 In a year with big support for historically black colleges across a number of financial and corporate sectors We can't forget that alumni giving and engagement with HBCU's is also on the rise Dilla University this week making big headlines with given Tuesday more than $700,000 collected in a single day in their fundraising campaign here to discuss that Brother president of Dilla University Walter Kimbrough and vice president institutional advancement mark Barnes gentlemen. I appreciate it Brother Kimbrough first I would ask you to see and I think one of the things that you made in your remarks about that particular mark The fundraising mark was We started with 36 G's a couple years ago, and now we're 200% over that that that's remarkable. That is remarkable I mean from a presidential perspective What is it like to see that kind of growth in such a short period of time? So well first of all, thank you for having us on the day You know when we first the idea was brought to me to say hey, you know people are doing given Tuesday We should be involved in this. I said, okay, let's just give it a shot. Let's see I didn't really know what to expect. So, you know the first year we got over 36,000 dollars I was like and we didn't really really lean into it. So I said, oh, okay Well next year. Let's see if we could get 60 and then it was over a hundred thousand dollars And so that's when I realized like we might be on to something I think the key factor for us is that I guess he's the great grandson of James Hardy Dillard for whom we're named after He jumped in with these matching grants and he was doing six figure Matching grants and just based on my experience at Philander Smith people like matching grants So if I'm able to tell someone you're going to get mass dollar for dollar people are saying oh, wow My gift now has a different level of power. So for the last few years He's been doing matching grants and this year He got a couple of his friends to add to the matching grant pile So when you have that happening at the same time and then you get a board member who works with a family Foundation and they add in to giving Tuesday your numbers go up. So people got excited about it We started small And then we just saw the potential and then people got excited about it And then we were able to make our matches because he would say well You have six months to make your match and we were making the match on that day So then he was like, okay, cool. Let me keep you know adding to this and I think that's what happens So it's sort of has its own synergy right now. It's been great I think, you know, it's just a feel-good day for everybody, but just watching people buy into that has been good too Mark what has been the effort from? And I wouldn't call it grassroots. I mean it certainly is is formal communications with stakeholders alumni community members corporate partners all that but what is it that you think that that Provides the the catalyst for folks to say yes, I'm all in and however I can get I'm gonna give so that either that's online It's mailing in a check. It's something. What do you think that that has been most effective in your perspective in getting those folks involved? Yeah, it's really been the strategy that we've employed We have a really good team Let me start let me start there because our team is really dug into this they bought into it And they give a thousand percent effort on this not just for Giving Tuesday, but in the months leading up to it So we really manage giving Tuesday like a campaign So people see, you know all the work that we do for the 24 hours of giving But really that work has started several months before so we're you know, we're talking to people We're giving them the heads up that this day is coming We're asking people to think about what their contributions might be Dr. Kimbrough mentioned the matching gift. We really secure that matching gift Ahead of time so that we can have people preparing and thinking about how they want their contributions match with that I put that matching opportunity. So this this really is about how we Strategize a campaign over a number of months that leads up to those 24 days of giving it's been really a Strategy that we put in place that has engaged Alumni friends our board faculty and staff and even students So it's really been Like you said a grassroots effort that has produced great results Talk about the level of education that's necessary for something like like a micro campaign like given Tuesday So typically in fundraising you're you're asking and targeting folks in very specific ways give to this that'll help our endowment Give to that that will provide student scholarships give to this that supports athletic support What is it like to to construct something around a one-day effort to say? Let's give as much as you can But we're still abiding by rules of we don't necessarily want a bunch of stuff to go to restricted But we want we want unrestricted access. We want things to fall a certain way Is it is it the same kind of approach for a one-day campaign as it would be for a capital campaign or just near-round fundraising? It is actually very very similar concept. So I mean we talk about restricted versus unrestricted but we also talk about budget really so something can be Restricted but also helping to relieve the budget. So for example our safe fund Which is the student assistance for financial emergencies. We started this. I got the Kimberle got this started When he started as his presidency started back in 2013 when we started the fun and that fun has been around The purpose of it has been to help our students pay their gap their funding it's 15 hundred dollars two thousand dollars Whatever it might be We've been able to raise about two and a half million dollars Just over two hundred two and a half million dollars for that flight and we have been able to help literally over 2000 students over the you know in those years to be able to really you know fund those gaps for them Well that resonates with a lot of the of our donors particularly our alumni who remember when they were in that situation When they were students here So, you know really a lot of our strategy is about connecting those whys that you talked about those different reasons In terms of you know what they want to give to We target them in some aspects, but we provide You know a range of things that they can give to and many of those things are you know are restricted But they really do go to relieve the budget because you know think about the safe fund You know if we can you know help a student with twenty five hundred dollars on their balance that really is money That's going to the bottom line for the institution. So we really approach it You know it so it's restricted because it's the safe, but it helps the institution Doc we've seen an increase in in trustees regents Rectors given to HBCs and particularly at small institutions or smaller private institutions Is that is that a? Cultivation process from the presidential level that says hey, you know you got you got to put your money where your mouth is You know, obviously you're giving a lot in terms of leadership You're giving a lot in terms of networking and connections, but it is a powerful thing for a board to say We are one at one hundred percent giving or to have a formal board member or a Meredith board member say I'm a match everything that comes in today Is that a cultivation strategy or is that something the board and the president discussed? Mutually or is it the board exclusively? How does that kind of work for folks who are listening to say how do we get our board more involved in the philanthropic effort, right? You know, I think we all have been engaged We've had since I've been here. We've had two really engaged board chairs the first Joyce Roche who She had been president of girls Inc. And I was on the board of a lot of Corporations in fact, I think last fall she wrote off of AT&T's board and in her honor they gave $250,000 To the University For our business program. So even as a trustee emeritus, she has still been very engaged in that process So some of it is having those conversations at the board chair will lead Mark and his team will have conversations and we do our board retreats. We talk about that So, I mean we've been pretty consistent to be at a hundred percent board giving But then they see a lot of those good examples of board members who will step up to say, you know We're doing this, you know UNCF mass ball event and we have a certain goal that we have to reach and you have trustees that will step up for that So I think part of it here is I mean there really is, you know I mean you pay attention to what's happening. The board culture at Diller is very good I mean, it's a really good board. It was easy for me to come from another place and meet with board members and just like oh Man, they get it. This this is a great job because the board culture So it wasn't going in and fighting get people looking jockey for position it was people they're saying we know what our purpose is and They work with each other and the institution So I think part of it is we got to talk about how do we build those kind of board cultures that are looking for Opportunities, you know both hard cash and other opportunities for students You know and for the institution and so I think that's I think our board culture is very healthy And so I think that's a part of our success. It's just a healthy board culture And you know, everybody didn't have that so I'm I'm thankful for that that we do have that culture This is um, I know I know you guys are you know, just days out from, you know Kind of tallying up, you know and doing a profile on what kind of people give and how much they gave Is there a specific group that stands out in terms of their not just giving Tuesday But that you see kind of emerging as a as a key demographic for your philanthropic efforts Is a younger alumni where we've seen that some schools obviously our older graduates are the ones with first of all They got the money and second of all, they probably got more more Flexibility and giving you when they're retired and things like that But are there is there a specific group of people that you say, you know We can bet on this group being active in terms of supporting the institution year year after year You know, that's a that's a very good question If you look at you know, so we did seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars and if you really slice it And analyze the numbers you will see a great mix of different demographics So we have the older so we have a number of major gifts and within that seventy seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars But I would say the the number that we really been pleased with in terms of the increase would be our younger donors In the engagement that we've been able to do Our I am and by younger I say the people who have graduated within the last ten years You know, so for you know the on giving Tuesday our alumni percentage participation percentage jumped about four percent And I would attribute at least about a maybe a quarter of that To alumni who graduated within the last ten fifteen years So that that group which has always been in the years that I've been at billers has always been the toughest group You know to reach in terms of of giving but what we've been able to do and we really fortunate to have a president That is really engaged on social media So he really amplifies our message and always sell people that now he has more put a file within the institution itself So when we get a message out and then he is able to amplify that message for us It really reaches a lot more people And and people are responding to that and so, you know, we have a really good social media strategies Who puts the right types of messages out in the right ways on the different platforms and that really is reaching the young alumni? So while we have a really good mix of major gifts and smaller gifts in the number I think the group that has really Responded to this in terms of the group that hadn't responded before would be that group that graduated with the middle And You know, I would add that, you know, it seems like every year out of the blue There is some kind of major gift that just pop up somebody we didn't know we're like who is this? You know doing it enough times and people start to get the message then just somebody pops out of the blue with $20 30 $50,000 it's like who is it and it could be an alum who's never given before they just show up And so that then becomes another opportunity then to start cultivating long-term relationships with folks like that But I mean that's been a consistent, you know, every year There's just somebody that comes out of the blue with this major gift and you're like who is this person? Where where have they been? So that's been really good to say that I think that really helps give us momentum Yeah, that actually happened this year from a telephone call from from our phone banking So that we hear that so often like every now and then even if it's not a graduate Somebody will just who has has seen something about an institution or seen something about dealer will call and say that Move me. Let me give you a hundred grand. And so it you can't predict that you can't Strategize about that. But as you mentioned, how do you how do you use that to reach other folks with similar means and say, you know Somebody I didn't even know gave us a lot of money. So I know you can can you come in at the same level? I Think the key to that Jared has been and that the cable talks about this all the time the consistency of our message And and so when we're talking about the things that are happening at billet, you know, how are we telling our story? I think we've done a really good job of telling the billet story not just for this given to the campaign but throughout the year and using you know emails to alumni social media and all the other ways that we've been able to engage people But being consistent in our messaging is when people start to start to see what's happening here then you start getting those kind of Organic Contributions coming in because it's like oh, yeah, you know what I heard about something that y'all are doing that good I know I heard that your pre-law program is like really producing these great Graduates on the physics students are getting PhDs They start resonating because of the messaging that that we're doing but that has to be consistent throughout the year And then the final question, you know, brother president you say often oh, we made our goal Let's double it up next year. Are you gonna say in front of your vice president right now? We don't we go you're gonna double up seven hundred conversation I think I ran on one staff member because when we $500,000 I was like she was like oh Lord. He's gonna see a million next year. I was like You know, I mean this was unexpected, you know for us we had a half a million dollar goal Which is really silent for us because a lot of places they were doing goals I mean not just HBCU's lots of school twenty thousand dollars thirty thousand dollars. I'm like that's not a goal That's not even a stretch. So for us didn't be able to do that this year, you know, I guess I was looking at five hundred thousand I mean a million is not me. You know, that's not unreasonable. You know, why not why not look at a million? I mean like just to have the goal and like I said is not that it's And if we don't make it that's fine at least say we're trying to stretch ourselves These are the kinds of things particularly when we know we have a major donor who is now finding people So when we can report back to him and then you know his check will come in and I'll call him will follow up He starts to expand his circle. That's what you're talking about. He's saying look, they're really serious there They're doing these kind of things they met the match those guys might pop up and say well I gave y'all 50 this year. I might do a hundred. So it's not Unreasonable to say we might be able to do a million dollars I think that's but I think just having those goals and pushing ourselves. Even if we don't reach them I mean, you know, the whole Benjamin Mays is saying is you know, not to have a goal So why not have a goal to stretch yourself to say we think we could do a million dollars I think we all got to push ourselves because we can't we can't just rely on Governmental funding for everything we have capacity we can support our institutions in our own programs And so that's that's the message that I think people are hearing People in the community hear it. It's like Mark said just the messaging we hear from a range of people Some that don't have any connection to do it at all My mama's gonna send mark $10,000 every year and for Giving Tuesday and she'll tell me like make sure mark got his check I mean that's so you get lots of people that are really engaged in what the institution is doing So I like I said, it's a feel-good day. We're excited, you know, and we're still looking long term How do we keep moving our alumni giving percentage up when I got here, Jared? We were at 4% 4 The last two years prior to the COVID year, we were at 23% we dropped to about 13 15 last year We should get back over 20 this year But to me that's the the long game You're you're over 20% alumni giving every year and it's harder for Mark and his team because every year if you do It right you add more people to your pool because you have these graduates and you know It's tough for somebody five five years or less out of school They like they still worried about student loans. So when they look at send me some money They're like, man, I got this student loan. I'm not give me all any money So but we had some of them who graduate within the last five years one that gave almost $2,000. So that's not impossible So those are the long-term strategies to really develop a culture of giving Which I think is very important for all of our institutions. So that's that's what we're trying to do And as you mentioned the rate is just as important as the amount particularly for corporate cultivation and and showcasing the the dedication to the institution brothers I appreciate you clown this morning and just a reminder, you know We know a HPC given is not just on one Tuesday a year So let folks know how they can give to Diller online and other other ways Absolutely give that Diller dot edu is the best and easiest way to give it's a really simple process You can always call my office at five zero four eight one six four three five nine We're happy to talk to you on the phone as well and we know folks still like to write those checks. And so we take those two So