When the University of Miami fundraising campaign topped its $1.6-billion target in May — a year ahead of schedule — its leadership had reason to celebrate. Among other things, outgoing President Donna Shalala would leave on a high note, having pushed the university’s fundraising total during her 14-year tenure above $3 billion.
Still, the billion-dollar campaign is not the rare bird that it once was. And the fundraising work at Miami might not reverberate beyond South Florida, except for the striking makeup of the university’s major-donors list: Mixed in with the Stuarts, Millers, and Abesses are names like Gonzalez, Goizueta, and Fernandez — a powerhouse lineup of Hispanic philanthropists.
Ms. Shalala and Sergio Gonzalez, her senior vice president for university advancement and external affairs, secured 28 gifts of at least $1 million from Hispanic donors, totaling $61.5 million.
Few if any institutions can claim such a feat, fundraising experts say, and Miami’s success has major implications in a country that now has more Spanish speakers than Spain.
“This community is growing incrementally in North America, and therefore thinking about how most effectively institutions can and do engage with that community is really very important,” says Sue Cunningham, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Miami also serves as a how-to guide, if not a bit of reassurance, for nonprofit leaders anxious about how demographic trend lines might hurt giving. Hispanic donors can be major players in philanthropy, the campaign suggests, even if it takes time, in some corners of the country, for them to grow into the role.
“I think anybody who is hand-wringing just needs to get on a plane, come to Miami, and spend a day with President Shalala and Sergio and understand how they built that bridge between what is incredible generosity and traditional philanthropy,” says Javier Alberto Soto, president of the Miami Foundation.
‘Crazy’ Choice
When she arrived in Coral Gables, Fla. in 2001 after eight years in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet, Ms. Shalala was already an experienced and prodigious fundraiser in her own right.
“I don’t even want to tell you how many millions of dollars Donna has talked me out of,” Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, says with a laugh.
Still, Ms. Shalala knew she wanted help from someone rooted in the local community, conversant in at least two languages, and effective at closing deals. She selected Mr. Gonzalez, a Cuban-American lawyer with significant public-service credentials — he served as chief of staff to the Miami-Dade County Executive Mayor and headed a Super Bowl host committee, among other things — but no formal fundraising experience.
“People were shocked when I hired Sergio,” Ms. Shalala says. “I remember one of our trustees said to me, ‘I thought you were just crazy.’”
Observers describe them as distinct and complementary personalities. Mr. Gonzalez is the ultimate “caballero,” they say, a gentleman who executes each interaction with such grace and style that one is left feeling like the most important person in the world.
“Donna is a powerhouse, and she has got access at the highest levels of the world based on her prior track record,” says Angel Vicente Gallinal, a partner at the consulting firm Egon Zehnder and president of the University of Miami Citizens Board. “If Donna Shalala calls, there are probably few people who wouldn’t be at least interested in talking to her.”
Ms. Shalala can’t help but command any room she walks into, they say, while Mr. Gonzalez comfortably and effectively blends into a crowd.
“Donna can get enthusiastic about a leaf dropping,” says Mr. Ibargüen of the Knight Foundation. “Sergio comes right behind her and says, ‘Now about that rake we need to rake up all the leaves.’”
Signing Alex Rodriguez
Hispanics have long been a powerful force in politics and business in Miami, Mr. Gonzalez says, and their philanthropic power had, perhaps, been overlooked.
Still, landing big gifts from wealthy Hispanics was not an explicit part of the university’s fundraising strategy. It was one result of years of work to engage all potential donors with the strategic vision for the university, say Ms. Shalala and Mr. Gonzalez.
There was the $10-million gift to the university’s business school made by Mike Fernandez, a health-care entrepreneur who last year ranked 24th on the Miami Herald’s list of 25 wealthiest South Floridians. Professional baseball player and Miami native Alex Rodriguez gave $3.4 million to renovate the baseball stadium, and another $500,000 for scholarships. The Fanjul family, which operates the largest sugar refinery company in the world, donated $1 million to the university’s eye care center.
Most of the 28 major Hispanic donors were not alumni of the university, Mr. Gonzalez says, and a few of them split their time between South Florida and Latin America.
“What the majority of the gifts illustrate is they are being given for university priorities that really don’t have a real connection to Hispanic issues,” says Mr. Gonzalez, whose fundraising staff numbers about 280 people.
Mr. Gonzalez and others emphasize that there is no calculated formula for approaching Hispanic donors. All the best fundraising practices still apply, and it starts with helping those with the capacity to give to feel connected to the institution.
In one case, a potential donor was interviewed about his experience as a Cuban exile for a university oral history project. That led to some “honest and ongoing conversations about this person’s life, their legacy, and how a gift would be a part of that,” says Mr. Gonzalez.
The individual ended up making a gift to support the oral history project.
In raising money for student scholarships, the university fundraising team arranged a lunch to bring donors and potential donors together with scholarship recipients.
Mr. Gallinal, who with his wife established a scholarship for a first-generation undergraduate at the business school, says it touched a nerve to see the difference his gift made in the life of a student whose path was not dissimilar from his own.
“I remember the days when my dad was working three shifts to just help make ends meet,” said Mr. Gallinal, who arrived in the United States from Cuba in 1969. “I went to Harvard not because I had a lot of money. I went to Harvard because I was fortunate somebody endowed a scholarship there.”
Mr. Gonzalez, he says, has a flawless touch with donors.
“He will have 10 interactions before he will actually make an ask,” Mr. Gallinal says. “So every time you see him, he is not digging into your pockets, which I think makes people feel good.”
Every encounter is followed up with a handwritten thank-you note, Mr. Gallinal says. They always conclude with the same tagline: Thank you for all that you do for the U.
Cultural Lessons
To be sure, the U.S. Hispanic population — 54 million and growing, according to the Census Bureau — will put increasing pressure on fundraisers to understand and overcome cultural barriers to securing gifts.
“The one big difference between the Hispanic donor and a lot of other donors is the Hispanics tend to care for their own family,” says beverage mogul, art collector, and prominent Miami philanthropist Carlos M. de la Cruz. “If there is a sick family member, the family takes care of it. If there is a needy family member, the family takes care of it. They don’t rely so much on institutional support.”
The Cuban American declined to state how much money he has given to the University of Miami during his three decades as a trustee, but his contributions have included art works and an endowed faculty chair. He says traditional philanthropy as it is understood in the United States is something that has to be learned. In Latin America, for example, there are no tax benefits for donating to charity. After family, Hispanics give to religious institutions, traditionally the Catholic Church. And corruption in many home countries looms large.
“I think in general, the political situation in many countries, the political instability, undermines the trust in institutions,” Mr. de la Cruz says.
Still, he and others balk at the narrative that Hispanics are not donors and that nonprofits could suffer as the demographic grows. A recent report from Blackbaud warned fundraisers that they were missing big revenue opportunities by failing to keep up with rapid changes in the nation’s demographics.
“I have heard the comment that Hispanics don’t give,” says Ana Gloria Rivas-Vázquez, regional development director for Catholic Relief Services. “I’ve been hearing it now for 20-plus years, from non-Hispanics and, sadly, from some Hispanics.”
There is no generosity gene, says Ms. Rivas-Vázquez, who has published research on giving traditions among Hispanics, but rather habits and practices that develop based on experience. Building relationships with Hispanic donors is a long-term project, and for some nonprofits the return time is a stumbling block, she said.
“It may be easier to say that Hispanics don’t give than to figure out how to engage them,” Ms. Rivas-Vázquez says.
Few Hispanic Fundraisers
Another factor is the lack of Hispanic fundraisers, Ms. Rivas-Vazquez and others say. They emphasize that it doesn’t take a Hispanic fundraiser to secure a gift from a Hispanic donor, but in some cases, it could help.
“With all donors, you need to establish a relationship and some kind of commonality,” Ms. Rivas-Vázquez says. “If you are soliciting a Hispanic donor and you are Hispanic, and you speak the language, there are a whole bunch of things that are just non-issues.”
Rob Henry, executive director of emerging constituencies at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, says that diversifying campuses heighten the need to diversify both the fundraising field and the pool of donors.
“At the end of the day, what we want to do is create a work force that also reinforces and looks like the students that we are serving,” Mr. Henry says. Minorities make up 39 percent of students, he says, but just 9 percent of fundraising professionals.
In the case of the University of Miami, Ms. Shalala, who is of Lebanese descent, says that it did help that she and Mr. Gonzalez are what she describes as “ethnics.”
“I am used to being kissed by people I haven’t met before,” she says.
Numbers Tell Story
Ms. Shalala’s presidency at the University of Miami was not without controversy, most notably an NCAA investigation into the university football program and criticism by some that the university’s growth trajectory was too ambitious.
Still, statistics point to a good run for the university. It was ranked No. 48 this year in the U.S. News & World Report list of “best colleges,” up from 67th when she arrived. Its medical facilities and research work have expanded dramatically. And the university finished at No. 38 on the 2014 Council for Aid to Education annual survey with $186.5 million in gifts, up from 43rd in 2000.
The fundraising has also been good for Ms. Shalala and Mr. Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez earned $604,745 in fiscal year 2013-14, according to the university’s Form 990.
Ms. Shalala was paid $994,430 in the same time period. (She was the highest-paid woman nonprofit executive in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2013 salary survey.) A friend of the Clintons — she served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton — Ms. Shalala left the university last month to head the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
She is being replaced by Julio Frenk, dean of faculty at Harvard’s school of public health and former minister of health in his native Mexico.
The fundraising legacy Ms. Shalala leaves behind could provide a window into the future. Miami is a place where people from all over the United States and other parts of the world have collided to create a distinct cultural mash-up, say those within and outside the university’s fundraising operation. It looks today a lot like what other parts of the United States will look like in the future. Increasingly, successful fundraisers will need Ms. Shalala’s and Mr. Gonzalez’s ability to weave seamlessly through diverse demographic constituencies.
“The fact we are in South Florida, where you have a higher volume of Hispanic folks that could get engaged, that helps,” says Mr. Gonzalez. “But even within South Florida, I think we have really exceeded all expectations about the largess of giving from Hispanic donors.”
