Peterson: Finding Money in the Crunch

At last week's reception for Class Day speaker Muhammed Ali. Dr. Chase N. Peterson '52, vice president for alumni affairs and development, was seen talking to Ali in one corner of the Faculty Club. Peterson, always on the watch for new sources of money, was undoubtedly finding out just what the boxing champion is doing with his fortune these days.

Peterson says there is no secret to raising money. "When you have a good product, people just want to give," and Peterson's low-key manner seems to support such an effortless view of fundraising. It's the meticulous approach that "makes people want to give to Harvard, instead of the Metropolitan Opera," Peterson says. But underneath the soft touch is an organization which Peterson says is very effective at "letting people know what their obligation is to Harvard."

Alumni, who have been on the receiving end of Peterson's approaches, praise the persistent and well organized University effort he coordinates. One class agent says "they have an ingenious way of interesting alumni in donating to the College." He adds that "although they don't use high pressure. Chase certainly knows how to put his shoulder to those asked to contribute." Peterson is influential in letting alumni know of Cambridge developments, and this communication, Peterson says, keeps them "in the contributing habit." And to keep old contributors in the giving habit and find new sources of money, the Peterson organization has been trying some new fundraising styles in the past year.

Peterson says the general fund drive, so efficient in raising over $82 million in the late 1950's, has been abandoned because "it just is not effective anymore."

Not only is tight credit limiting spending and strangling the market, but Bok has not been in office long enough to have developed contacts with the sources of funds that such a large drive requires. In addition, Peterson says, a general approach to fundraising "limits flexibility;" potential donors might sense that their money will be used for projects they have little or no enthusiasm for.

So the University has emerged with a fundraising style adapted more to the current depressed economy and an approach that attempts to tap more financial resources than in the past. Instead of one major effort, there are about 20 separate drives, each one gearing its approach to a constituency that has a special interest and concern with the development of a particular facet of the University. Peterson says this "uniquely plural approach" allows the separate drives to proceed at their own paces.

"The momentum so necessary for a successful drive, is allowed to proceed at its own pace, and a lag on one special effort does not affect the others." Peterson says that with this flexibility "we can come back at the end of five years and pick up the scraps on those programs that have lagged."

This year for example, nearly $5 million was raised for the proposed $26 million Soldiers Field sport complex by such an approach. A campaign for construction and renovation of athletic facilities was staged to attract support from a select group of friends of Harvard athletics who do not wish to give money for other purposes. This approach, Peterson maintains, will not hurt funding for scholarships and educational resources.

By manufacturing a special appeal, then determining just who would be interested in developing that area of the University, Peterson's focus spreads to certain foreign sources of capital that have never been approached before. For instance, Peterson's office is charged with completing the drive for $15 million for a Japan Institute. In the academic year 1973-1974, the Japanese companies of Nissan, Toyota and Mitsubishi (a Japanese export-import firm) gave $2.5 million while the Japanese government provided $1 million. Lately, however, funds for the institute have begun to dry up and Peterson's office has had to increase its efforts.

Peterson says that this specific method of tapping foreign funds fits in well with the "pluralistic effort of approaching a wide variety of resources. We found a neglected area of scholarship and developed a special program to fulfill this need." The personal contacts in the orient maintained by Edwin O Reischauer. University Professor and former Ambassador to Japan, and by John K. Fair-bank '29, Higginson Professor of History, were valuable in locating Japanese resources and indicate, Peterson claims, the advantages of having a specialized fundraising project. Finally, says Peterson, "We appeal to the self interest of the government and businesses, and they saw it was in their self interest to further productive scholarship on Japanese culture."

Fundraising, however, is impossible without establishing close touch with alumni and it is such maneuvering that Peterson has done in his current office. When Peterson moved into Mass Hall in the spring of 1972 from his position as director of admissions. Peterson and President Bok outlined three areas of concern in alumni affairs: continuing education for alumni, "inter-generational" contacts, and stepped-up communications to involve alumni with developments in Cambridge.

One move for enlightening the alumni was the decision to change the format of Harvard Magazine the monthly that has become a direct line to alumni. Peterson explains, "more money has been put into the magazine to beef it up and the publication has changed to an Atlantic Monthly format. These changes, he gloats, have brought results. Circulation has risen this year from 15,000 to around 50,000, and if subscriptions rise to over 75,000, as Peterson expects, it will be possible to publish on an independent basis.

In addition to keeping alumni informed of University events. Peterson must assure the alumni that their influence is a factor in decisions and developments of Cambridge. He cites the "important inspector general the visiting committees play." The committees he says, "are an independent listening post capable of following up on any departmental problems."

Another example of alumni influence is the vigilance of the Associated Harvard Alumni (A H A). Prior to the publication of the Strauch Report--advocating the merger of the Harvard and Radcliffe admissions offices and the adoption of equal access admissions--members of the A H A met with members of the committee to discuss the proposals.

Peter D. Shultz '52, general secretary of the A.H.A., says that "extensive discussions with members of the Strauch committee were incaluable for providing background to Alumni." Shultz says that meeting with the committee and a May, 1974 A H A huddle including discussion of the proposals, were an important factor in the eventual AHA support of the Strauch Committee proposals.

Stan Miller, president of the Harvard Club of Boston, says that ever since Peterson has been in office alumni relations have been "fanastic," that the alumni office has effectively communicated Cambridge developments to the alumni. Miller, also chairman of his 25th year reunion committee and a member of the A H A's committee on undergraduate relations, says that during the A H A's meetings with the Strauch Committee. "We were encouraged to question the proposals and later asked to respond in writing to the committee." He adds, "This encouragement of feedback is just one example of the strong attempt to involve alumni with the operating body of the University."

Peterson points to the Harvard-Radcliffe Today program as a success in involving alumni with the school. Between 30 and 40 alumni come to Harvard for a four-day period. Peterson explains, and "We play it straight with them. They have breakfast in the Union attend classes and see the University as it really is."

John L. Moore Jr. '51, president of the Associated Harvard Alumni, describes the current alumni relations as "first rate." "The administration has not been afraid to put everything on the line," Moore says, and adds. "On every major University issue the alumni have been briefed at least a year in advance."

Howard F. Gillette, assistant to Peterson, credits the "rapport" within the alumni affairs organization to the "excellent communications" Peterson maintains with Bok. "It was an important move to place Peterson at the vice presidential level." Gillette says, "because it assured that the recommendations of the staff and the concerns of the alumni would be communicated to Bok."

Peterson, he says, apparently knows the cost of being candid with the alumni. "Without the generous support from the classes between 1910 and the 1940s the current open admissions policy without regard to financial situation would not be possible. It was a painful decision for many alumni because they knew full well it would lower the chances of having their children attend Harvard." Peterson says that it is the classes of the next 30 years that he must worry about even now. He explains that the graduates of the 30s and 40s "had inherited wealth to give," but the classes of the future will have to be giving up their earnings with their donations. And Peterson is concerned that the current classes might be either unable or unwilling to contribute.

Peterson says he dislikes the word 'alumni' because it is a word that defines people by what they once were. Alumni are certainly not "has-beens." For Peterson they remain an "active and vital part" of the Harvard University he deals with.