Leading the Way Toward More Light

As Lawrence’s More Light! capital campaign enters the public phase, Lawrence Today spoke with campaign co-chairs Bill Hochkammer ’66 and Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr. ’77 about the importance of the campaign for the college’s future.

LT: How were the goals of the campaign determined?
BH: The goals of the campaign were developed out of our strategic planning process. The strategic plan reflects President Beck’s vision for the future of the college, as do the priorities of the campaign.
HK: Clearly the transformation of our students indicates that we offer a great educational experience. To enable this to continue, we need to invest in the college. While Lawrence University is in a very good financial position, we want to bring its financial position to the great level that the academic program represents. We need to focus on infrastructure and continue to invest in our people. As we launch new programs, we need to bolster The Lawrence Fund for today and grow the endowment for the future.

LT: Why is endowment such a big part of the campaign?
BH: The endowment provides long-term fiscal strength to the college. The college’s endowment is invested, and generally speaking, we use approximately five percent of the endowment annually for faculty salaries, scholarships, and programs.
HK: The larger the endowment, the more funds are available to the college annually. Imagine what we can accomplish with a larger endowment! The endowment is a reflection of our future. That is why the campaign goal places so much emphasis on it ($75M of the $150M goal).

LT: How is The Lawrence Fund different from endowment?
HK: The Lawrence Fund provides an immediate financial impact on the college because these dollars are used to fund today’s needs. Together, gifts to The Lawrence Fund and the endowment have played an essential role in making Lawrence affordable to all who show the promise and potential to succeed at the college.
BH: While our students and alumni might not be aware of this, every Lawrentian has benefited from support from The Lawrence Fund and the endowment. We hope we can use the campaign to educate our alumni and students better about this fact. Some unrestricted contributions to The Lawrence Fund and endowment distributions are used to offset current costs and thus allow Lawrence to set tuition rates below our actual cost of operation. Thus every Lawrence student benefits, even if she or he does not receive a scholarship. And, by the way, more than 90 percent of our students receive financial aid from Lawrence.

LT: What is the Legacy Circle, and why is it so important?
BH: The Lawrence-Downer Legacy Circle is the college’s donor recognition program for individuals who have made deferred gifts for Lawrence’s future. These gifts, often bequests, will come to Lawrence in the future. The reality is that for the majority of individuals of more modest means, the largest gift they will ever give will come via a deferred gift. Many donors take pride in knowing they will be able to establish professorships or endowed scholarships in the future in this fashion. Others who are proud of their consistent annual support will decide to “endow” their annual gift with a bequest to the endowment, thereby assuring their support will live on.

LT: Why is there a quiet phase and public phase to the campaign?
HK: We aspired to secure commitments for 60 percent or more of the campaign totals before “going public” to assure that our goals and priorities resonated with our alumni and friends, generating momentum for the public phase of the campaign. We have made a tremendous amount of progress since we started the quiet phase of the campaign, that’s the good news. The challenge is we still have a long way to go and we really do need the help and contributions of all alumni of the school to make this successful.
BH: Most campaigns begin with a nucleus group of a small number of philanthropic individuals who provide the leadership gifts and commitments to help address the most pressing needs. Our successful fund-raising during the quiet phase enabled the college to accomplish important objectives — build an expansion for Björklunden, build the Richard and Margot Warch Campus Center, establish the Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies, and launch new initiatives like Lawrence Fellows and Posse — even while we planned the campaign.

LT: If I can’t afford to establish scholarships or name a building, how can I make a meaningful contribution to More Light!?
HK: We understand that everyone has a different financial situation. We ask that our constituency rally around the college and make Lawrence a top philanthropic priority by supporting the college in as generous a fashion as possible. We also cannot overstate the importance of making gifts annually. It really makes a difference in our ability to offer exceptional educational opportunities for our students.
BH: We ask everyone who cares about the college to support Lawrence in two ways: now and in the future. First, we ask our fellow alumni and friends to support the college annually through The Lawrence Fund and, second, to support the college’s future by making Lawrence a part of their estate plans by joining The Legacy Circle. I have heard countless stories of the ways in which Lawrence transformed the lives of others. This campaign is for Lawrence’s future. We should be proud of what Lawrence has and will accomplish, and should give Lawrence our support.

LT: How will Lawrence measure the success of the More Light! campaign?
HK: We would view this campaign as being successful when we are able to exceed our goal of $150 million and secure broad participation from alumni from all class years. This campaign will help us realize the strategic plan goals and objectives.
BH: We have an intense understanding that this campaign is about people and investing in the core of the college: scholarly and artistic excellence. We will measure the success of this campaign in part by our ability to provide more support for the faculty, including increasing faculty salaries, secure more funds for scholarship support, launch the Senior Experience, and sustain new initiatives like the Posse Scholars and the Lawrence Fellows.
HK: We also will see our ability to grow the endowment and The Lawrence Fund as a measurement of success. And we’ll need to continue to focus on both after the campaign ends.