A dearth of minority donors is often cited as a reason for the lack of diversity in the governing boards of college and university foundations and private institutions. Effective philanthropic leadership, the argument goes, requires board members who have demonstrated their commitment by giving at the very highest levels and who can open doors with like-minded business leaders and philanthropists. The assumption that there aren’t minority donors may, however, be a self-fulfilling prophecy. A board that’s 84 percent White, 65 percent male, and 22 percent age 70 or older (average demographics for foundation boards as reported in AGB’s 2021 study on board policies, practices, and composition, Policies, Practices, and Composition of Governing Boards of Colleges, Universities, and Institutionally Related Foundations 2021) may lack the perspectives, experiences, and relationships to effectively identify, engage, and inspire diverse prospects with different life experiences, affiliations, and philanthropic objectives.
The culture of advancement programs, including the composition of volunteer leadership groups, the demographics of advancement staff, and alumni relations and fundraising practices, may be undermining institutions’ ability to engage increasingly diverse alumni populations (witness the trend of declining alumni participation) and develop a diverse pipeline of prospective donors broadly representative of their alumni populations and communities.
The Florida International University Foundation (FIUF), supporting a diverse student body that is 86 percent minority and represents 180 countries, is developing advancement programs with an explicit focus on inclusivity. They provide a valuable model for any institution looking to more effectively support DEI initiatives, foster engagement of minority alumni, and create a more diverse pipeline of philanthropic supporters.
The AGB Board of Directors’ Statement on Justice, Equity, and Inclusion and Guidance for Implementation encourages boards to apply a DEI lens throughout the institution and ask, among many other questions, how historical policies and practices related to philanthropy have intentionally or unintentionally fostered inequality. The board of the Florida International University Foundation started by examining its own composition and practices. Board leaders undertook an analysis of board demographics, looking at a broad range of factors including, among many others, national origin, professional background, and political and religious affiliations, to identify changes in composition needed for the foundation board to truly mirror the university and community. The board has clear expectations for board philanthropy, but opted to focus on prospective board members’ passion, commitment to mission, and desire to be engaged, rather than setting an extraordinarily high bar for prior individual giving. In this way, service on the board is used as a means of forging and deepening relationships that, in some cases, have led to transformative gifts from formerly modest donors.
The foundation believes that building a more inclusive, representative board has also paid off by expanding and diversifying the institution’s network of relationships and prospects, says Burt Cabanas, the chair of the FIUF Board of Directors, “The FIU Foundation is committed to continuing our lead in implementing initiatives to maintain diversity on our board and to advancing philanthropic endeavors that support FIU’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities.” He adds, “Through our concerted efforts we intend to promote meaningful change in inclusive philanthropy.” As part of this work the board applied a DEI lens to endowment management, making manager diversity a central consideration in their selection of an OCIO (outsourced chief investment officer) firm.
In response to the murder of George Floyd and other victims of racialized violence, FIU, like many institutions, launched a broad-based initiative to enhance equality, dignity, inclusion, and belonging, and created a centralized Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. FIU is unusual, however, in the degree to which it has worked to ensure that the university’s advancement work reflects and advances DEI principles and objectives.
In 2021 the foundation created the Foundation Office of Inclusive Philanthropy (FOIP) dedicated to supporting priorities identified in the institution’s inclusive DEI planning. The FOIP’s case for support outlines the institution’s 12 targeted equity objectives, including increasing diversity in giving and philanthropic leadership, fostering an institutional culture of inclusion and belonging, social capital expansion for minority students, enhancing diversity in the professoriate and in academic fields in which minorities are underrepresented, supporting inclusive teaching and scholarship, and community partnerships. At a fundamental level, the objective of supporting student well-being and success informs much of the FOIP’s work by securing scholarships for underrepresented and marginalized students, promoting minority-student engagement in high-impact educational opportunities like internships and capstone programs, increasing faculty diversity and inclusion, and advancing inclusive scholarship and teaching. The FOIP also applies a DEI lens to the university’s alumni engagement and fundraising work, seeking to identity biases in philanthropic practices, educating advancement officers, creating more inclusive governance, and engaging with colleagues from across the institution and new philanthropic and community partners to identify DEI opportunities that enable donor investment to make an impact.
In addition to working to raise funds for targeted DEI initiatives and engage more diverse donors, the foundation is innovating to make giving more accessible to people at all levels, deepening donor engagement and creating new opportunities for entrepreneurial philanthropic investment at FIU, including fundraising for initiatives tailored to Miami’s growing technology economy.
The foundation’s Pathway to Philanthropist (P2P) program was developed to create opportunities for mid-level donors ($3,500- $7,500 annual capacity) to have an immediate impact while also establishing a long-term philanthropic legacy. It has allowed FIU to expand its major gift donor base with diverse, nontraditional major gift donors, make major and planned-giving fundraising programs more inclusive, and encourage endowment giving. As an example, a P2P donor who makes annual gifts of $3,500 would allocate funds each year to pay the premium of a life insurance policy with a benefit of $100,000 of which FIU is the irrevocable owner and beneficiary. At the same time, the remainder of that pledge supports the donor’s named endowment while providing current scholarship or program support so the donor can experience the impact today. After the life insurance policy is paid off at the end of year seven, annual dollars are shifted to meet the minimum $25,000 endowment, while continuing to provide greater current operating support for impact through the remaining P2P timeline. To “meet their donors where they are” and encourage mid-tier donors to consider endowment and planned giving, the foundation revised gift acceptance policies, including the timeline for establishing an endowment, the minimum value for creating a charitable gift annuity, and age restrictions for gifts of life insurance.
The Live Your Legacy initiative, inspired by a donor who challenged his peers to “live their legacy,” not just leave one, is designed to sustain and deepen donor engagement with the university. Rather than simply asking donors to give, the foundation and university are working to engage donors directly in the university programs that they are supporting so that they can see their philanthropic goals being realized. Identifying meaningful, mutually beneficial ways of engaging donors takes a good deal of work but is a powerful form of stewardship that can help institutional leaders and donors themselves identify new philanthropic opportunities. Alumnus John McKibbon, who made a $5 million gift to FIU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, is an example of this program. His gift will, in part, enhance alumni outreach and success. The McKibbon ’75 Alumni Experience will serve as a convener for the industry, curate experiences to strengthen alumni bonds, support alumni with continuing education options, and provide a space for alumni to meet and network and support mentor/ mentee collaboration. The collaborative work with the donor led to a gift that significantly enhances the university’s ability to sustain and deepen relationships with a group of alumni likely to be widely geographically dispersed.
Howard Lipman, the senior vice president for University Advancement and CEO of the FIU Foundation, says that “FIU has a direct impact on peoples’ lives. The results of these efforts to build a culture of inclusive philanthropy through the Next Horizon Campaign has enabled us to raise $760 million from truly diverse members of our community. We can never underestimate the role inclusive philanthropy will play in shaping the current and future mission of our FIU.”
FIU’s efforts to build a more inclusive advancement program are also impacting alumni participation: In the last year FIU significantly increased the percentage of undergraduate alumni who make a gift, from 5.4 percent to 9 percent, matching the average for public research institutions. The foundation aims to buck national trends by doubling that rate by 2025.
David Bass is AGB’s executive director for philanthropic governance.
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