Eastern is hiring two more directors of philanthropy as part of an effort to increase fundraising.

The Office of Philanthropy is currently in the planning stages of launching a major comprehensive capital campaign, which will go to improving facilities on campus. Planning for the campaign started last spring.

“Typically, comprehensive campaigns for universities involve a time-limited effort, a concentrated effort to increase philanthropy to the benefit of the university in all categories,” said President Bill Perry.

These categories include annual gifts, planned gifts and pledges.

Perry said these gifts sometimes go to endowments or programs, or are sometimes cash gifts.

The new directors of philanthropy will be working with major gift donors and planned gift donors.

“With the additional staff and additional resources, I think it positions us very well to begin the process of a major fundraising campaign,” said Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations.

Nilsen said her office has advertised the position and are now in the process of scheduling interviews on campus with individuals.

“We would like to see them filled as soon as possible,” Nilsen said.

Currently, the Office of Philanthropy has a combined three full-time philanthropy directors.

Not all the directors are full-time. The athletics department and Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences each have a director of philanthropy.

The two new positions will be full time and will almost double the current full-time staff.

Their responsibilities will involve visiting with donors and inviting their support for the university.

Nilsen said Eastern has about 70,000 alumni with good addresses and each of these directors of philanthropy will be working with 80 to 120 donors and friends.

“So you can figure, the more people we have doing that, the more broadly we’ll be able to reach more alumni,” Nilsen said.

She said fundraising has the greatest success through face-to-face contact, which is very time intensive. Increasing the staff, she said, allows Eastern to do that more effectively.

Committees are also being set up to act in an advisory role for the campaign.

“They would help us in terms of looking at our campaign theme and campaign materials and policies,” Perry said. “They also would agree to introduce us to individuals or foundations with whom we might develop a relationship.”

An internal campaign steering committee will be set up that would include the central administrative team, which includes the president and vice presidents, as well as representatives from the deans, the three senates, the Alumni Association and the EIU Foundation.

An external steering committee will also be set up.

“The members of this committee are individuals who have demonstrated their support for the university through their philanthropic gifts and are willing to volunteer their time and energies to help us move the campaign forward,” Nilsen said.

She said these committees are still in the planning stages.

“We’re talking about the projects we want to include,” Nilsen said. “We’re making sure all our fundraising policies and procedures are up-to-date and accurate. Getting appropriate staff in place. We’re getting everything ready and in position to poise us for a successful beginning.”

While the formation of these committees are still in process, Perry said a number of individuals have agreed to serve.

Perry said the goal is for the committee to be formed by the end of October.

Perry said university campaigns typically run for five to seven years. After that is complete, a three-year interim process begins where the university starts planning for another campaign. The next campaign would continue in trying to increase overall giving to the university.

Perry said the campaign is still in its planning stages so no financial goals for the fundraising have been set yet.

However, not referring to money, Perry said a main goal of the campaign is to establish “a deeper and wider relationship with our alumni and friends.”

Another objective to fundraising is to combat future tuition increases.

“Every dollar saved is a dollar we don’t have to charge in tuition,” Perry said. “Every dollar raised is a dollar we don’t have to charge in tuition. So the importance of success in cost savings and cost avoidance and in fundraising is it enables us to pay attention to the affordability of tuition for our students.”

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.