Theme III: The Once & Future Library
Fund-Raising for the New Library

"Fund-raising is considered a central part of a president's job on most
college campuses. But at the City University of New York, with its history of
free tuition and state and city financing, raising money has never been a high
priority. Now ... that is changing. As Dr. Goldstein's new plans move forward,
some CUNY presidents are already gearing up. Dr. Kimmich, for example,
has begun to crisscross the country meeting alumni. Last week he was in
Texas. Before that he visited Florida and California. Visits to Arizona and
Georgia are coming up. And he is working with fund-raising consultants and
alumni leaders to shape a campaign." "Ability to Raise Money Becomes a
Prerequisite for CUNY Presidents," New York Times, December 3, 2000

A New Approach to Development

In the last academic year, the approach to fund-raising changed radically at Brooklyn
College. Our new president Christoph M. Kimmich brought in the consulting firm
Community Counselling [sic] Services (CCS; http://www.ccsfundraising.com/ ) represented
on our campus by Glenn Miller. He charged them with doing for Brooklyn College what they
had done successfully for Baruch-setting an ambitious fund-raising goal, and then achieving
beyond that enunciated goal. Because CCS's success is so important to the
new Library (still seeking funding for many aspects of its program) it seems worthwhile to include
the corporate description that appears on the CCS website:

"CCS is one of the most comprehensive and widely recommended fund-raising
firms in the world. Since 1947, CCS has provided fund raising and campaign
management services to more than 7,000 nonprofit institutions. We have
counseled leading academic institutions, national and international charities,
medical centers, religious bodies, civic and human service organizations, and
cultural institutions in pioneering fund?raising efforts. While maintaining our
roots in health, education, religious, and community fund raising, we have
expanded our outreach to areas of growing philanthropic interest, including
associations and societies, international relief and development, human
rights, and environmental and conservation efforts."

The CSS approach includes building consensus among members of the College community
and alumni/ae about College priorities, then assembling a group of key people to flesh out
and provide leadership for a development campaign. Large lead gifts are sought first, then
used to leverage other donations. At Brooklyn College, a group of eleven persons is working
with President Kimmich on the College's $50,000,000 campaign. The Library is especially
fortunate that alumnus and supporter Jonathan Chanis is a part of this group.

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

If this old adage is true, the Library Project will receive quantities of heavenly help: we
have not sat by idly, while CCS worked on our behalf.

On February 18, 2000, less than three weeks after his arrival, the Chief Librarian sent
President Christoph M. Kimmich a fund-raising update, a document describing what had
been done to date, what might be done, and the Library Project's unmet needs.

Shortly thereafter, CCS representative Glenn Miller arrived on campus. The Chief
Librarian met with him immediately and transmitted a detailed list of prospects with
relationships to the Library, as well as a list of foundations that might contribute to the
Project. These documents were compiled by Assistant Archivist Marianne LaBatto.
Alums Barbara Gerber and Jonathan Chanis worked closely with Vice-President Barbara
Taylor and the Chief Librarian to develop a number of fund raising ideas, which were also
turned over to Glenn Miller.

During the past year, the Library held many meetings with Mr. Miller, Assistant Vice-
President Steve Czirak, Vice-President Steve Little, and others, maintaining their
awareness of our unmet needs. Vice-President Little has suggested a target of $10
million for the Library Project.

On November 14, 2000, Chief Librarian Barbra Higginbotham met with the Alumni
Association Board to update them on the Library Project. As a result, and thanks to the
guidance of Alumni Affairs staff Marla Hasten Ginsberg and Marcia Haness Safran, the
Class of 1951 adopted the Library Project as its 2001 class gift project, with a goal of
$100,000.

The CUNY Campaign

"A faculty friend recently commented, 'The new Library is the best thing to happen
for students on this campus in thirty years.' We agree, and we are writing to you as
colleagues who are vitally interested in the new Library, eager to make it the best
possible resource for the students, faculty, and staff of Brooklyn College." Acting
Provost Laura Kitch & Vice-President for Institutional Advancement Barbara
Taylor

So began a fall 1999 letter sent to every member of the faculty and staff, inviting each to
designate his or her United Way contributions for the Library Project. Each person who
contributed $1,000 or more would have his or her name placed on a Faculty Friends of the
Library plaque to be mounted in the marble foyer of the new building. Those who gave
$5,000 or more would be presented with a menu of naming opportunities from which to
choose. Several members of the College community responded to this appeal, and staff in
the office of Institutional Advancement followed up with them in the fall 2000, reminding
them to renew their pledges.

Gifts for the New Library

Donors to the Library Project include:

Marla Appelbaum Tel Aviv Barbee Sally Bowdoin James Castiglione Jane Cramer Miriam Deutch Joan Minnette Dorfman Janet and Dominick Finello Barbara Gerber Hal & Barbra Higginbotham Nicholas Irons Mary Shea Kelly Jerome Krase Lavada Lawton Lyudmila Levenskaya Robert Litwin Peter Marron Fanny Mor Helen Pellicione Honora Raphael Colby Riggs Alex Rudshteyn Howard Spivak Channie Tolchinsky Sherry Warman Judith Wild

Josephine Aragano Bertha Bendelstein David Bloomfield Jonathan Chanis Anthony Cucchiara Jacqueline De Weever Beth Evans Corinne Furtick Veronica Graden Charlotte Hoffman Marguerite Iskenderian Margaret King Marianne LaBatto Catherine Lazzara Barbara Levitt Jay Lucker Carol McLoughlin Rosemary Morgan Elizabeth Pines Mariana Regalado Joan Rome Suzie Samuel Sandra Stumbo Morton and Angela Topfer Ruth Weinstein Joyce Williston

Valerie Baez-Mabry Jocelyn Berger Jainwei Cai Martha Corpus Renata D'Accordo Connie DiGeronimo Theresa Ferrara William Gargan Robert Parker Gray Pepi Horing Steven Jervis Laura Kitch Alma Lang-Patrice Betty Levin Karen Lewitz Marion Lynch Lorraine Mitto Bridget Nowicki Galina Polonskaya Florence & Max Reiss Edythe Rosenblatt Phyllis Sarachik Norman Teitel Susan Vaughn Irwin Weintraub

Many of these donors made their gifts in memory of Mozelle Myra Wilson Buckner,
mother of Barbra Higginbotham, who died January 14, 2001. Exceptional gifts to the
Library Project include:

$500,000 and above	Morton and Angela Topfer
$ 50,000-100,000	Barbara Gerber
$ 10,000-$50,000	Jay Lucker Hal & Barbra Higginbotham
$ 5,000-$10,000	Jonathan Chanis Peter Marron
$ 2,500-$ 5,000	Steven Jervis
$ 1,000-$ 2,500	Jacqueline DeWeever Joan Minnette Dorfman Margaret King Laura Kitch Susan Vaughn

Unfunded Aspects of the New Library

This category is a moving (and a shrinking) target: as the Project's furniture and equipment
(F&E) budget changes (cost estimates become firm prices; contingencies are released), we
are either better off or worse off. For example, if widgets turn out to cost $100,000
more than estimated, we must either purchase fewer of them or remove other items from
the Project budget in order to buy them. Happily, such a circumstance has yet to occur.
Conversely, when wood end panels for the stacks actually came in at around $250,000
(versus the $721,840 estimated), we were able not only to purchase them, but to purchase
other unfunded items as well. A source of funding for desktop equipment (estimated at
$1.2 million) has yet to be identified.