apply to anything that they think is important.
get back to them, we’re doing research. We’re determining who they are through our research department. I don’t believe every HBCU needs to have a research department, but they could subscribe to our research department, and we could do that for them. We’re now doing training of fundraisers because a lot of people who really want to help their institutions and fundraise for their institutions don’t have the professional credentials required to do that work and haven’t had the training. Well, we now provide institutes where we will train, and we’ll do that for the people who work at our HBCUs; and we think that that’s a real service that we can perform. We can do research, we can help to train the people, and we can help them make the case to ask the right people for their support. HBCU TIMES: AND AFTER RAISING OVER A BILLION DOLLARS IN FOUR YEARS, AND ON TRACK TO RAISE ANOTHER $$370 MILLION WITHIN THE NEXT THREE, UNCF IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO AID OUR HBCUS IN OBTAINING
here at UNCF; so over the next three years, I have to raise that whole $370 million. HBCU TIMES: THIS ENDOWMENT WILL DEFINITELY HELP TOWARD THE INITIATIVES YOU LAID OUT EARLIER REGARDING INCREASED PAY, STAFF RETENTION, AND FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENT. DR. LOMAX: For some of our institutions, a $10 million stake at UNCF is a nice to have, but it’s not an absolutely gotta have. Such as Spelman College, they’re not going to turn their back on a $10 million stake, but they have an endowment now in excess of a half billion dollars. We have a number of institutions that have a stake in endowments of over a hundred million, but we have institutions that have endowments of less than $5 million, less than $10 million. So, this really will level the playing field for some of those smaller institutions with smaller endowments, and they can begin to see the benefit of that. So, a $10 million endowment for them will, at 4%, give them $400,000 in unrestricted dollars that they can
A&M [FAMU] WITH THE GERAMI DONATION OF $$243 MILLION, HOW CAN SOMETHING LIKE THAT BE AVOIDED? DR. LOMAX: FAMU isn’t a member institution because they are a public university; but they are a partner, so they still have had a line of communication and are able to leverage resources. I look at something like that, and then I read that had actually happened with two other HBCUs.
And when it goes up another $50,000 the following year, they’ll be the recipient of new sources of revenue. The scholarship block grants that we give to our member institutions, the unrestricted dollars that we’re giving, amounts to about $700,000 minimum every year. That’s a real number. We are really beginning to put the pedal to the metal, or put the pedal on the accelerator; and it’s more money that [our member institutions] will have to use for the things that they believe in. We’re teaching them how to raise that money in partnership with us, and so we’re doing much more of a kind of shared service to raise money. It’s not me doing all the raising, it’s not them doing all the raising, it’s us doing it together. We’re teaching our member institutions how to fish more effectively. HBCU TIMES: THIS IS STICKY, BUT IT CAME TO MY MIND. IN LIGHT OF WHAT HAPPENED AT FLORIDA
HBCU TIMES: HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
DR. LOMAX: One of the most important things you’ve got to do is kick the tires of these folks who say they’re going to help you out. Unfortunately, there are people who misrepresent [themselves and their resources]. One of the very important elements of the strength and integrity of our program [at UNCF] is our donor research. We have people who call and say they want to make a major contribution to UNCF. We tell them yes we’d like to meet, tell us who you are and let us get back to you. Before we
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