When Debra LaMorte first took over as NYU's senior vice president for development and alumni affairs eight years ago, the first thing she asked about was the class reunions.
"Everybody there looked at me and said, 'We don't have class reunions,' " she recalled. "And I said, 'Well what do you mean we don't have class reunions? I mean that's got to be a major point of how you raise money.' "
It didn't take her long to realize that NYU's lack of class tradition was just the first hurdle she would face in building up the university's endowment.
As of last year, NYU's endowment stood at roughly $2.1 billion, or about $70,000 per full-time student; Harvard University's, on the other hand, was about $4 million per student.
"We are endowment-poor, endowment-challenged; you can put it any way you want," LaMorte said.
University Heights
With details constantly emerging about NYU's expansion in the city and abroad, it's easy to forget that the university once had a second campus in the city — but chose to downsize. In 1973, then-university president James Hester sold the campus to avert bankruptcy.
But that left alumni like Larry Lynnworth (University Heights '58) without their familiar alma mater.
According to Lynnworth, that wasn't well-received by all of his former classmates.
"People don't like changes that they're not really involved in," he said.
LaMorte said the unpopularity of this decision among University Heights graduates created a gap in the alumni who are willing to donate to the university today.
"When we reach out to them, they say, 'Why are you calling us for a donation? You sold my school. You sold my campus,' " she said.
But at least for Lynnworth, the loss of the campus wasn't enough to stop him from supporting the school.
"They were very nice to me when I was a student," he said. "I was able to attend with the help of an NYU scholarship. I feel some debt associated with that."
Commuter School
NYU's history of being a largely commuter school has also hurt its sense of community — and administrators' ability to keep alumni involved.
"People came, they got their degree and they went home again," LaMorte said.
And even though most students now live on campus, the university's history of commuter noninvolvement is one of the reasons for its relatively low endowment.
To combat the problem, LaMorte helped make the decision to require freshmen to live in university housing.
"They now do have a sense of who they are coming in, and they do have a stronger class identity," she said. "I figured if I could get that piece of it going, then we could build other traditions on top of that."
Engaging Alumni
"If you can get somebody reengaged in the university ... usually their pocketbooks will follow." That, LaMorte said, is her general philosophy approaching alumni relations.
According to NYU's director of prospect research and management Jennifer Keane, the university sends out members of its faculty and alumni volunteers who share interests or past connections with potential donors.
"What we have to do is have fundraisers going out there engaging those people," she said.
Alumni Relations also organizes events for potential donors, sends mail to their homes and gives them Phonathon calls.
"They're being bombarded by us in just all kinds of ways," LaMorte said.
