Tubs Tied Together in Refocused Fundraising Plan

Under the tenure of former University President Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard began a transition away from the school-based approach that has historically dominated development efforts toward fundraising for University-wide priorities. This shift is set to remain a priority of Mass. Hall despite the changing of the guard.

Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Tamara E. Rogers has announced the creation of a University Development Office team dedicated to soliciting large donations for projects that cross schools.

“I would say that certainly University development is transitioning to being able to serve a wider cut of the schools and serving the University more broadly,” Rogers said in an interview last week.

Rogers also said that the new team will work to expand the University’s capacity to work with donors interested in giving gifts across school boundaries. After an employee in the development office who oversaw these gifts retired, he was never replaced, and Rogers, who took office last fall, decided to expand that role by creating an entire team.

Roger P. Cheever ‘67, Charles Collier, Joseph F. X. Donovan ‘72, and Shirley A. Peppers will report directly to Rogers in order to “have capacity to work with large donors who may have more than one interest or whose interests that span across school boundaries,” Rogers said. During his term, Summers tried to move away from the University’s long-standing “every tub on its own bottom” philosophy, in which each school was responsible for its own finances and fundraising. This system has put smaller schools like the Divinity School and Kennedy School at a disadvantage while favoring larger schools with wealthier alumni.

Summers ordered the creation of a system to share donor information across schools, University President Drew G. Faust said in an interview yesterday.

Rogers said that the University Development Office has had success this year in raising money from donors affiliated with FAS for a wide range of University priorities, including for graduate schools and Harvard’s art museums. She said she hopes to increase donations overall so that this does not happen at the expense of FAS and the College.

Faust said that there has been no backlash from those within FAS as of yet.

“Tamara went around and talked to all the deans before she did this and explained to them what her goals were and tried to reassure them that what we’re trying to do is lift all boats, not steal people one from the other but really make it possible for everybody to be part of a level of fundraising that would inspire donors to do more,” she said.

The FAS development team is also changing. With director Scott A. Abell ’72 retiring at the end of the year, Paul T. Keenan ’85 has been named to the team’s top post.

Kennan said that the University Development Office has been an important partner in facilitating cross-school collaboration, but he said he understands that “FAS is the heart of the University.”

“I think FAS is one of the most ambitious institutions in higher education and those ambitions have a huge price tag,” he said.

He also said he was supportive of the shift toward University-wide fundraising.

“I think the ‘every tub on its own bottom’ philosophy is very much a part of Harvard’s history, but not a part of its present,” he said.

—Staff writers Clifford M. Marks and Nathan C. Strauss contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Jamison A. Hill can be reached at jahill@fas.harvard.edu.