E-mail May Out Secret Donors

Holiday headaches may be in store for two anonymous donors to the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS), apparently outed yesterday when Harvard’s seasonal thank-you notes to them were inadvertently sent to a list of Boston-area DEAS alumni.

The notes suggest that Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer ’77 and Compass Advisors Partner Stephen M. Waters ’68 had donated to the DEAS’s Challenge Fund, a fundraising initiative launched in 2002 to subsidize the development and expansion of the division.

The notes also provide a rare window into the inner workings of efforts by the Harvard development machine to maintain its donor relationships.

The donors’ names were revealed in a December 2004 document containing prepared text to be used in handwritten Post-It notes from DEAS Dean and Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti. A similar style of notes will be included in holiday cards to donors and other individuals important to the DEAS this year.

The suggested note for Ballmer, a former Crimson executive, said “Here’s to closing out the Challenge Fund in the new year!”, presumably referring to 2005.

Ballmer is not named as a donor on the Challenge Fund website, which offers a list of contributors.

But the site does list an anonymous donor who contributed $15 million in 2002 to create 10 professorships and 10 Innovation Funds at the DEAS. It’s not certain that Ballmer is that specific donor.

Ballmer did not return phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment yesterday.

Another note is directed toward Waters, thanking him for his generosity.

Waters, like Ballmer, is absent from the donor list on the Challenge Fund website. The list does, however, refer to an anonymous donor from the Class of 1968 who established an Innovation Fund. Waters graduated in 1968.

He did not return a phone call and e-mail requesting comment yesterday.

The suggested note to Waters reads “Thanks again for your generosity,” a suggested message that is offered for nine other Post-It notes.

Other notes appear simply intended to spread Christmas cheer.

“Best wishes for the new year,” reads a note for Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Class of 1977—not yet updated for this year. “The kids are still talking about your talk this past spring!”

The e-mail containing the notes was sent to DEAS and FAS Physical Sciences Development Coordinator Kathleen Blauvelt and DEAS and FAS Physical Sciences Director of Development Linda Fates by Fates’ assistant, Jennifer Casasanto. None of the three answered messages left on their office telephones yesterday.

The University would not confirm that Ballmer and Waters were DEAS donors yesterday.

“We certainly protect the anonymity of our donors, so I can’t confirm to you whether somebody is anonymous or not,” said Alumni Affairs and Development Director of Media Relations Sarah Friedell.

Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Donella M. Rapier was unavailable for comment yesterday, Friedell said.

—Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Alexander H. Greeley can be reached at agreeley@fas.harvard.edu.