U-Va. Drive May Raise Stakes for Fundraising

School Aims to Collect $3 Billion by 2011

Robert Sweeney says he wants to remain loyal to U-Va.'s mission but raise private-school dollars. (Courtesy Of University Of Virginia. - Courtesy Of University Of Virginia.)

Robert Sweeney and his staff need to raise $1,025,045 for the University of Virginia today. Another $1,025,045 tomorrow.

And the next day. And the next. For 2,921 days.

"There's a lot of pressure with this," said Sweeney, the school's senior vice president for development and public affairs.

When U-Va. announced its goal to raise $3 billion from alumni and other supporters between 2004 and 2011, it was the biggest fundraising campaign ever launched by a public university. Sweeney is at the center of a push that might not only have an impact on U-Va. -- he thinks it could help redefine what a public school can be.

After a few decades of dwindling state support for higher education across the country, other public schools -- such as the University of Maryland, which has accelerated fundraising and is in the midst of a $1 billion campaign -- are watching the machinery that schools such as U-Va. have built to find, track and cultivate donors.

Sometimes it's like detective work, with development staff piecing together profiles of alumni that describe the jobs they hold, the stocks they own and the neighborhoods they live in.

Sweeney's vision is to stay true to U-Va.'s public mission of affordable, accessible education but to raise the many millions generated each year by private universities such as Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins.

U-Va. is almost halfway to its goal, with $1.375 billion raised since the campaign was unofficially launched in 2004. The pressure isn't abating: Some media associations have pushed for access to records on anonymous donors, wondering whether some are trying to trade money for influence.

Students protested in the spring when Sweeney was recognized for his work at the school by being allowed to live in a house on the heart of the U-Va. campus. The house is on the Lawn, designed by Thomas Jefferson, and the area has traditionally been home to top seniors and faculty who host students for dinner and discussions. To use the historic home as a scenic backdrop for fundraising struck some as a betrayal of the school's principles. Some seniors taped "FOR SALE" signs to their doors.

And there is pressure to spread the money around. Fundraisers try to shrink the gap between schools such as nursing and law, whose alumni have varying degrees of wealth.

Fundraisers also work to bring in unrestricted gifts, which can be used to pay bills and patch leaks, things that don't interest most donors, who prefer to fund the cool stuff: transformative ideas, new buildings, scholarships.

And still, U-Va. needs to raise $1,025,045 today.