Cliff Vannoy, president and CEO of the LSU Alumni Association, knows the power of building relationships.
He’s the type of guy who uses the term “friend-raising” and chokes up when discussing his late father, a former Navy pilot who landed Mach 4 jets on aircraft carriers in the middle of the ocean.
His demeanor may come as less of a surprise given his position, which demands sincerity in fostering personal connections.
The lanky 57-year-old towers over his staff and oversees fundraising operations with 135 alumni chapters stretching from Baton Rouge to Tokyo.
“There’s a lot of thank-you calls that go along with that because you have a lot of people who have supported the University in a big way,” Vannoy said. “You also have some folks who just started. Maybe they just started with a $50 gift, and that gift has come in and you’re thanking them for joining that chapter and making the effort to be part of what we’re doing here for LSU.”
Vannoy’s spacious office on the second floor of the Lod Cook Alumni Center is being remodeled — a renovation that could be taken symbolically, given Vannoy’s recent ascension to the presidency.
Former Alumni Association President and CEO Charlie Roberts resigned his post in August following a lawsuit alleging a sexual relationship and monetary contract with Alumni Association employee Kay Heath.
Vannoy, then chief operating officer of the association, was fast-tracked to the president’s office.
“You know, sometimes, that firestorm that happens, there’s a positive about that too, and you find out who your friends are and who really likes your institution and who really believes in you,” Vannoy said.
Two months later, Vannoy is urging students to become better acquainted with the association.
Starting next year, the Alumni Association will work with Bengal Bound and STRIPES to educate incoming freshmen on services the association has to offer through its chapters comprising mostly LSU alumni.
When students graduate or travel to unfamiliar cities, Vannoy said they can use resources from local chapters on where to apply for jobs, where to live and even where to meet up for crawfish boils and gameday viewings.
“It’s just a great way to get introduced to that city and town and people who have the same passion for LSU,” Vannoy said. “That’s primarily why we stay close to the students, so that when they become alums, there’s a good place for them to go.”
The association also funds hundreds of student scholarships, provides stipends for faculty research and organizes events like the annual Tiger Band reunion, which featured 355 alumni marching at halftime during LSU’s Oct. 18 football game against the University of Kentucky.
Vannoy, who graduated from the University of West Florida with a degree in business management, first came to the University in 1981 after working as a real estate broker in Pensacola.
Vannoy said he was the second person on campus hired to do fundraising.
“That’s really changed a lot,” Vannoy said.
In 2010, the association succeeded in an $800 million campaign for LSU, surpassing its initial goal of $750 million. The effort was in collaboration with the Tiger Athletic Foundation and the LSU Foundation, the University’s two other major fundraising organizations.
Vannoy said all three bodies work collaboratively to raise money for LSU.
While the Alumni Association is in charge of grassroots donations and alumni contact, Vannoy said, the Tiger Athletic Foundation keeps the University up to speed in the arms race of collegiate athletics.
“When you’re in the Southeastern Conference, you better stay up,” Vannoy said. “If you don’t raise that money and get that done, the state doesn’t have enough money to fund that, so you just fall behind, and then recruiting’s not good and you just become mediocre.”
Vannoy said the LSU Foundation handles larger donations from big business and wealthier alumni.
“They’re the multi-million-dollar fundraisers on campus,” Vannoy said. “That’s where the big endowments are.”
Vannoy said part of the association’s role is to make up for shortcomings in the state’s higher education budget allocations.
“The funding from the state is getting lower and lower and lower,” Vannoy said. “When I first came, state funding was about 64 percent of the budget. Now it’s about 20 percent of the budget. The only way you’re going to make it is you got to do some fundraising. And you got to do a lot of fundraising.”
Vannoy has big plans for the rest of the academic year, hoping to reinstate a tuition break for out-of-state students whose parents are University alumni.
Vannoy said he is working with LSU President F. King Alexander on the initiative.
Once the policy is re- established, Vannoy hopes to partner with the Tiger Athletic Foundation and the LSU Foundation to build a massive endowment. The endowment’s interest income will help pay for the discount in tuition and free the state or University from the burden of financing the reduction in costs.
“We need to show our alums that live all over the world that we want that legacy to continue,” Vannoy said. “We want you to send your children back to LSU.”