DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709250368

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  106 lines

NSU DRAFTS FAR-REACHING PLAN TO BOOST FUND RAISING A SCHOOL OFFICIAL FOUND MORE THAN 4,300 OPPORTUNITIES - JUST ON CAMPUS.

Algeania W. Freeman sees green at Norfolk State University. She's not looking at the football uniforms.

What catches her eye is not the school colors but buildings, auditorium seats, classrooms, basketball courts, even staircases. They all could be named in honor of people or organizations, for a price, to raise money for the college, says Freeman, the acting vice president for university advancement.

She sees more: alumni who aren't routinely prodded for contributions, students who aren't wooed to donate after they graduate, community businesses and organizations that aren't tapped for gifts or sponsorships.

``The university needs money,'' Freeman said. ``And we have to work as hard as we can to put a foundation in place to go after the funds that are out there.''

At the direction of new president Marie V. McDemmond, Freeman and her staff have put together an inch-thick draft of a far-ranging and permanent fund-raising plan. It proposes ideas ranging from offering memberships that give priority on tickets at the L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center to seeking donations from campus employees.

And it includes, apparently for the first time at Norfolk State, directions for systematic, ongoing solicitation of funds from alumni and others by phone and mail. These donations would include regular annual gifts, planned gifts through wills and life-insurance benefits, and major one-time gifts from individuals, organizations and companies.

An annual giving plan will be the first priority, Freeman said. The Board of Visitors - the governing body for the public, 8,500-student, historically black university - got a look at the proposals recently and gave Freeman preliminary approval to get started. She also has applied for a federal grant to hire three directors for the beefed-up fund-raising effort.

An advisory committee will be appointed and in place by January, preferably sooner, to devise a specific plan, Freeman said. This committee will be composed of board members, college officials and people from the community. She told the board she'd like to start writing and phoning alumni in November.

Up to now, aside from the Tim Reid celebrity tennis tournament and a few other specific events, fund raising at Norfolk State largely meant applying for federal grants. There have been no comprehensive fund-raising campaigns like the one Freeman is proposing.

But proactive fund raising is one of the new president's first two priorities - along with ``student success'' - and led to organization of a new Office of University Advancement that combines fund raising, marketing and public relations.

What this means to NSU alumni and friends: Watch your mailboxes - they're coming after you.

According to Freeman's research, Norfolk State has information about 13,837 alumni, with some 10,500 living in Virginia. In 1996, 489 alumni donated $94,068, an average of $192 apiece. By comparison, Virginia State University near Petersburg - another public, historically black university but less than half as big as Norfolk State - reported that it received $246,879 in alumni donations during the 1995-96 fiscal year.

Increased fund raising will pay for more student scholarships, updated technology and faculty training and recruitment, Freeman said.

``To have all those things - to have a world-class organization - you have to have money,'' Freeman said. ``You have to have fund raising. You have to go ask people for it.''

In her one-month study, she came up with 4,356 on-campus ``naming opportunities'' to raise money. These include 1,646 individual seats in the Wilder Center that could bear commemorative nameplates at a suggested $250 each, and the center's ``grand staircase,'' which might fetch $100,000.

The draft plan suggests other possibilities: seeking corporate sponsorships of events such as arts festivals; seeking specific three-year-plan gifts, payable in 36 monthly installments, of $7,500 from the university president, $5,000 from each vice president and $500 each from all staffers; developing potential-donor lists of African-American families in Norfolk, Hampton Roads and Virginia with annual incomes of $150,000 or more; and holding monthly dinners in the president's on-campus home for 10 to 15 ``potential major donors.''

Preliminary research showed Freeman that Norfolk State lagged far behind other historically black colleges and universities around the country in raising money. From 1992 to 1997, for example, the private Hampton University received 68 grants from foundations totaling $10 million, while Norfolk State received 16 totaling less than $1.2 million, averaging $240,000 a year.

The newly aggressive Norfolk State fund-raising efforts would be abetted by ``slick-looking'' annual reports, increased marketing and public-relations activities, extensive research into potential donors and what's going on at comparable schools, and larger investments in personnel, equipment such as computers and training in what the draft labeled ``The Art of Asking.''

``We're going to out-hustle them,'' said board member Marian H. Harris of Virginia Beach.

An annual or total amount sought wasn't part of the draft, but the Rev. Geoffrey V. Guns of Virginia Beach, a board member, wanted it included in the final plan.

President McDemmond said a goal is to develop a ``giving'' reputation at Norfolk State.

``We need to get that image out there,'' she told the board. ``That's what people give to: an image.''

The Board of Visitors also discussed but took no action on asking the General Assembly to increase the board's number by two - to 15 - in part for increased fund-raising efforts.

``We have loyal support,'' Freeman said later. Developing a comprehensive giving program means ``new people will support us, and the people who already gave to us will continue to support us.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

Dr. Algeania W. Freeman is the acting vice president of university

advancement at Norfolk State. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY FUNDRAISING

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