When a small group of classmates from the Culver Military Academy Class of 1968 began planning their 50th reunion, they had a primary goal: get as many people as possible back to campus.
It is a tradition at the school for the 50th reunion class to present a financial gift to the institution of about $8 to $10 million. However, at the campaign’s outset, leaders didn’t set a monetary target. “We knew the money would follow the attendance, and the attendance would follow the energy,” says Paul Much, an alumnus who volunteered to help plan the event. “And the energy was intense.”
Culver Academies, as the school is known, includes Culver Military Academy, Culver Girls Academy, and Culver Summer Schools & Camps. It is a college-preparatory boarding school in north-central Indiana that went coed in the early 1970s; its endowment is valued at roughly $416 million.
The organizers’ instincts served them well. They eventually set a fundraising goal of $20 million, and by the time the classmates gathered for the reunion in May 2018, they had raised $25 million. Five years of planning, outreach, and research — along with more than a touch of friendly competition — helped fuel the drive.
How did they do it? Volunteers joined forces with Culver’s development office early, right after their 45th reunion. Twelve members of the class formed a leadership team that held regular conference calls facilitated by the school and worked closely with the director of alumni relations, director of the Culver Fund (the school’s annual fund), chief advancement officer, and the chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees.
The planners encouraged “friend-raising” among classmates using visits, phone calls, newsletters, sharing of old photos, and mini-reunions each summer on campus — anything to generate enthusiasm. The team made formal requests when appropriate and tried a new tactic, a memorial scholarship, that proved unexpectedly fruitful.
A Culture of Giving
Now retired from a career in financial services, Much travels regularly, and during the reunion-planning years he often tacked on visits to former classmates. “I would meet with a classmate, and he would say, ‘Are you asking for money?’ And I’d say, ‘I’m asking you to come back,’ " he says.
The effort wasn’t just friendly chats and reminiscing. Underpinning the efforts was a strategy, says Thomas Mayo, who was director of the Culver Fund at that time and is now a major-gifts officer. The institution determined who had the capacity to give, where the gifts could come from, and who should make the asks.
“Motivating classmates was absolutely about ‘friend-raising’ and making connections, but in the background the structure was being built so that when the time was right, the right people would be asking the right people at an appropriate amount,” Mayo says. And the board did its part: The chairman emeritus solicited two of the three largest gifts.
Seventy donors, or 40 percent of the class, contributed to the drive. The largest gift was $12.2 million, with $10.3 million of it earmarked to build a new dormitory. Alumni contributed five gifts of $1 million to $5 million. Two contributions were six figures. Bequests and planned gifts totaled $7.5 million. The smallest individual donation? One dollar.
Of the $25 million, roughly $13 million went to buildings, $6 million to scholarship endowments, $2 million for faculty support, and $1 million for the annual fund over the five-year campaign period.
Tradition and culture played a big role, say the volunteers and school officials. For example, new graduates are greeted by the president of the Culver Legion (the school’s alumni association) just minutes after receiving their diplomas, which helps convey the expectation to give.
If you want transformational gifts to be part of your reunion story, it’s critical that you engage people much earlier than 11 months before.
“Culture is incredibly important,” says Suzanne Hilser-Wiles, president of the global philanthropic consulting firm Grenzebach Glier and Associates. “It’s an important part of how they talk about themselves and their community, and it absolutely impacts the institution later.”
A Memorial to Classmates
For decades, Culver had administered a scholarship fund named in memory of a member of the class of 1968 who died shortly after graduating. For the 50th reunion, the fund was renamed the Class of 1968 Memorial Scholarship, in honor of the 30 or so deceased members of the class, and a newsletter featured the names and photos of each classmate whose memory was honored.
The response was swift. A series of matches quickly boosted the number into the high six figures. At the reunion, the class held a memorial service for the departed classmates, and still more donations poured in. One alumnus approached Mayo after the service and handed him a check for $10,000.
By the reunion’s end, the endowment for the Class of 1968 Scholarship Fund reached $1.5 million. It is the largest endowed class scholarship at the school.
“That’s one of the best things about what this class has done,” Mayo says. “They’ve set the bar now by raising their endowment up that high, and I know other classes can and will follow.”
Tapping Into Volunteers’ Energy
Culver and the 1968 alumni checked all the important boxes, Hilser-Wiles says. Starting early was especially smart: Too often, she says, schools wait until a previous year’s reunion is over to start planning for the next. “If you want transformational gifts to be part of your reunion story, it’s critical that you engage people much earlier than 11 months before,” she says.
But Culver also relied on the classmates’ esprit de corps. It’s very hard for a development office to effect that kind of engagement, she adds, so institutions should take note of which classes have the capacity to give but also the motivation.
Such patterns emerge early on, right after graduation or even while students are still enrolled, she says. “So by the time you get to the 20th reunion, you know that those classes are going to be more inclined to stay involved in the life of the school.”
However, there are distinct differences between older and younger generations, she points out. Donors under 55 are likely to want a clear demonstration of why and how their donation will have impact, she says, and schools like Culver have to keep that in mind going forward. The key is to tell the story of why philanthropic support matters in a way that will resonate with and motivate donors of all ages, she says.
Ron Rubin, the reunion committee’s special-gifts chair who is executive chairman of the company Republic of Tea, isn’t worried. He’s proud of the big number, but he’s equally proud when he thinks about what might follow.
“Even though we raised $25 million, [that record] will be broken,” he says. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”
