Donors Step Up As State Checks Out

UC raked in more than $1 billion in private donations in 2004 for the fifth straight year, but university officials say that a lack of state support will force them to raise even more.

UC's endowment ranks seventh in the country according to a national survey, lagging behind powerhouse fund-raisers like Harvard University and Stanford University.

University officials said they must follow the lead of private universities and attract more private donors, which public universities have traditionally shied away from.

"Giving back to your alma mater has been part of private university tradition for well over a hundred years," said UC Berkeley spokesperson Marie Felde. "It's much more established. It will take awhile to build up that same kind of tradition among our own alumni."

The call for additional fund raising comes after a strong year for UC Berkeley's fund-raising office.

A record 56,000 alumni donated to the campus in the 2004 fiscal year, and the entire campus raised nearly $175 million-third among UC campuses.

Last month, Charles Travers, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 1932, gave $16 million for the political science department and the Cal football program, the largest alumnus donation in the campus's history.

UC officials attribute the rise in private support to major fund-raising campaigns at UC campuses in response to the steady drop in state funds to the university.

"There was a time in the 1970s when state support was overwhelmingly high," said Brad Barber, UC's director of institutional advancement. "State funding has reversed its course since then."

Barber said with the Higher Education Compact between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's university systems, state funding will form a core part of the university operating budget. But he added that state funding has dropped from 50 percent of UC's total budget in 1971 to 27 percent in 2004.

As a result, officials say most UC campuses cannot survive on the state allotment and must launch large fund-raising campaigns to meet their academic goals.

UC Berkeley finished its last capital campaign, the Campaign for the New Century, in 2000, raising $1.44 billion between 1993 and 2000-$340 million more than its $1.1 billion goal.

The campus announced last May that it would launch the biggest fund-raising effort in UC Berkeley's history to raise $2 billion over seven years, although campus officials have not released further information.

UCLA has proven to be a model UC fund raiser, raising more than $2.8 billion in its 10-year fund-raising effort Campaign UCLA, surpassing a $2.4 billion goal.

The campus also raised $278 million in 2004, the most private support of any UC campus in that year.

UC Berkeley administrators like Boalt Hall School of Law Dean Christopher Edley are poised to follow suit by launching major fund-raising campaigns and abandoning what he called "faith-based fund raising."

"We have to recognize the significant downturn in state funding," said Louise Epstein, assistant dean for alumni relations and development at Boalt. "It's not fair to assume the sun will come out next year. We need a plan that actually looks at possible areas for institutional support."

Edley projects that the school must raise $100 million to cover renovations, more faculty, more research centers and greater financial aid for students.

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