What Fund Raising and Recruiting Have in Common

If you were on the Massachusetts Turnpike last Wednesday, you might have spotted a Volvo with the license plate “GOT EDU,” and nine (!) Sage Colleges stickers in the back window. Behind the wheel was Daniel M. Lundquist, who, as Sage’s vice president for external relations, is in charge of both enrollment management and fund raising.

In the fragmented world of higher education, recruitment and development might seem like very different operations, but Mr. Lundquist doesn’t see it that way. “At its core, what admissions people are doing is very similar to what fund-raisers do,” he says. “You want to tell the story of the institution. It’s about reaching out to people and being respectful, and if they don’t want to hear from you, then you bug off.”

Last Wednesday morning, Mr. Lundquist drove from his home, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to Hartford, Conn., where he had lunch with one of Sage’s trustees, a banker. Mr. Lundquist told him about the anonymous donor who recently promised to give $1-million to Sage—if the institution raised an equal sum to match it by June. After lunch, Mr. Lundquist drove to Boston to have dinner with another trustee and her husband, who sit on various boards.

At both stops, Mr. Lundquist made a pitch: “If you give $100,000 to Tufts, they will thank you for it. If you give $100,000 to Sage, we’ll set fireworks off.”

Sage, with campuses in Troy and Albany, is a small, tuition-dependent institution in the midst of a fund-raising campaign. The latter was built on a model of admissions outreach, emphasizing personal contact with alumni. Over the last two years, Sage has seen a quintupling in attendance at alumni events, as well as a sharp increase in donations.

In this fiscal year, Sage has raised about $900,000, and expects to meet its goal of $1.2-million by June. The anonymous donation would be a giant cherry on top of that sum, an unexpected boon for an institution seeking to regain its financial footing. “Sage is a cat that’s used up seven of its nine lives,” says Mr. Lundquist. “But we have nowhere to go but up.”

Over the last two years, applications to Sage have increased by 70 percent, a rise Mr. Lundquist attributes in part to better storytelling. In describing Sage to prospective students, he touts the institution as a great place for B students with, say, 1100 SAT scores, who want to attend a small college, but who either can’t get into or can’t afford the region’s more prestigious liberal-arts institutions.

An admissions lifer, Mr. Lundquist previously worked at Union College and the University of Pennsylvania. At both institutions, he had the opportunity to raise money, as well to recruit students. The success of both endeavors, he believes, comes down to the same thing.

“Genuineness,” he says. “I’ve seen people who are admissions recruiters who could just as well have been selling knives door to door. They didn’t seem to have much passion. But I’ve seen other people who do have a passion, who see themselves as educators and counselors, not salespeople. Whether it’s admissions or fund raising, your case statement is passion—the understanding that what you’re talking about is not just a diploma, but a life experience.”

After his fund-raising road trip last week, Mr. Lundquist returned to Sage and checked on this year’s admission deposits. His fund-raising road trip had been a success. The banker in Hartford was receptive to Mr. Lundquist’s pitch, though he wasn’t yet sure how much he could afford to give this year. After all, he would soon have to write a big check to another institution: his daughter is starting college in the fall.