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Princeton Hires a Sculptor and Alumni Volunteer as Its Vice President for Development

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By Jennifer Jacobson

Princeton University had its pick of nearly 25 professional fund raisers who applied for its top development job. Instead, it hired a sculptor.

Brian J. McDonald, an artist and, at various times in his life, a music manager, restaurateur, and financial analyst, takes on the role of Princeton's vice president for development this month. He will inherit the job of building the university's $8-billion endowment from Van Zandt Williams Jr., who retired after 22 years in the position.

As it turns out, although he's never worked in a campus development office before, Mr. McDonald has extensive experience in university fund raising. A 1983 graduate of Princeton, Mr. McDonald comes to his new job after 10 years as a volunteer fund raiser for the university -- bringing in alumni dollars and increasing the giving rate of the university's youngest classes.

Princeton "was looking for someone who was a good planner and organizer" and "someone who was a strong motivator of others," says Thomas H. Wright, the university's vice president and secretary, who led the search. Mr. McDonald, he says, is all three, as well as a proven fund raiser.

From 1996 to 2000, he led an effort that expanded the proportion of alumni donors in the 20 youngest classes by eight percentage points. And last year when he was chairman of Princeton's annual giving committee, each of the five youngest classes finished at or above a 60-percent participation rate for the first time in 30 years.

Mr. Wright considers the increase a huge feat. "It's usually very hard to get new alumni engaged immediately" after they graduate, he says. "They scatter so quickly, they don't have large incomes and don't think they can make a big difference, or they're in grad school." They're also distracted starting careers and families, he says. "It's very hard to focus them on the importance of regular contribution to the university. But if you can get them involved at that early age, it bodes well for the future and develops habits that can become life-long."

Mr. McDonald couldn't help but get involved. The university, he says, has been an important part of his life, ever since his parents unexpectedly divorced during his freshman year. "We often talk about the importance of the Princeton family," Mr. McDonald says. "In a real way for me the institution and my classmates became my surrogate family." His friends there, he says, gave him emotional support at a time when he really needed it.

A history major, class president, member of the Honor Committee, varsity swimmer, and treasurer of one of Princeton's social clubs, Mr. McDonald joined Kidder Peabody & Co., as an analyst in its public-finance department after graduating in 1983. Two years later, he joined First Boston Corporation as an associate in its public-finance department.

In 1987, he left the world of finance and became the co-founder, co-owner, chairman, and treasurer of "Trixies," a New York restaurant. In 1989, he became founder, president, and owner of the McDonald Group, which managed and produced several New York songwriters, musicians, and bands and provided management and consulting services to visual artists. Five years later, he moved back to Princeton and became a full-time sculptor and co-founder of Red Wheelbarrow, a company that designs and creates sculptural objects and functional art.

"His career trajectory is not a standard one," Mr. Wright says, but "it would not be correct to say he's being brought completely cold into fund raising because he spent a large part of his time as a volunteer fund raiser." He knows the ropes, the people, and Princeton's fund-raising system. So in a certain sense he's not an outsider, Mr. Wright says.

Mr. McDonald beat out a lot of insiders for the position -- "superb candidates who've had full, successful careers as fund raisers," Mr. Wright says.

More colleges and universities may follow Princeton's lead and make similarly unconventional hires, as the competition to recruit and retain fund raisers continues to grow, says John Lippincott, vice president for communications at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

At a time when both public and private institutions are expanding their fund-raising operations, the field is plagued by constant turnover and a shortage of qualified applicants to fill the growing number of development jobs, he says. "Most people don't go to college to become university fund raisers," Mr. Lippincott says, "so there isn't a ready-made pipeline of people in this area. The experienced people are in very high demand."

But it is rare for a college to appoint someone to its top fund-raising job "who has followed a career path neither in an educational institution nor in fund raising at a nonacademic institution," Mr. Lippincott says. The obvious advantage of hiring alums for development jobs, he says, is that "they come in with an understanding of that institution and the commitment to that institution," he says.

Although it wasn't a requirement for the job, Mr. Wright says that Mr. McDonald's alumni status may help him raise money for Princeton. "In the case of fund raising, while it doesn't seem essential that the person be an alum, it provides a significant benefit," Mr. Wright says. "Some donors are susceptible to the appeal based on shared experience. Other donors are not at all. What they're connecting with is the excellence of programs and a desire to extend that benefit and opportunity of the institution. For them, the alum connection makes no difference."

For Mr. McDonald it did. He applied for the job only after several alumni had encouraged him. And after talking with his wife, he says, it seemed like a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to help his alma mater.

"In some ways I'm a fresh set of eyes," he says. "That's always been the role of the artist in society, to see the world differently and give our lives some context."