Dillard Notables of 2021: #1 Extravagant Generosity
A few years ago, I was asked to lead a workshop for church using the text, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” by Robert Schnase. It is a very interesting read, and I think has a lot of applicability to higher education. Definitely add to your 2022 reading list.
In an article for Outreach Magazine, Schnase writes
Churches that practice extravagant generosity speak confidently and faithfully about money, giving, generosity and the difference giving makes for the purposes of Christ and in the life of the giver. They emphasize the Christian’s need to give for more reasons than just the church’s need for money. They emphasize mission, purpose and life-changing results rather than shortages, budgets and institutional loyalty.
For Dillard, 2021 was a record year for philanthropy. When you compare my first fiscal year (2012–13) to the last one (2020–21), despite being in a pandemic, our private giving was 462% higher than that first year! Alumni giving, which took a hit during the pandemic, was at 16.8%, well above the 4.3% that first year, with almost five times as many alumni giving.
Dr. Marc Barnes and his team in Institutional Advancement really get the credit. They installed a strong program which now has yielded some eye-popping numbers in terms of fundraising. Here are some of the examples:
Most universities see major gifts coming from alumni and trustees. Dillard is no different. This year, based on the work that alumnus and board chair Michael Jones did on the Maryland HBCU lawsuit, his firm announced a gift of $5 million to Dillard for our new Center for Racial Justice. This marks the second year in a row where the university has received a $5 million gift, last year of course due to Mackenzie Scott.
The $5 million gift followed a $1 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation, also for the Center for Racial Justice. An idea that took off after the summer of 2020 with the murder of George Floyd, this center has really jumped in and actively begun to address issues of racial justice starting with a number of events. Dr. Ashraf Esmail has enthusiastically done this work with a nationally recognized advisory board.
We recently received another seven-figure gift, this time $2.5 million from an anonymous donor. This gift supports our SAFE fund we started in 2013 which has supported hundreds of students to close the gap of unmet need.
In May, the university received another $1 million from the Ray Charles Foundation. This relationship dates back to 2003 when the program was first established after Mr. Charles made a $1 million donation.
But the program has really taken off under the great leadership of Zella Palmer, who has become a national expert on African American food culture. Zella joined us in 2015. You can listen to the podcast from July about Zella and the work she is doing.
In 2019 we announced that venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton created a full ride scholarship in honor of her mother, Earline Butler Sims, a Dillard alumna. The first student recipient was named this year.
This year we set an audacious Giving Tuesday goal of $1 million. Over the past 5 years we have grown this event from less than $70,000 raised in 24 hours in 2016, to over $800,000 last year. So why not $1 million? The secret sauce has been the matching gift of David Dillard, one of the descendants of our namesake. He generated a challenge grant match of $500,000 for us to focus on new givers, increasing past givers, and lapsed donors. We were able to raise three additional six figure gifts to meet the goal.
This year we raised $1.3 million!
I never imagined this years ago, but it shows that a small school can raise significant resources with a committed group of people who believe in extravagant generosity.
We had lots of great moments in 2021. As I close out my 10-year chapter here, I am excited about the next chapter of Dillard. And that new chapter will need even greater levels of extravagant generosity.
The Prez
