativity is necessary at a time of deficits and dwindling corporate and foundation support.

"The times are simply extremely challenging for any institution," said Johnnetta Cole, president of all-female Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and former president of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tola Thompson, spokesman for the Washington-based National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, said a new generation of black college presidents have emerged "who are not afraid to work hard, have fun and ask for money."

"In addition to having the quality education part, they can be backslappers and while they are slapping you on the back they'll say, 'How about writing a check?"'

Bennett College, mired in a $2 million budget deficit when Cole took over a year ago, scored a coup last month by recruiting Bob Dole to help kick off its $50 million fund-raising campaign.

The former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential candidate got involved in Bennett through his wife, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who became concerned about the school during a campaign visit last year.

Funny pages
In western North Carolina, drivers in Charlotte have been getting an eyeful of Elizabeth City State University in the form of billboards and television advertising.

"Regionally, we're in a place where there are not a lot of corporations or industry," marketing director Marsha McLean said. "We don't have the luxury of having corporations in the neighborhood that are willing to be a sponsor or adopt you as a university."


Cars drive past a billboard in Charlotte, North Carolina, touting Winston-Salem State University.
North Carolina A&T, long a leading black institution with a top engineering program, has turned to the funny pages.

The "Aggie Life" strip, which has run since January as an ad on the front of the local newspaper's Sunday comics section, recently tapped into the popularity of "Drumline" -- a movie from last winter about college marching bands. The film was set at a predominantly black, fictional school.

In the strip, a young black couple leaves a movie theater and the man says, "Wish I could find a school where I could get a great education and jam in a big marching band."

"I knew we had something in common," his female companion responds. "That's why I'm going to North Carolina A&T State University."

The Greensboro school does not face the same challenges as colleges like Bennett or Atlanta's Morris Brown, where financial problems have threatened accreditation. But it has joined nearly every black school by emphasizing marketing and fund-raising.

A&T faculty members are required to meet regularly with private-sector contacts to foster fund-raising. And beginning this fall, the school will hire undergrads for a "student development foundation" that will raise money from students from the moment they arrive on campus.

"That's part of developing the culture of giving from a young age," said David Hoard, A&T's vice chancellor for development.

Bennett's Cole said black schools face different fund-raising challenges than other colleges.

"Yeah, Harvard ought to be getting all of those millions and billions. ... Their alumni are capable of giving at that level," she said. "For (historically black schools), our alumni are not yet at that level of affluency."

 

[Bartram]

This is great stuff!

HBCUs don't have a built-in monopoly like they did pre-1970s. HBCUs have to compete increasingly with PWCs that are attracting increasingly more HBCU target students.

I always have to go to an Alabama example. I was stunned that, not even two counties from Macon county where Tuskegee is, local blacks, many of them and have no clue about HBCUs, have distorted images of HBCUs ("I ain't gonna send my child to no black college. they ain't nothin' but a party school. kids go up there and go wild.") Any kind of positive promotion is needed.

 

[cat daddy]

Another Article on this Topic

http://www.thenewsstar.com/html/E2B1CEF6-0930-48B2-BD21-C3144C5742B1.shtml

Black colleges take creative approach to fund raising
Leesha Faulkner / Education Editor
Posted on July 20, 2003

Many historically black colleges and universities nationwide have felt a power punch in declining enrollments and lower rates of giving in recent years.

Increasing costs of tuition and questions about the viability of some historically black schools nationwide have contributed to declining enrollments. And, as enrollment declines, so does the amount of giving by corporations and alumni.

Some historically black schools, such as the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, have taken creative approaches to attracting interest in their institutions of higher learning. For instance, North Carolina A&T has launched a Sunday morning comic strip to draw attention to its Web site what the university offers.

Grambling State University has not suffered some of the fiscal challenges of her sister schools. On the other hand, the university's struggle to maintain its accreditation during the last three years has had an impact.

But that hasn't kept administrators from working toward a higher goal. For instance, the university has boosted its incoming freshman class by sending a bevy of recruiters on the road to tell the Grambling story - filled with its rich history, including the legacy of football coach Eddie Robinson.

The recruiting, according to GSU spokeswoman Vickie Jackson, has reached a higher level with the mailing of a compact disc that tells students practically all they want to know about the university.

"It's a great way to tell our story," Jackson said.

As enrollment leveled off the last few years, the university's office of development also has worked on ideas to increase giving and further solidify its nationwide alumni network.

Catherine Nicholson, associate director of development at Grambling, said her arm of the institution's administration has worked very quietly during the last years to pull the alumni chapters together to ensure everyone sends out the same message to potential donors.

But giving begins at home, Nicholson said. That's why she has focused her fund raising attention on potential donors - graduating students at the university.

Here's how it worked: In May 2002, Nicholson and her team asked graduating seniors to donate to their university the year of their graduation - $20.02. The dollar amount doesn't put a strain on many pocketbooks and it links those seniors to the university.

But there's more.

The seniors decided that if they gave, they would help other members of the Grambling family. Nicholson pointed out that dollars for scholarships don't amount to as much as may be expected at some other institutions.

Students many times face a time of financial crisis.

For example, a first-generation freshman might arrive on campus and have the money to pay tuition, but purchasing books might pose another obstacle.

That's where Dollars for Scholars comes in. That $20.02 paid by seniors in the Class of 2002 or the $20.03 paid by seniors in the Class of 2003 goes into the Dollars for Scholars fund. Students - regardless of class standing - may go to the administration and tell them of their need. Dollars for Scholars has enough money to help out, Nicholson explained.

Nicholson admits her program might seem small. But there's a giant philosophy behind it. "If we don't believe in ourselves, then we can't expect people to believe in us," she said.

Other ideas, such as a radiothon on the university's campus station at homecoming, soon will emerge, Nicholson promises.

"I have a whole list of ideas on paper, and I'm just eager to try them," she said.

 

[Bartram]

Re: Another Article on this Topic

Originally posted by cat daddy
http://www.thenewsstar.com/html/E2B1CEF6-0930-48B2-BD21-C3144C5742B1.shtml

Black colleges take creative approach to fund raising
Leesha Faulkner / Education Editor
Posted on July 20, 2003

Many historically black colleges and universities nationwide have felt a power punch in declining enrollments and lower rates of giving in recent years.

Increasing costs of tuition and questions about the viability of some historically black schools nationwide have contributed to declining enrollments. And, as enrollment declines, so does the amount of giving by corporations and alumni.

Some historically black schools, such as the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, have taken creative approaches to attracting interest in their institutions of higher learning. For instance, North Carolina A&T has launched a Sunday morning comic strip to draw attention to its Web site what the university offers.

Grambling State University has not suffered some of the fiscal challenges of her sister schools. On the other hand, the university's struggle to maintain its accreditation during the last three years has had an impact.

But that hasn't kept administrators from working toward a higher goal. For instance, the university has boosted its incoming freshman class by sending a bevy of recruiters on the road to tell the Grambling story - filled with its rich history, including the legacy of football coach Eddie Robinson.

The recruiting, according to GSU spokeswoman Vickie Jackson, has reached a higher level with the mailing of a compact disc that tells students practically all they want to know about the university.
~~~

Key things that HBCUs must have to compete today are things like the dorm amenities, the best and latest equipment/tools for labs, leading edge research, top research and research professors and CUSTOMER SERVICE.

In the last 5-10 years, the #1 reason I get from students who chose to go to PWCs over HBCUs is because they had so much trouble trying to enroll, getting timely communications from the HBCUs on status of their paper work and rather or not they were accepted,,, just simple $hit like this. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!! HOW DO HBCUS EXPECT TO COMPETE IF WE ARE NOT SERVICE-ORIENTED AND TREAT STUDENTS LIKE CUSTOMERS?!!! :redhot: :redhot: :redhot: :redhot: :redhot: :redhot:

Now when I came through in the early 80s, I quickly understood that business at my HBCU was not as crisp as I thought it should be, but I over-looked it. Yes I left school mad and bitter swearing up and down I woe gone give dem mugz JACK in financial support,,, but I have been giving back every since.

Welp, now days, increasingly, kids have so many vast choices that it's no big deal to go to a UAB, for example where FREAKING the g-d campus look like a g-d HBCU anyway being almost half black or AUM ditto, over one of the HBCUs in the state! We gotta be able to compete straight up in areas that were not a big focus 20-30 years ago. The days of the HBCU monopoly are over.