Wonder why my experience is so different from many of you. Yes, my 4 yrs at Madison were the 4 best years of my life. Happily, my relationship has never waned. I have never had a problem giving money to JMU and don't understand why anyone would complain about not getting asked. I get so much stuff in the mail that I can't keep it all figured out. Any time I want to make a donation all I have to do is pick up the phone. If anyone truly wants to make a donation, let me know. You can make a check out to JMU and I will personally hand deliver to whatever department you would like.

I don't know if it's a Rose thing or what, but there's a senior admin elitist attitude that is probably going to be hard to change without Alger hiring some new blood. I hear comments excusing poor fundraising outreach as, "President Rose just liked to do that stuff on his own". If we have enough Rose fanboy "leaders", we get status quo. The above quote came straight from someone many people would consider Rose's right-hand man (no, not CK).

I'm not saying one-on-one fundraising isn't necessary for the JMU president, but there's something missing if that's all that's happening for our larger donors.

(07-25-2013 11:51 AM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  Wonder why my experience is so different from many of you. Yes, my 4 yrs at Madison were the 4 best years of my life. Happily, my relationship has never waned. I have never had a problem giving money to JMU and don't understand why anyone would complain about not getting asked. I get so much stuff in the mail that I can't keep it all figured out. Any time I want to make a donation all I have to do is pick up the phone. If anyone truly wants to make a donation, let me know. You can make a check out to JMU and I will personally hand deliver to whatever department you would like.

I see the difference as not everyone is already on-board. You need effective, appropriate solicitation & interaction to get those who have fallen off the wagon back on.

I know there are some on here who literally complain about not knowing how to personally donate. Those guys will never get it. Honestly, you just gotta ignore the idiots.

We give what we can now, but my wife and I don't have kids so when we die, that's when JMU is really going to be rolling in the dough. I'm talking literally DOZENS of dollars.

(07-25-2013 11:37 AM)bcp_jmu Wrote:  Lets not forget Showker and Wampler halls....big donors!

We jabe sports folks too...Sapong, Haley, Moats, Clark, Norwood..

(07-25-2013 09:16 AM)HotHamandCheese84 Wrote:  

(07-25-2013 09:01 AM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  JMU has just has many alumni with $$$ as schools that raise 10x, or in some cases, 100x more than us. Like me, most of you probably have friends or family that have gone to other schools that aren't as great as JMU but raise a lot more money than we do. This comes down to the culture set at the school and the emphasis put on giving by the leadership.

The only reason JMU doesnt raise big $$$, like some of our peers, is because the guy Tat first mentioned at the beginning of this post are the majority of our alumni. Disconnected from the school and uneducated about the growth the school has seen over the years.

Over my four years at JMU, as I got to know the school's history, I slowly realized that the buildings weren't named after big donors but rather historical figures (Ashby Hall, Wilson Hall), former governors (Godwin), former university presidents (Rose & Carrier Library), geographic areas (Shenandoah Hall, Chesapeake Hall), or just flat out the name of the building just describes what it is (Convo, ISAT, Bio Sciences Building).

If it wasn't for this message board, and my love of JMU sports, I question how connected to the university I would still be...and that's a shame.

Good point about the buildings on campus. We have at least 3 named after donors ( Plecker Center, Forbes Center, Bridgeforth Stadium) and there may be more that I'm missing. Having donors that can and will give multi-million dollar gifts is nice and we have some. Our biggest group of donors should be those that can give $10,000 over a 5 year time frame. We should easily have 10,000 alums that can contribute this amount. The question should be what will it take to get those 10,000 to part with $10,000? That's an easy $100,000,000 from donors that graduated in the '80s and '90s alone
I'm a bit sadden by your comment that this message board is one of 2 reasons for your connection to JMU. I like the board but it's way down the list of connection points to JMU for me. The good news is that it makes the list. Have you thought about coming back to speak to a class, join an advisory committee (or form one), get on a board, etc.

Sadler (granted, he didn't graduate from JMU).

(07-25-2013 11:02 AM)HotHamandCheese84 Wrote:  I just got this in my inbox. I'm glad we've reached 8,000 but that's sad for an alumni base as large as ours.

History made!! For the first time ever, more than 8,000 alumni made a gift to their alma mater in the same year.

That's 8,508 alumni, to be exact.

Thank you to all those who gave in 2012-13. You're helping amazing things happen at Madison.
JMU Office of Annual Giving http://www.jmu.edu/give

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I thought the same thing when I read this. Very sad that JMU has to tout 8K. Really pathetic if you think about it.

(07-25-2013 12:09 PM)JMU85 Wrote:  

(07-25-2013 11:02 AM)HotHamandCheese84 Wrote:  I just got this in my inbox. I'm glad we've reached 8,000 but that's sad for an alumni base as large as ours.

History made!! For the first time ever, more than 8,000 alumni made a gift to their alma mater in the same year.

That's 8,508 alumni, to be exact.

Thank you to all those who gave in 2012-13. You're helping amazing things happen at Madison.
JMU Office of Annual Giving http://www.jmu.edu/give

Click here to unsubscribe.

Connect with JMU

I thought the same thing when I read this. Very sad that JMU has to tout 8K. Really pathetic if you think about it.

Meanwhile a school like ECU, a school that started around the same time as JMU and has had a similar academic history as JMU just had more than double that number just to athletics alone.

(07-25-2013 11:52 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  I don't know if it's a Rose thing or what, but there's a senior admin elitist attitude that is probably going to be hard to change without Alger hiring some new blood. I hear comments excusing poor fundraising outreach as, "President Rose just liked to do that stuff on his own". If we have enough Rose fanboy "leaders", we get status quo. The above quote came straight from someone many people would consider Rose's right-hand man (no, not CK).

I'm not saying one-on-one fundraising isn't necessary for the JMU president, but there's something missing if that's all that's happening for our larger donors.

I don't think it's fair to tar everyone on the senior leadership team with the Rose brush. Many on this team could retire and some may retire in the next few years. There are many very good people in leadership positions that get slammed on a regular basis for decisions they did not personally support but they carried out based on instructions from their boss. I'm not one that turns a blind eye to departments that need to be overhauled quickly and we have some. The one that comes to mind is JMU Development. The current management structure needs to be revamped and current staff either need to be trained and some may need to be replaced. The "ask" is not big enough in many instances and the cultivation of donors is hit or miss. For example, if someone has consistently given $1,000 a year, that donor needs to be contacted and visited so he/she moves to a $2,500 donor a year and then $5,000 soon thereafter. That same donor needs to be placed on a task force, advisory board, etc. if that is the way he/she wants to give back. At a minimum, that donor should be asked to speak to a class once a year and serve as a mentor for another student. President Alger is aware of the holes we have. I don't know how he will solve it but I'm very confident in his leadership skills.

The Duke Club does a pretty good job with relationship building. It could be better but the Duke Club is light years ahead of JMU Development on the relationship building/fund raising front. The Duke Club is making some big "asks" of folks and that's what they should be doing.

We need to relationship build at JMU and quickly. This school can move from good to great but it needs work.

(07-25-2013 07:41 AM)Purplehazed Wrote:  I'm not going to mention his name but there is a man that lives in H'Burg that attended JMU
(I think) that could fund BFS with spare change. I rarely hear his name mentioned when I'm in H'Burg. This man used to have an office about 500 yards away from the DC HQ.

Is he a hermit or just never involved with JMU? It's kind of hard to hide that kind of wealth unless he's a Howard Hughes recluse type. Wonder if the school has tried in the past to get money from him but has been firmly rebuked?

Leelou....the Sherm backer

Steve and Dee Dee are great and get tapped quite frequently. Very giving people. They've opened their home for JMU events here in Charlotte on a number of occasions. You wouldn't believe the basketball court down in their basement. Yes, I said their basement. The Dukes could play a game down there. He told me that he purchased the home from a former Charlotte Hornet's player.

Phoef Sutton -- He is a producer in Hollywood who has been involved with numerous sit-coms. Some of his biggest contributions were as an executive producer of both Cheers and Fraiser.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/hallhonor/ahrens

(07-26-2013 03:04 PM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/hallhonor/ahrens

not following this Cent? I assume this is in jest?

Read her bio! She went to JMU for her masters

Don't forget Lindsay Murphy. I went to HS with her too.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/17048693/lindsay-murphy

(07-27-2013 02:42 PM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  Read her bio! She went to JMU for her masters

No doubt what she did was admirable, but what does it have to do with this thread?

Don't forget Steve James - the director of one of the top documentaries ever made (Hoop Dreams).

sorry i thought it was neat. Sheesh

(07-27-2013 04:47 PM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  

(07-27-2013 02:42 PM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  Read her bio! She went to JMU for her masters

No doubt what she did was admirable, but what does it have to do with this thread?

I think Cent is just mistaking notable alumni with currently rich and powerful alumni.