 HBC Dodgers Radio welcome back. I'm your host, Jared Carter. We are privileged to be joined today by Dr. Clifford Porter. He is the vice president of institutional advancement at the Great Bethune Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, here to talk about an innovative approach to philanthropy and fundraising at Bethune Cookman. As we know, the headlines have been very clear. Haven't been distinct about the universities facing some financial need and they're responding in kind. So it's really great to have Dr. Porter on this afternoon to talk about the umbrella kind of the umbrella descriptor for its philanthropic approach and the three unique programs that it'll have. So Dr. Porter, great to have you on today. Great. Thank you for the invitation and let me start off by thanking you for what you do for HBCUs around this country. Your voice has really been a strong advocate for our community and I just want to kind of give you your props to thank you for what you do every day. You're really far too kind, brother and I, as I always say, I prefer that to booing and being cursed out any day. So thank you so much for that. So this is a really innovative approach to fundraising. There is an overarching theme that Bethune Cookman has to face some of these issues, but there are three separate and distinct campaigns in which you're targeting different elements of the university community and stakeholders. Talk about the conception of this idea and how you were able to basically run three fundraising campaigns at one time. Well, the idea, which really was kind of out of necessity, we really looked at our donor base and really saw different categories of potential donors. While we have some folks who are retired and have settled all their bills, we also have on the other end of the spectrum younger graduates who are still paying back student loans but they all uniformly say that they would like to support BCU. And so our concept in building this campaign or this overall effort was to try to build opportunities for everyone to participate, whether they had large sums of money or if it was small sums of money that they could contribute on a monthly basis or a one-time basis. And so the shifting to a new foundation, which is the overall theme of our campaign, really is designed to put us in a position where our foundation is based on support from everyone. And many institutions, folks think they have to give $10,000 or $50,000, but the $25, $50 donations add up as well. And then we saw a great example of that when President Barack Obama ran. He raised millions of dollars and literally people were giving $20, $25. So we kind of took a page out of his playbook and then looked at some of the other opportunities that we could build for our donors. And I think we have an approach that literally people can kind of jump on the bandwagon wherever they fit. So the three campaigns all fall under this idea of shifting towards a new foundation. That's the theme of the campaigns, but there's a, the BCU brick campaign. There's a Narellez Club and then there's the I Leave You Love campaign. So can you give us a breakdown of all three of those approaches and whom they are specifically targeting for support? Sure. So the initial campaign was the brick campaign, which really is a one-time gift. And we have bricks that we're selling for $250 for a four by four, a 500, four, eight by eight, or organization can do a brick for $1,000. And so the idea here was to look at alums who attended BCU over the years who have a desire to give, but would also like to have a way to kind of memorialize their gift. And so these will be a permanent addition to the campus over on what we call the Quad. And so we'll unveil everyone that participates. We'll do a rededication over at the Quad during homecoming. Again, the idea here is mostly let's talk to our alums. We need to do something to support the institution. And this brick campaign gives them a reasonable way that they can do it as a one-time gift. Now the second piece that we're doing is what we're calling the I Leave You Love. And so this is where we're really pushing our alums to give on a consistent basis over the next year and hopefully for all the years to come in the future. So again, the idea here is to give 25, 50, 100, 250 bucks a month over the next 18 month period. And so we're looking there again, not just our alums, but we're looking at people in the community, friends of BCU who, again, may not have huge sums of money, but if you give 20 bucks a month and you do that for 12 months, you've given 250 to the school. I mean, it adds up very easily. And then the final piece, which actually the spinoff was something that we did last year, the Millionaires Club, we were looking to get folks who would give $1,000 or more. And that particular campaign, we're really targeting our vendors. We have a lot of churches around BCU that are supported by students attending and faculty and staff being parishioners in those congregations. And so this Millionaires Club really is to get, in particular, the vendors who are supported on an annual basis by BCU to come back and show their love. Dr. Baton has really been an instrumental person in the history of this country. And so we want to just kind of continue to build on her legacy. So these campaigns really comes from stuff that she did. People that know her history, I mean, she literally sold vegetables to make sure that the campus could continue to operate. And so no gift for her was too small. I mean, from those gifts all the way up to people like the Roosevelt who supported. So we just, you know, we took a page out of history and really wanted to build something that everyone could buy into. It's so interesting because every time I talk to students or faculty in different presentations, I tell them, no school is as tied to their founder as Baton Cookman is, where everything from students and alumni and faculty, that's all y'all talk about is Mary. And that's a beautiful thing. Is that something that you feel continues to galvanize folks, the idea of Mother Mary? And do you weave that into the narratives that you send out to help people or encourage them to give gifts? Absolutely. That is, that's the one thing that no one can argue about. You know, we may have differences on other things, but Dr. Baton's legacy is so rich. And so we absolutely try to intertwine that in every single campaign that we do. The I Leave You Love campaign that I mentioned earlier literally is taking from the pages of her last will and testament. And those who have read that, she leaves several things. They're all intangible things, but one of the main ones is that I Leave You Love. And so we're asking, you know, again, our alums to do what she did. Come back and show your love for the institution. And you know, unfortunately for many HBCUs, our alums don't really step up and support until it's almost too late or sometimes it is too late. And so we wanna, you know, say, hey, let's not wait till the last minute. Let's step up and let's see what we can do to make sure that Dr. Baton's legacy continues to move forward. There are a lot of HBCUs that are working to raise some substantial amounts. What is different, as you said, you guys are about a year out from this. Your goal is June 30, 2020, to raise about $7.5 million. What has been the feedback from your alumni students and faculty and staff, who by the way, we gotta give some appreciation to the faculty. I think that they were some of the earliest contributors to this campaign. They gave about what, $26,000 last week. Right, exactly. Talk a little bit about that. Talk about some of the reaction from your stakeholders. What have people said about this unique approach in having three separate areas where you can give in different ways? Well, you know, some folks have really been stunned by it to tell you the truth. And it's been, I think it's been intentional that we wanted to open this campaign up to everyone. Our feedback has been extremely, extremely positive. Like we said earlier, you mentioned the faculty and staff and their campaign, they're doing their internal piece called We Are Our Answer. That has been phenomenal. And so from our students who are getting involved in the I Leave You Love campaign, you'll see over the next few weeks that students are producing videos. They're doing audio pieces as well, telling their stories and asking for support. It really is becoming a groundswell that I think is at the end of the day is really going to be successful. I gotta be honest, I was motivated by what happened at Bennett. I was just really amazed that they were able to do what they did in such a short period of time. And so we want to get our folks to continue to move forward with us in this campaign. I mean, the problems that we have, many of our problems are based on financial issues. And if we can do this, it would go a long way towards helping us make the institution stronger. Are there lessons that you guys learned from Bennett at all? Because one of the fears that I had after Bennett was that there would be a fatigue of sorts, that people would say, we worked so hard to raise so much money and it didn't turn out the way that we thought. Do you find that some of your people are asking questions like that, or are there particular strategies that you learned from watching Bennett and its success over that kind of month and a half period? Well, one of the things that I've saw in their campaign that I thought they really did a good job of is that they made sure that the campaign was national. What we're hearing here locally is that folks want us to make sure we do the same thing. But then they're also, they're holding us accountable. They want to make sure that what we say we're using the funds for is actually how they're going to be used. And so we're going to make sure that at the end of this, we will do a report of what I'd like to call a return on investment report. So folks that have contributed will know how we supported students through scholarships. We're going to be looking to restore the endowment. We won't return everything to it through this campaign, but at least we'll start. And so I think for us, that's the flip side is making sure that we come back and transparent about what's happened with the funds that have been raised. I know it's tough because everybody at Cookman and it's the right thing to say, we're moving forward, we're moving forward. Do you ever have any individual or group conversations where people say, but yeah, how do we get here? And do you feel compelled to have to answer those questions or is it, hey, we stick to our talking point, we're moving forward, we know it's a, this is a really, it's a really unique time, but we got a plan and we're moving forward. Do you ever find that people say, no, no, no, no, we got to look back if you want some of my money? Yeah, yeah, we run into that almost on a daily basis. And the thing is many of the issues are things that have transpired over a period of time. Many of the, I guess the issues are not new issues. And so they won't have a resolution in, you know, instant returns if you will. But what we're trying to do is to show folks that in spite of whatever has happened in the past, we really have to put our stake on fixing those issues and then let's move forward. Quite frankly, a lot of things that happened in the past can't be changed, but we're trying to set a new foundation. And so that, you know, the theme of this campaign is, let's not focus on the past, let's focus on a shift to this new foundation that we believe will be more solid, that will be more sustainable and we'll keep doing cooking around for another century. You've had a really, a really distinguished career at a number of HBCUs. What is it about cookmen that you think makes this university at this particular time and even facing these challenges easy to sell or easy to sell to not only just a donor, but to the community to say, hey, believing us we're gonna be here and we're gonna be stronger on the other side of this. Well, you know, I think you hit on the point earlier, Dr. Bethune's legacy. That is such a rich legacy. If you look at, you know, all of our HBCUs, how many of them can say that they were founded by African-American female at the turn of the last century? It's almost unheard of. And for it to bear her name, and of course, you know, she has been selected as Florida's representative in National Statuary Hall, which will happen probably next year, early 2020. I mean, she started the UNCF, the National Council of Negro Women, Dr. Bethune's hands was in so many different things. And so that would be a shame. I mean, it really would be a travesty to allow all of her work to go for naught, even after 115 years. I mean, she really was a trailblazer of her time. And so the seminal portion of her legacy is this institution. And so being here at this time, I find that it is very, very easy. People in this country really respect legacy. And so that legacy that she has left for us is really like many of the founders of our HBCUs. They need to be cherished and we need to make sure that we maintain them. And again, it's something that everyone can do. It doesn't have to be a million dollar gift every day. But if you can get 10,000 people to give you a hundred bucks, those are the kind of things that will keep us continuously moving forward for many, many years to come. One of the interesting things about you guys Bethune Cookman is literally an anchor institution in Daytona Beach. And we talked about Bennett just a few minutes ago. In the two weeks or three weeks since you've launched these campaigns, what has your conversation been like with some of the business leaders, some of the churches? Have they given recommendations that they've said, hey, we're all in. You can expect a check coming at, you know, at this time. Well, I'll tell you, it has been very, very positive. We've had several churches who've already stepped up to the plate and made commitments. We've had business people to do the same thing. We just kicked off a couple of portions like the millionaire's club last week. And we've already started to collect donations from that. So the response has been very positive from an, you know, economic standpoint. Bethune Cookman has over a hundred million dollar economic impact in this community every year. To lose that is like losing a major industry. They just ain't meant about HBCU, so they understand, you know, this is not just about saving the HBCU. This is about helping to save this community because that kind of money being withdrawn for whatever reason if this institution wants to close, you know, the community can't afford to suffer that. So they get it and they stepped up to the plate. One of the really great things that you guys have done, and I give you a tremendous amount of credit for this, I know just in the last two weeks I've gotten maybe four or five emails about the campaign. I didn't even go to Bethune Cookman. I'm just in the media. So it suggests that you're getting this out really far and wide and the content is very compelling. It's very clear. It doesn't run away from what everybody knows, but it says here is a path that we have forward. Is that intentional in your end to constantly remind, it's almost, as you said, like a political campaign. You know, when you give to a political candidate, they email you every day. And it almost, it looks like it's shaping up like you guys are doing the same thing. Was that intentional to be that way? Yes, it has been. And you know, we need some positive press. And the thing is we have to create it for ourselves. You know, we have to talk to your outlet. We have to talk to our constituents all around the country. And so yeah, we've been very, very deliberate about making sure we get this message out through social media. We're doing mailers. I mean, you know, if I was drowning, I was screaming to somebody heard me. And that's kind of what we're doing. We're saying, hey, look over here, we need some help. And so that's kind of the idea. And of course, early in my career, I was a congressional aide and we did several campaigns. And the way you win a campaign is that you have to beat the bushes. So that's kind of what we're doing. And of course, our interim president, he has been instrumental in kind of pushing us and telling us that, you know, this is where legacy meets destiny. And so we're really working to make sure that everybody knows. And really, you know, Jared, I think that as an HBC community, we have to reach out to each other. We don't need to watch each other suffer. So today may be Patel Cookman's day, but next year it may be, you know, some other institutions. If we can support each other all the time, we can avoid a lot of these situations. And so I, you know, implore my brothers and sisters from other HBCUs that support us. We want to support you all as well. And, you know, Dr. Bethune, she had the foresight of bringing people together. You know, she was one of the forerunners for the UNCF in saying to the HBCUs, let's work together. And so, you know, again, we've been delivered. We've been very delivered in trying to make sure that the message stays out. And of course, we're trying to make things go viral. And 20 years ago, I didn't even know what viral was when I started my career, but, you know, I'm coming along, they're working with it. And so has Bethel Cookman. Brother, it's been a great opportunity to share this with you and with the HBCU community. Before we go, please let us know online, via mail, anyway, how can people get donations and gifts to you guys and more information about these campaigns. Sure, let me give you a couple of ways. So we have a text-to-give program. And for those of you that'd like to just go through your cell phone, if you would text loveBCU at, or two, four one four four. That's loveBCU to four one four four. Four four four, excuse me, I left one out. So loveBCU to four one four four four. Now, if you would like to be a fundraiser for us, you also can do this. You can text BCUteams, T-E-A-M-S, to seven one seven seven seven. That will allow you to just become a fundraiser for us. And then you can use your contacts through your cell phone and you can send it out to everyone that you know. And they can make a contribution to this campaign as well. And then finally, you can go and visit our website, vwildcatden.net, and all of the background material for our campaigns are there. And you can also click on the opportunities to give there as well. So we've tried to cover all the bases. And if you just want to do it the whole fashion way, just mail us a check to 640, Mary McLeod-Bethune Boulevard in Daytona Beach, Florida, three two one one four. We can do it that way also.