Henry Timms, the father of Giving Tuesday, is also the head of New York’s 92nd Street Y, which is running a capital campaign to raise $180 million. On any given day, the man known for helping nonprofits worldwide round up millions of small donations is also raising big sums for his organization, often from a few very wealthy people.
This is the first-ever capital campaign for Mr. Timms, who became executive director in 2014, and it’s the organization’s first major fundraising drive since 1996. 92nd Street Y has raised $102 million in about two-and-a-half years, and should finish in the next 18 months or so, he says.
The campaign’s chief goal is to refurbish and retrofit the organization’s headquarters for the 21st century. “The Y has been paid the ultimate compliment: It has been well used,” Mr. Timms says. That’s a polite way of saying that many rooms and spaces are decades out of date. The building itself “is tired,” he says.
Major projects include a new lobby; dedicated floors for programs in Jewish life, music, and early-childhood education; and a rooftop playground space that will also be used for evening events.
Though Mr. Timms is a tech booster, the project won’t have a lot of gadgets embedded in the walls; the organization believes wearable technology is the future.
Mr. Timms recently talked with The Chronicle about the keys to this campaign and how it is breaking with fundraising convention. Here are his takeaways.
If you have momentum, dispense with laying a lot of groundwork: In recent years, 92nd Street Y has expanded its mission and won acclaim at a remarkable clip. Among its triumphs: the six-year-old Giving Tuesday, which raised a record $274 million in December, and the rapidly proliferating Ben Franklin Circles, which are salon-like civic groups that discuss the modern practice of temperance, frugality, and other virtues espoused by the Founding Father.
Because the organization’s board and close supporters are familiar with success such as this, officials skipped the extensive interviews and fact-finding typical of campaign preparation. “People can see the momentum we have as an institution. They can see where the building is at, and they can see the distance between the two,” Mr. Timms explains. “It wasn’t like we had to convince people.”
Blend tradition and innovation: 92nd Street Y is a landmark on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, with a rich history as a community center and a cultural center (modern-dance legend Martha Graham taught and performed here in the 1930s). Globally, it’s recognized for its innovative community-building in the digital age (Mr. Timms’s book New Power, written with Purpose co-founder Jeremy Heimans, will be released in April).
The campaign, Mr. Timms says, has attracted both traditionalists and futurists. Some are excited that a beautiful, hand-painted auditorium ceiling will be restored; others are eager to see the organization knock down walls and create new spaces for community events.
“Don’t be boring": Before the campaign, a board member and campaign veteran gave Mr. Timms this advice: “Don’t be boring.”
The campaign heeded his words, Mr. Timms says. One example: Officials did not produce brochures or statements of support but instead put together a virtual-reality presentation illustrating how each room might be changed. Supporters can don headsets and see almost magically the transformation of the lobby or a classroom. Staff members make the headsets available in visits to donors’ homes and offices.
For many supporters, this was their first experience with virtual reality. “It reaffirmed the signal we were trying to send that we are an organization prepared to think differently about the future,” Mr. Timms says. “It was important that we didn’t do this in a fusty way.”
Design the campaign for the next generation: Mr. Timms describes 92nd Street Y as “an organization making a heavy pivot to the next generation.” The new building, he says, is critical to the organization’s bid to remain relevant in the future.
Every organization has to make the same pitch, he adds. “For any institution right now, the big question for donors is: ‘Do I really believe that in the next decade they will be more relevant than the last decade?’ I think that’s the existential question for these campaigns.”
