As the president and CEO of the LSU Foundation and a member of the Transition Advisory Team, Lee Griffin dedicates his time to ensuring the continuation of LSU’s legacy. The Foundation is looking to double its fundraising and endowment in the next four to nine years by expanding its donor base, Griffin said.
Griffin said the Foundation has to step up and raise a lot more money to try and fill the “huge gap” that reduced state appropriations have left in the University’s budget.
Griffin attended LSU as a graduate student on an assistantship. He received a master’s degree in economics and finance and went to work for a bank. He is the retired chairman and CEO of Bank One of Louisiana, which is now Chase.
“A university like LSU makes a huge difference in economic development,” Griffin said. “Economic development creates jobs, creates families; it creates income.”
He said after working with consultants, they found they can raise money for the University by making certain investments, adding personnel in key areas and changing a few procedures.
“We feel like we can raise more,” Griffin said. “We feel like it’s our responsibility to do it — to help build the greatest university we can possibly build.”
Sara Crow, director of communications and donor relations for the Foundation, said establishing relationships with current and potential donors is key to raising money.
“The more efficient we are, and the more successful that we’re able to allow our fundraisers to be, and having interactions with donors, that’s what brings in more donors,” Crow said. “If you’re not giving right now, and I don’t establish any kind of relationship with you … you’re very unlikely to [donate to LSU].”
Griffin said the foundation is working to build the research area that evaluates alumni of LSU and identifies them as prospects for making gifts to the University.
He said they recently identified — through a wealth-screening company — which alumni have the capacity to give $25,000 or more to the University, and which of those are likely to give to the University.
They identified 28,000 alumni who have the financial capacity to donate more than that amount. Of those, approximately 5,000 have been recorded as having been contacted by the Foundation.
Those 28,000 have a gift capacity of $5.2 billion, Griffin said.
Crow said she would like to see more alumni engaged in supporting the University.
But not just alumni contribute to the University, she said. Many corporations and organizations also donate money.
Griffin said the Foundation is looking to place development officers in other parts of the country, particularly Houston, which is a major LSU alumni area.
He said although the Foundation pays for contracts like R. William Funk & Associates, which is the firm in charge of searching for the new LSU System president, the Foundation doesn’t have the money to pay for things like faculty and staff salaries.
Contracts like Bill Funk are being funded by donor gifts directed for that purpose, Crow said.
“Our money is the University’s money,” Crow said. “When we raise an average of $30 million a year, those are donor-directed funds. … There isn’t just this massive pot of money where we could go and give $8 million to give the faculty a raise. It’s already your money.”
“We feel like we can raise more … We feel like it’s our responsibility to do it – to help build the greatest University we can possibly build.”
