Forever Valpo Fundraising Campaign

[crusader05]

https://www.valpo.edu/forevervalpo/2020/02/06/historic-gift/

Well here's where the rest of it is coming from.

[VUGrad1314]

I mean scholarship endowments are great and all but our dorms still need upgrading and athletics still needs a lot of attention... I hope there's a plan for this stuff soon though in the current era I don't think our facility matters much. if you're lacking on the sidelines it doesn't matter the sight lines. Also in the article it states that they have raised $238million so I don't think we're done yet. It's also hard to square the notion that things are going so well with the fact that we've lost

The Law School

The Japanese program (effective after next year according to the chair of the department I happened to run into yesterday which makes me sad as a former student of that program)

Men's Soccer

Men's Tennis

within a span of just a couple of years.

Scholarships are great but what good are they when you're constantly shuttering programs left and right because you have to pay for buildings you can't fully use because you didn't use the main marketing tool you had (athletics namely basketball success) to boost interest and enrollment first before embarking on this? This whole thing just feels like a mishmash of misplaced priorities and it makes me sad and makes me worry about the survival of the university as a whole as well as its viability as a mid major power in college basketball.

[crusader05]

A strong endowment means that you don't have to spend as much money on an annual basis which means you have more money to work with to do upgrades and other things.
If students can't afford to come to valpo and we can't afford to keep discounting their tuition to get them here upgrades to facilities don't matter at all.

[vu72]

I mean scholarship endowments are great and all but our dorms still need upgrading and athletics still needs a lot of attention... I hope there's a plan for this stuff soon though in the current era I don't think our facility matters much. if you're lacking on the sidelines it doesn't matter the sight lines. Also in the article it states that they have raised $238million so I don't think we're done yet. It's also hard to square the notion that things are going so well with the fact that we've lost

The Law School

The Japanese program (effective after next year according to the chair of the department I happened to run into yesterday which makes me sad as a former student of that program)

Men's Soccer

Men's Tennis

within a span of just a couple of years.

Scholarships are great but what good are they when you're constantly shuttering programs left and right because you have to pay for buildings you can't fully use because you didn't use the main marketing tool you had (athletics namely basketball success) to boost interest and enrollment first before embarking on this? This whole thing just feels like a mishmash of misplaced priorities and it makes me sad and makes me worry about the survival of the university as a whole as well as its viability as a mid major power in college basketball.

As 05 said, endowment wags the dog.  Cost cutting is a part of every university including wealthy ones like Vanderbilt.  I'm curious--how many students were in the Japanese program?  Programs come and programs go.  As for the law school--it was a losing proposition as we had trouble (got into trouble) by taking people who couldn't end up passing the bar.  So our academic reputation as an institution was damaged.  That, in and of itself, may have driven possible students to a different school.

Look, we closed a money eater when we closed the law school.  We can mourn its loss or acknowledge that many law schools are closing, the profession is not as attractive as it once was and so it joins our Medical and Dental schools as things of the past.

The soccer team closing down is an interesting situation.  It is obvious on the surface that we had a title 9 problem but its deeper than that.  There are only 5 schools in the Valley who still have a men's soccer program.  We had more athletic programs than anyone else and we are the second smallest school.  Looking deeper, imagine the cost of the men's soccer program.  Last year's team had players from TEN different countries!!  We had to recruit internationally in the hopes of being able to compete.  Heck, we had Indiana's Mr. Soccer on the team and he didn't even start!  In spite of the enormous cost of recruiting internationally (these kids didn't pick Valpo out of a phone book), we finished 5th of 6.

It is a tough environment financially across the board.  That is well documented--it clearly isn't just Valpo.  We've cut some programs but--added others.  Endowment, both for scholarships AND athletics, is crucial.  That is in part I'm sure why one couple designated $2 million of the $238 million raised to date, to endow Men's basketball recruiting.  Other money raised was to complete Hilltop as well as start the renovation of Bauer.

We need a new drive dedicated to just athletics, but first things first.  The well is just so deep.  St. Joes had some nice athletic facilities which are now gathering weeds, I'm sure.  Having shiny new bleachers didn't save it from going  to the dust heap of history.

This video about St. Joes is telling.  Their students were getting a 65% discount on their educational expenses.  Their endowment shrank from $24 million to $6 million (they only had 900 students.   

https://media.gannett-cdn.com/indianapolis-mobile/201702/220/35547429001_5314781116001_5314748055001.mp4

[VUGrad1314]

Taking on debt to build new facilities to increase enrollment which didn't pan out. That sounds chillingly close to what's going on here. We built with an eye toward growing to 6000. We're nowhere close to that.

[crusader05]

ahhhhhh for the last time the university took on debt to build dorms that replaced old ones mostly and built buildings that replaced old ones or met current needs.

There never was a"built it and they would come mentality" the plan for 6,0000 students included building like 3 new dorms than what are already on campus and a ridiculous amount of new buildings. Everything they built now was just so the students they currently have would have adequate facilities.

[crusadermoe]

Crusader05, I think you are misreading the news release.  If the $15 million stacks on top of the new $238 million total, then the news article would have noted in a celebratory way that this gift takes you past the original $250 million goal!  In fact that milestone would have been trumpeted with flying confetti as a crown for St. Mark.   It's far more likely that the huge $15 million gift created the big jump UP to $238 million in the recent months.   

Also, you will see on a close look that the gift is "deferred."  This typically means that the university receives it when the donor(s) passes away. 

I may EXPECT a really big inheritance of $15 million from my rich uncle because he told me it's coming.  But if my uncle is only 60 years old then I probably shouldn't count on spending it any time soon.

[crusader05]

I did not misread. My "where the rest was coming from" was in relation to the poster directly before me wondering where the rest of the money that got us to 238 million was from. I apologize if that was not clear.

Also, I do understand what deferred means. It's not uncommon for endowment drives to raise money through estate planning like this. You may not like it and think it shouldn't count or whatever but that doesn't change the fact that this is pretty much how it works all across the board.

It is very clear you have no enthusiasm or love for this endowment drive and are insistent on diminishing anything that happens and that is your choice but perhaps in the future you could work to not speak to other posters like they are children. Especially since I have in the past in fact posted about how gifts can be in estates and not immediately in the university hands.

[vu84v2]

A few comments:
-moe raised concerns about donations being deferred and somehow questionable. While I would guess that actual contributions made over time are not 100% of what was committed, my guess is that it is pretty darn close. These donors are highly successful in their lives and have a close relationship with Valpo. They are likely very sincere in meeting any commitments made and Valpo is likely risk averse (i.e. they are not going to count something that they believe is not near certain). Thus, deferred donations (from estates, etc.) are essentially as good as real-time donations.
-Some posters argue that Valpo went on a 'building spree' to allow for 6000 students, but the facts just do not support that. Most of the new buildings replaced existing buildings that were dated (science building, library, union).
-How can you fault someone or a group of individuals for donating money to scholarships? All that they are doing is helping make it more affordable for students to get an education and making Valpo more competitive.
-A good organization needs to trim and add over time. It probably made sense to trim the men's tennis and soccer teams, but the actions to cancel these programs needed to be done in a manner that was more respectful of the players and coaches. In retrospect, they probably should have pulled the plug on the law school far earlier (hindsight being what it is). But Valpo has added programs that make a great deal of sense moving forward (e.g. bioengineering, physician's assistant).

[vu72]

https://www.cu-portland.edu/closure

This is an interesting situation.  They were taking the Concordia Chicago model of a small undergrad/large grad school population--as in 1500 undergrad, 4000 grad.  I have looked but haven't been able to find out exactly how large their endowment was but Chicago's is about 24 million.

[valpo95]

https://www.cu-portland.edu/closure

This is an interesting situation.  They were taking the Concordia Chicago model of a small undergrad/large grad school population--as in 1500 undergrad, 4000 grad.  I have looked but haven't been able to find out exactly how large their endowment was but Chicago's is about 24 million.

Actually, this is a very odd situation. Apparently Portland partnered with an online provider called HotChalk to provide online Masters degrees in Education with the Concordia name, causing a dramatic spike in the number of grad school students who were enrolled online. This culminated in lawsuit from the Department of Education in 2015 that was settled for $1M, though the university admitted no wrongdoing.

The university showed a net profit in eight of the last  ten years (FY 2009 - FY 2018), to the tune of $23M over that period. They did have a big loss of $7.9M in FY2017, followed by a net income of $715K in FY2018. (For reference, total revenues were $33.7M in 2009, peaking at $173M in 2015, and down to $113M in 2018). It is possible that the online education revenues were drying up entirely, such that there was a structural deficit hidden by the massive spike in tuition from the online programs. Or, there was some kind of financial misdealing where revenues were brought forward from the online provider.

As near as I can tell, Concordia Portland had no significant endowment.

You can read more about the the circumstance here:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/11/lutheran-college-portland-will-close-after-spring-2020-semester

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2016/10/concordia_gained_thousands_of_new_students_--_and_a_federal_inquiry.html

[vu72]

The campaign is flying along!  Just had lunch with a Valpo representative who told me the current total is now at $244 million because of another very large gift--no, it didn't have anything to do with athletics. 

[Valpo2013]

The campaign is flying along!  Just had lunch with a Valpo representative who told me the current total is now at $244 million because of another very large gift--no, it didn't have anything to do with athletics. 

Anyone know if time wise we are on schedule to hit the goal that was set-or if there was one?

[vu72]

The campaign is flying along!  Just had lunch with a Valpo representative who told me the current total is now at $244 million because of another very large gift--no, it didn't have anything to do with athletics. 

Anyone know if time wise we are on schedule to hit the goal that was set-or if there was one?

I believe it is set to close June, 2021.  They fully expect to beat the deadline, maybe a year early.

[loschwitz]

The Forever Valpo website still shows funds raised at $238 million.   I have not seen any announcements about another major gift raising the total to $244 million as stated in an e-mail two weeks ago.


Can anyone provide any additional info?

[crusader05]

Not yet but the announcement they made it to 238 million was a bit ahead of the official announcement of the $15 million gift and then they updated the website.

[crusadermoe]

Still wondering how much actual cash-in-hand has been received by the endowment funds since the 2011 actual start of the "biggest campaign in Valparaiso history."   

It sounds like they received a lot of promised gifts that will land in the future. Those are validly counted in the $238 million.  But they don't address the current and near term crisis.

[vu72]

Still wondering how much actual cash-in-hand has been received by the endowment funds since the 2011 actual start of the "biggest campaign in Valparaiso history."   

It sounds like they received a lot of promised gifts that will land in the future. Those are validly counted in the $238 million.  But they don't address the current and near term crisis.

Good question.  I have no idea other than what we know from various news releases.  There are of course monies raised from The Valpo Day of Giving, which is included in these funds.  That's about $725,000 per year.  If the gift says "received", as in "Valparaiso University has received a gift of $1.8 million from the estate of STEPHANIE E. UMBACH '59" , then its cash in the bank.  If it says "Valparaiso University has received a landmark $15 million deferred gift commitment" then its not.

Many of our wealthy donors are getting up in years so I would expect a lot of funds coming in in the next 5-10 years for sure.

[valpotx]

This article in another thread has me feeling much better about the financial situation.  Many Summit League members have a minuscule endowment!

https://kelo.com/news/articles/2020/mar/05/augustana-has-applied-for-summit-membership-but-it-will-be-an-uphill-climb-for-invite/991736/

[VUGrad1314]

This article in another thread has me feeling much better about the financial situation.  Many Summit League members have a minuscule endowment! https://kelo.com/news/articles/2020/mar/05/augustana-has-applied-for-summit-membership-but-it-will-be-an-uphill-climb-for-invite/991736/

Glad I could help. 

[vu72]

New total up!  Now $246,826,231.  Still no announcement concerning major gifts though this is $11 million since the $15 million dollar gift.

[vu72]

Less than a month after the last update the new total is $249,520,753, an increase of $2,694,522 in about a month.  If the Day of Giving had happened on March 18 the $250,000,000 goal would have been easily hit.  Goodness only knows how the market collapse will effect all this.

[VUGrad1314]

I personally think that once we get to our goal we should just continue the campaign with a new goal but simultaneously push other needed projects to the fore as well if market conditions allow us to do so. Otherwise it would be a very good idea to just keep the endowment drive going at least through the lean times. It's always good to have a nest egg for times like this. It's interesting to me how people like myself were a little annoyed that we were focusing on endowment growth when we had so many other needs (and our own individual priorities like athletics for me) yet the foresight and forethought of starting this program when we did has given the university a much greater chance of surviving this pandemic. I can only imagine where we would be if we hadn't worked to grow the endowment over the previous decade. We would probably be much worse off right now.

[valpo64]

I recall hearing a couple of months ago that we should wait until March for perhaps an announcement Re: athletics or maybe facilities   Any truth to that or anything new on the facility funding?

[crusader05]

I agree VUGRAD We should probaby continue to grow the enrollment right now if possible. Especially as it will be taken a hit and many universities may even have to dip into it to cover lost expenses. I think about how both the Jazzfest and the Lutheran Basketball Tournament were cancelled plus any camps and conferences from the summer or even during the year is lost income.

I do wonder too what could be financed with low interest bonds if possible as well.