CSULB donations reach new high

Cal State Long Beach enjoyed the largest increase in private donations of any CSU campus last year, according to a report submitted Tuesday to the board of trustees.

CSULB led all California State University campuses in traditional, philanthropic donations with more than $21 million, 18 percent more than the previous year.

Dr. Robert Bersi, interim vice president for university relations and development, said that contributions have been climbing steadily for five years.

He said the increases represent a well-planned campaign President Robert Maxson to attract donors .

"I've been watching this business," he said. "What you're seeing is a strategy for university advancement."

That strategy involves donation drives conducted by individual colleges, he said, and accounted for $16 million in donations last year.

Each college, Bersi explained, has its own director of development to work within the college under its dean. These directors forge personal bonds with members and former members of the departments they represent, Bersi said.

"They are very close to faculty members," he said, "and they are close to students and alumni."

The personal contacts made by these representatives is crucial in drawing donations, he said, particularly from alumni.

As successful as the program has been, however, it works primarily because of an attractive campus environment created by Maxson. Bersi credits Maxson's aggressive recruiting programs for endowing CSULB with the kind of "high profile" that brings donation dollars.

And then there is Maxson's dynamic personality, Bersi said, and his ability to win people over, including potential donors.

"You can't walk across campus with him without getting stopped 20 times by people saying 'hi.,'" he said of Maxson. "When we get into big (potential donors), we always put them together with Bob Maxson."

Beyond attracting donors, Bersi said, Maxson has drawn, "like a lighthouse," some of the best and brightest students from around the state.

"Money for scholarships is really starting to ramp," Bersi said. He attributes this to the President's Scholars Program, which targets outstanding students and draws attention to the school. "People say 'what's going on at the Beach?'"

"That attracts the big-time scholarship money ... for students who need it," Bersi said.

Bersi said he looks optimistically to the arrival of incoming vice president for university relations and development Dr. Stephen Feldman on Mar. 1.

"With Feldman coming on board we're looking at continuous solid growth," he said.

Bersi said he hopes to expand endowments for faculty scholarships in the future, following the growth in student scholarships.

This will stand CSULB in good stead in an academic environment in which the trend is increasingly towards private funding for all universities, Bersi said, which leads to the formation of public/private hybrids.

These days, he said, "when a university gets big, half of its funding comes from private sources."