 Philanthropic support of historically black colleges and universities continue to build upon an all-time high today We are privileged to be joined by two great philanthropists of the great institution out of North Carolina Winston Salem State University Ms. Anna Riley and Matt Cullinan who recently threw by way or by way of a matching gift Gave more than 1.5 million dollars to Winston Salem State in support of student scholarships and University enhancement Miss Riley. Mr. Cullen. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thank you It's great to be here. So you guys We were talking before you have an existing relationship with Winston and we will get into that in a little bit but talk about the the the satisfaction and the the pride you have in being able to contribute to such a great institution and why Winston Is a partner of yours particularly the higher education sphere for your philanthropic efforts to help people in the community I'll start We've worked in higher education for almost 30 years and so we know a little bit about what the world looks like out there And we were just Delighted to have the chance to get to know Chancellor L. Wood Robinson at Winston Salem State and understand his vision and The team that he built there of really first-rate leaders and so it fit in terms of What the school really wanted to achieve on multiple fronts? Not simply to support students who had financial need But also really to allow the institution to grow in other ways to really energize alumni and friends to give to the institution and To generate excitement about what Winston Salem State is doing in our community in region In part of what really hit us hard was a sense that Winston Salem State University is our comprehensive branch of the University of North Carolina And so we feel like this is a really important asset in our community and we wanted to take part in Supporting that and trying to help other people get motivated to support that and I think that was The real story behind this gift in and how can you possibly argue? with the value of Helping young people to achieve their goal of getting a bachelor's degree and then being able to move on from there That is a fundamental in higher education and something that's really important to the overall success of every young person today You talked about the relationship with Chancellor Elwood Robinson. How did you guys come to to? Make contact with him and to learn the story about Winston Salem State And how does it align or how does its brand and its mission align with your family's personal mission of? Supporting the greater community. I'll take that So it started with my personal interest in literacy and The idea of looking at what schools of ed are doing to train teachers in the art of teaching reading to children at the earliest of ages and I was intrigued by The school of ed at that time again the Chancellor was just building his team. There was some transition going on and so a sort of Thought partner philanthropic friend and thought partner and I sat down with the Chancellor and The provost and talked about their school of ed and teacher training And we were just trying to get a lay of the land of what's happening in our community to really try to push High quality literacy training for our community on multiple levels It was that initial meeting that we discovered kind of where he was in the evolution of his leadership He was building his team. He was recruiting a provost and and we also learned about the tiny margin of Financial risk that can derail a student's ability to reach completion at what's the Salem State and our experience is with mostly private elite institutions where They you know, they have enormous resources to make sure Student stays in and completes the process and we were just really struck by That margin and the other thing is is that the cost of an education at Winston-Salem State And what you get is such a great value and we were looking at what our Capacity was and where we could really move the needle and we just saw fit right away and again part of the What made it so attractive is we were coming on the early side of a Chancellor's building his team and leadership and we felt like we could sort of help Helping that process and be part of that and so it was a great partnership. The timing was really Advantages as well Yeah, the timing was right and let me add that this is in a lot of ways a Family legacy going back to our parents and all of whom Placed an enormous value on a college education and all of whom benefited from financial aid and so to be able to access the University of your choice to complete an education just seemed to us a really fundamental part of Who we are and the legacy of our families in terms of being able to Make sure not only that That we succeeded but that others succeed with us and and so we felt like that was a perfect match In all of this in in the ability On top of that to help Winston-Salem State University Grow its capacity to generate philanthropic resources. Yes, just seemed like the icing on the cake It which really was just a piece of this that said We have to do this first part and raise Substantial amount of money but get people used to having Us expect to raise money and support our students and faculty in our operations in this way and it is building a tradition right it's in and raising expectations about the possibility of what can happen and what alums can do and This was a great initial step to help build that capacity for the school You mentioned the UNC system and building capacity I think that's a that's an important point because we've seen some of the public institutions in the system have some turnover Have some shifts within leadership. Do you think that there is a Intrinsic value that you guys place in and folks who support higher education in North Carolina Play in supporting an institution and showing the public showing the system leadership This is a good school with a good leader with sustainable plans and vision We're backing that so you as a system should also back that Absolutely, I think Winston-Salem State is a jewel In the system because it combines what I think is the most manageable size In that it's it's principally undergraduate focus with with solid graduate presence And it's a very strong community and that is it plays a huge role in both the Educational environment, but also how students get through In that there is a lot of support and you don't need to spend five minutes With alums with students with faculty with people on the campus to know This is a really robust community And that's worth investing in and that makes a difference in terms of both the quality and the and I would say the Intangibles of a college education In that the alums at Winston-Salem State are really loyal. They love the institution There's no question about that strong identity strong identity. Yeah Let me let me focus on that too as well because we know that that Forsyth County in particular is one of those those areas and districts within North Carolina and in the South period There's a lot of challenges that it needs to fix and help in educational access And just just access to a lot of systems that improve quality of life You mentioned that education and literacy are your personal mission or things that are important to you How do you envision Winston being an anchor for reversing the course of a lot of those disparities in Forsyth County and being a model for other areas in Carolina as well as through the South? Well, I think it's been doing that work certainly over the last couple of decades already and the community is much more aware of what the opportunities are to break down these Historical barriers and other barriers that have gotten in people's way. I think what really got people's attention was The the real social mobility index in this county is low And how do you begin to attack that? And there are multiple components to that as you could easily identify but for us one of the best ways of creating social mobility is to help students Finish high school Get into college and finish college And for students in this area Winston Salem State is both economically viable But it's a first-rate education and it gives them the next step up That they need to then take care of themselves and their families in in much different financial circumstances than they may have started and I think the figure's right and you would you would need to verify this but I believe 45% of the undergraduate students in at Winston Salem State are first-generation students They're already touching students for whom this is going to be a major potential life transformational And and so that really had deep resonance for us In terms of its ability to change the dynamic in our county I also think that the chancellor with people like Nathan Hatch is the president of Wake Forest and The other educational leaders in the area Have have sort of gotten together more and looked at how they can partner in Addressing a variety of community issues but for us The other possibility here is to raise the profile of Winston Salem State people still In certain places know relatively little about it But it really can transform not only the the neighborhood in East Winston through economic development, but it can it can Transform our entire city And it's doing that and it's been doing that you look at its impact on health sciences in this region There's one of the major trainers of nurses and health professionals You look at it in terms of access and affordability for students who can Attend classes and live at home who it just makes it. There's so many gateways for change that it opens up that it really is I Think just it's still pretty early on but I believe Chancellor Robinson sees that as one of his principal mandates in addition to raising the profile and the quality of the school consistently is to is to be able to reach out and really build a much stronger and more vibrant community in Winston Salem And I'm sorry there's a little bit of echo on my end hopefully you guys don't have it But can you kind of talk about just from a philanthropic perspective and I think a lot of folks in the HPC community are interested in knowing Do you pick the school or does the school pick you as a family or how does that typically work where? We want to know how can we get to more people with resources who can partner with us and help our students and help our academic mission Is it is it outreach to you know families like yours or is it family saying hey, let's have a conversation about what can help you I? Think it's a comment. It's a great question. I think it's Fairly personal and anecdotal Our experience because we've been in higher ed Affiliated with assorted universities We sort of got to see the the the underbelly how the sausage is made and You know in a lot of institutions. It's difficult to move the needle and For us it was you know opportunity and access have always sort of driven our philanthropy and It and then how to impact our local community also drove it But right now there is a moment where people are acknowledging this issue of access and opportunity and Sort of under resourced infrastructure in our country and the vast majority of people are not going to the top 25 universities they're going to Public universities HBC use so where are you going to move the needle and You know it just so happens that the needle happened to be sitting in our own community doing fabulous work and it did require us Contacting the school and sitting down and learning more. I mean we we did invest time and And there we you know, we did listen about their needs. We weren't trying to dictate our desires it was about Learning more and figuring out a Viable and meaningful point of entry that would make sense for the university. I think that's right and and I would add to that two pieces one is You invest in leadership in a certain way and That really came through with Chancellor Robinson not in the Ra-ra Overwhelming but in real depth and quality and insight And so that was one element of it and the other is You want to tell a good story and not be too modest about telling the story Winston-Salem State has really big ambitions and and that's okay We've been at places that have really big ambitions and channeled in the right way They can be enormously positive of for students and for faculty and for the entire community And so I think those two pieces make Significant difference, but after that our experience at universities with donors is Hardly any of them are the same And why they come and what motivates them at a particular moment is is hard to read But I do think identity then we do know that identity in the institution does drive a lot of the giving and you saw that with the Alums that came out to do the match. Yeah, no it was it was You know there you had Things to really draw upon too. So it was we hit a moment in time And that the institution was ready to do this sort of mini campaign as a way of Getting themselves ready for a larger campaign. I think that's fair to say They're they're thinking big and certainly the latest gift from Mackenzie Scott That was gonna be the last question I was gonna ask so we talked offline a little bit You all were the highest donors in Winston-Salem State history until about yesterday with a gift from Mackenzie Scott Kind of drunk that you know to say that but but not in a bad way But it is to say Winston is a place that's attracting a lot of attention from from local from national Philanthropists and how much pride does that give you to be a part of that growing coalition of Support for not just Winston, but black colleges at large And enormous pride and and I'm glad she kicked us out of the way Well, but I look at it this way as well in terms of You know the series of gifts so her gifts I Looked at the list and I bet there were at least a dozen HBC use I knew And so and and probably some I didn't recognize but this gift combined with Read Hastings gifts combined with Michael Bloomberg's gifts. It's sort of it does have the potential to set a trend of People with resources supporting HBC use in a significant way. It's building infrastructure for our country I mean we have neglected our public's and HBC use have been historically under resourced and it's why are the same 25 institutions getting You know a disproportionate amount of the philanthropy We need it, you know, we need everybody to have access and I think Matt is totally right This is going to create a level of momentum and also build the groundwork for raising the game of these Institutions to to really tell their story to raise more money from their alums to build that that sense of Momentum and to become more sustainable going forward right now and and so I would add we had a Fascinating and fun conversation with Chancellor Robinson right as Michael Bloomberg announced that he was making big gifts to to Johns Hopkins And Anna challenged I'm going to tell the story Anna challenged the chancellor. She said You need to get your story out there And you need to you need to call out Michael Bloomberg and say a billion dollars for HBC use would change You need an op-ed in the New York Times right now But but he came back to us. We were we had this conversation a couple weeks ago. It said that really just motivated me to Find my voice a little more in writing opinion pieces and sharing those More broadly across the country and and I think part of what's happened is his Profile has certainly been raised in the broader University and higher education space overall But the hope is that this creates momentum for schools to be able to garner the resources To support students and their success and all the related pieces as you build the university whether it's Building or expanding your faculty or whether it's facilities That you need new or that you need to renovate the the classic set of things that every university wrestles with but HBC use in particular Because being under resourced in a lot of ways have not been able to achieve at the same Absolutely, and that is that issue of operating from a mindset of scarcity for so many years that the possible was never able to kind of come in Now it's gonna be you can dream big and The vision can become you know much broader and much more ambitious And it's a it's operating from a mindset of abundance, and that's that's a new Reality, it's great. Well, and I remember Must have been in 2018 Chancellor Robinson told us that I think the number was there were nine gifts of a million Maybe 11 gifts of a million dollars of more to all HBC use in the last two or three years And and we that just Smacked us right in the face because we had been at institutions One institution I've been with raised a million dollars a day was their average And so the idea that across All HBC use there was relatively small number of gifts in that range that really allow institutions to to move to the next level That was revealing and really motivating for us as we continued the conversation With Chancellor Robinson and Latanya off a lion The vice-chancellor for advancement And so it it was just a piece of this whole story and as you can tell it's a mosaic of Different things from our past learning the institution meeting the Chancellor and his team and having a sense of this is an institution that really is Moving to its next level of Development is exciting