Tag Archives: Mike Andreasen

New VP Kyle Henley cuts off Clevenger’s 160over90 branding cash

By | |
36 Comments

10/13/2015: That’s the latest from the faculty club – no more money down this hole. It’s nice how even the rumors are more optimistic at UO these days.

But don’t forget how much effort it took to end this, if it’s really ended: public records requests, a petition to the DA after UO’s General Counsel told the PRO office to stonewall, then a full blown five story investigative report from RG reporter Diane Dietz, and a lot of UO donors asking “What the F” is our university wasting money on now?

9/16/2015: New VP Kyle Henley drops in on 160over90, asks how Clevenger blew $5M

That’s the rumor from the SOJC profs watching Mad Men reruns down at the faculty club tonight. Meanwhile VP for branding Tim Clevenger has been moved out of JH, to a suite far, far away from campus. We’re still paying him $209.625 a year though. Fire Clevenger and UO could hire, say, 2 new Human Physiology profs, with money left over for startup. Or give 15 full-ride scholarships to Oregon National Merit Scholars, including dorms and meals.

So which is it gonna be, Mr. Henley?

Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 10.00.55 PM Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 9.51.54 PM Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 9.49.14 PM

Here’s hoping our new general counsel Kevin Reed can also find a way out of the 160over90 contract, which UO’s misnamed Public Records Office is still hiding from the public.

Meanwhile Mike Schill is off to the Pendleton Roundup, to see how branding is really done. Keep the iron hot and make your mark, Mr. President:

8/26/2015: Tim Clevenger to get the boot for 160over90 branding mess?

The rumor from a generally well-informed source down at the faculty club is that I’m not the first person who’s heard of Google Trends, and that Clevenger’s branding campaign is failing on other metrics as well. Meanwhile hits to the Crap-Free UO Homepage (TM) are way up.

8/19/2015: Tim Clevenger’s $5M 160over90 branding campaign fails Google buzz test

A few years ago the UO Economics department invited Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian out to give a talk to our undergrads. Among the topics was Google Trends, which lets you compare how often people search for different search phrases across time. Very interesting, the slides are here.

Try it here. Here’s what you get if you compare the frequency of searches for “university of oregon application” with searches for a few of our competitors in the market for undergrad students. Blue for Colorado, red for Arizona, yellow for Oregon State, Green for UO, and purple for last year’s BCS champions Ohio State:

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 12.58.32 AM

If there’s any impact from the rollout of UO’s $5M “What the If?” branding campaign, which started in March 2015, it would take a pretty creative econometrician to make the t-stat significant.

Oh well, there goes that $5M. Here’s hoping our donors will cut off UO’s $207K-a-year AVP for branding Tim Clevenger and $5M 160over90, and redirect those generous gifts towards, say, teaching and research.

Also no apparent effect from football. The Ducks win, the Beavers lose, it really doesn’t matter.

For more on UO’s branding and how hard UO tried to hide the public records showing how much we spent on it, check out Diane Dietz’s stories in the RG, links here.

And in response to comments here’s the last year of weekly data – noisier, and some spikes that may well be from football, but I still don’t see the branding buzz:

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 11.42.46 AM

Duck fundraising expansion raises questions about damage to UO’s academic fund drive

By | |
Comments Off on Duck fundraising expansion raises questions about damage to UO’s academic fund drive

From the recent job postings, it looks like the Ducks are scheduling a major increase in fundraising effort, just as Mike Andreasen’s UO Advancement Office finally gets its academic fundraising efforts rolling. This is really bad timing. This is the time when the Duck fundraisers should be directed to shift their efforts to the academic cause. Fundriasing effort could have been easier with fundraising software which could make it eaiser to deal with donations and other items.

The evidence is that athletic donations crowd out donations to academics. UO Professor Dennis Howard – holder of a Nike Philip H. Knight Chair in Sports Marketing at UO and former LCB Business School Dean – has written an excellent paper on exactly this topic, comparing data on donations to Duck athletics and to UO academics:

Both alumni and non-alumni show an increasing preference toward directing their gifts to the intercollegiate athletics department-at the expense of the donations to academic programs. Sperber’s (2000) assertion that giving to athletics undermines academic giving is strongly supported.

and

For every $100 of new revenue raised from major donors by the University of Oregon, over 80% is being directed to the athletic department. Even with the large increases in numbers of total donors since 1994, academic giving struggles to remain stable while donations to athletics experience huge growth. In three out of the past five years (1998, 2000, 2001), the total dollars donated to academics by non-alumni has fallen despite annual increases in the number of non-alumni donors. Total dollars donated to academics by alumni fell in only one year (2000), again despite an increase in the total number of donors. This suggests new donors are not making academic gifts, and current donors are shifting dollars from academic giving to donations directed to the athletic program. Additionally, as discussed above, proportional giving by alumni is predominantly directed to the athletic program. If these trends continue, total academic giving will fall for both alumni and non-alumni despite continued increases in the total numbers of both types of donors. Leaving UO to potentially have to look into hosting more fundraisers perhaps with the help of solutions from https://funraise.org/ as an example, to keep up with demand.

Stefan Verbano had a great story on Howard and his work a few years back, in the Emerald here:

The 2004 study concluded that even non-alumni are more likely to donate to athletics in the wake of successful sports seasons, redirecting much-needed funds away from flagging academic resources.

If you don’t like statistics, there are plenty of anecdotes floating around about Duck fundraisers swooping in to make asks just before the academic side’s advancement people had planned on one. I’ve even heard that while the Duck fundraisers have access to the academic side’s prospect management system, the Ducks maintain their own data on their donors, which they won’t share with the academic fundraisers.

And of course Rob Mullens has repeatedly rejected proposals that alumni should be able to get the same preference for good football tickets from making academic donations as they get from giving to the Duck Athletic Fund.

One way to encourage cooperation between the Duck fundraisers and the Academic side’s Office of Advancement would be to give the Duck fundraisers targets for academic donations as well as athletic donations, and enforce this by having the Duck fundraisers have a dual report to VP for Advancement Mike Andreassen, not just to the Duck Athletic Fund Director. That is so not happening with the latest athletic development hires:

Associate Director Of Development, Eugene & Central Oregon, Athletics, http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=5337

and

Senior Associate Director of Development, Eugene & Northern California, Athletics http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=5253

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Serve as representative of UO Athletics and the Duck Athletic Fund in Eugene and Northern California. Manage a Major Gift portfolio. Responsible for development activities as a member of the Duck Athletic Fund for both annual gifts to the Duck Athletic Fund and major gifts to endowments and capital projects. [UOM: no sign this includes academic gifts.] Assist in marketing and ticket sales efforts in assigned regions.

This position will be expected to serve as the departmental liaison to assigned booster groups, provide solid stewardship to current athletic donors and play a large role in major gift fundraising efforts.

Responsible for promoting the philosophy and objectives of the intercollegiate athletics program, [UOM: Not the UO?] including adherence to all department policies and procedures, as well as the rules and regulations of the university, Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA.

Act as a major gift fundraiser, identify, cultivate and solicit major gifts.

Develop and implement a comprehensive prospecting plan for university alumni, with an emphasis on alumni living in Oregon who are potential high-end annual ($2,500+) and major gift ($100K+) prospects using tools provided by the Office of Prospect Management and Analytics.

Aggressively identify and formally qualify new prospects and existing donors through personal visits, phone calls, correspondence, events and university activities to meet fundraising objectives.

Manage a portfolio of primarily new/discovery prospects, seeking to grow the pool of engaged alumni, parents, friends and corporate supporters.

Create written proposals and case statements for solicitation of individuals and organizations. Coordinate clearance with other development officers and administrators.

Conduct stewardship, including gift acknowledgements/thank you correspondence, recognition, communications and special events.

Collaborate with development staff, faculty, program directors, other university administrators, and volunteers to identify, qualify, cultivate and solicit prospective donors.

Identify, cultivate and solicit major gifts.

A. Regularly meet and communicate with potential donors.

B. Rank and prioritize potential donors.

C. Listen to passions of potential donors, further engage them.

D. Collaborate with athletic and campus colleagues to strategize, then solicit potential donors for gifts.

E. Thank donors promptly and continue appropriate stewardship of them.

Serve as athletic department officer for Eugene and Northern California. Assist with marketing, public relations, and ticket sales efforts in assigned regions. Regularly communicate and meet with donors and prospective donors to Oregon Athletics. Meet annual goals of attracting an increasing number of gifts to the Duck Athletic Fund. Establish and maintain relationships to increase donation levels, season tickets, and corporate marketing opportunities. [UOM: No annual goals for cooperating with UO Advancement’s academic fund drive.] Help ensure effective communication among development staff.

Performs special duties and projects as requested by the Assistant Athletic Director for DAF & Ticket Operations.

Can Mike Andreasen keep his job?

By | |
6 Comments

6/6/2013: I’m all in favor of spending big bucks on fundraising. All the studies I’ve seen show it can pay off. But at UO most of the donations go to the jocks. I’m still waiting to see the Robin Jaqua gift letter, which may explain just how Duck athletic director Rob Mullens was able to roll Mike Andreasen and UO’s academic side for $5M. Meanwhile, this sort of thing does not build a lot of confidence in our team. Thanks to Anonymous for forwarding the email:

“I believe as an industry we are on the cusp of important new strides in building long-term sustainable international partnerships …”

Sent on behalf of Mike Andreasen

Advancement Colleagues:

I want to take this opportunity to share some of the early organizational changes that I have decided to make as we continue the transition to an Advancement model.   I look forward to sharing more details with you at one of our upcoming all staff meetings.  As we return to this model, we stand by our guiding principles:  a value of, and appreciation for, the many distinct programmatic responsibilities and expertise across the portfolios of University Relations and Development; a commitment to increasing our efficiencies and effectiveness as a unified unit; and our enthusiasm to take the very best of our previously Advancement structure and build upon it.

To that end I want to share with you some initial restructuring and a few personnel updates.

Tim Clevenger

I am pleased to announce that Tim has agreed to take on a new role in our Advancement organization as the Associate Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Brand Management.  In taking on the new role, Tim will lead, oversee and coordinate the university’s communications and branding efforts. He will work to consolidate and coordinate staff efforts across the Advancement team, and more comprehensively across campus.  Tim brings years of private sector experience in these fields and will lead our teams in this broad portfolio.  Additionally, while at the university he has developed an effective strategic and branding plan for the UOAA and as a member of the senior management team, he will continue to advance these important efforts.

Carole Daly

Carole has informed me of her decision to retire from the university in June 2014.  Carole has served the university with distinction and personal dedication and we look forward to properly celebrating and thanking her for her contributions to the UO.  In light of her decision, I am announcing the creation of a new senior leadership position that will combine components of Carole’s current role with the role of Executive Director of the UOAA.  As such, this new senior leader will be the AVP Annual & Regional Advancement and the Executive Director of the UOAA.  Tim and Carole will continue to serve in their current managerial roles until this position has been filled.

For the remainder of fiscal ’14, Carole will work directly with me and Vice President Thompson on developing a strategic fundraising plan for scholarships including a portfolio of leadership gifts in this area as part of the campaign.

AVP Annual & Regional Advancement/Executive Director of the UOAA

This new position will lead us through a very innovative and entrepreneurial approach to serve our donors and alumni.  This position will coordinate our approach to annual giving, alumni memberships, regional engagement including gifts, alumni chapters and will oversee a new alumni membership services model for the UOAA.  This model will provide a strategic opportunity to approach our prospect, donor, and alumni base with a more comprehensive overview of methods to engage with the university.  I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts and expectations of this new collaboration between the Development and UOAA teams, and to working with our colleagues in both areas as we further develop our strategies for this new exciting area.

John Manotti

After years of service in our central Development office and most recently as our AVP for Principal Gifts, I am very pleased to share with you that John has agreed to lead a very important new initiative for us.  In his new role of AVP for International Advancement, John will bring his in-depth knowledge of the campus; his years of successful fundraising, domestically and abroad; his commitment to our alumni and donors; and his positive energetic approach to one our most promising new efforts.  I believe as an industry we are on the cusp of important new strides in building long-term sustainable international partnerships with our alumni, parents, corporate partners, and sovereign nations.  While philanthropy and financial investment are often our most tangible measure of success, I am convinced that the broader Advancement effort is a more accurate view of our international opportunities and I couldn’t be more encouraged by John’s willingness to take on this challenge.  Working closely with the Vice Provost for International Affairs, John will work across campus and around the world to foster these new relationships and partnerships.

Paul Elstone

As part of our restructuring efforts and in response to several of the changes above, I have asked Paul to expand his management and oversight portfolio.  Paul will be elevated to Associate Vice President and the fundraising areas in the Museum for Natural & Cultural History, the Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Bach Festival, and the Office of Gift Planning will be added to his portfolio.  I want to acknowledge Paul for the leadership he has provided over the past three years and thank him for his willingness to take on this expanded role. In addition, Paul will work with colleagues across University Development to continue to improve the coordination of all major gift activity.

Best,

Mike Andreasen

Vice President, Advancement

University of Oregon

Millions for jocks, not a cent for scholars

By | |
3 Comments

1/18/2012: That’s the word on the $5 million Jock Box gift from John Jaqua’s widow. Greg Bolt explains the basics, here. Duck press release here. And now Rob Mullens has admitted that he is going to use all the proceeds to cover the small part of the maintenance and utilities that the athletic department must pay. Not a cent will go to help the academic side pay for the $1.83 million cost of running the athlete-only tutoring operations. Where was UO’s VP for Development Mike Andreasenwhile this gift was being negotiated? Not doing his job for the academic side. Where was UO Foundation President Paul Weinhold? Cashing his paycheck. What is the probability that the widowed 91-year-old donor, the generous and rather interesting Robin Jaqua, understood how UO’s athletic department would use her gift? ____%. Meanwhile, the athletic department is continuing to play hardball with the students over football tickets and costs. Because they are that greedy. Emily Schiola has the story in the ODE.