Budgeting for a Billion-Dollar Capital Campaign at the University of Rochester

Two years after being hired in 2005, fundraiser Jim Thompson created a budget and planning document to guide a decade-long $1.2-billion capital campaign at the University of Rochester. Mr. Thompson’s planning document, which exceeded 50 pages, included:

• the historical context for the drive.

• a comparison of the university’s fundraising operation with that of peer institutions.

• a market analysis assessing the university’s constituents and their giving.

• opportunities for increasing donations.

• progress made in the previous two years to improve the institution’s fundraising abilities.

Then Mr. Thompson’s plan laid out six different strategies, such as focusing on the institution’s most generous donors, and steps the university would take to invest in staff and volunteers to create a world-class fundraising force.

Mr. Thompson also created annual projections for campaign revenue, operating expenses, net operating revenue, net pledges, and total cash. And he included several goals (see accompanying document) which he described in much greater detail in the plan’s appendices, for each of five phases he envisioned for the campaign. A section on key financials outlined annual cost and revenue projections for six major schools or units as well as required gift amounts, number of volunteers, and other resources that would be needed to meet the campaign goal.

Planning for the campaign, which ends June 30, 2016, has worked well, Mr. Thompson says. Nine years into the decade-long drive, he says, the university has raised more than $100 million beyond what he projected in the plan while spending about $20 million less than was estimated.

Mr. Thompson finished his budget plan with a short conclusion about the campaign, which he called “Operation Advance.” The campaign, he wrote, “will require enormous patience, focus, and discipline. The process will not be quick, cheap, or easy. But it is an endeavor worthy of our greatest efforts and deepest commitment.”