In a classic scene from Back to the Future II Doc explains to Marty the disastrous effects of interfering with the space time continuum, the result, of course, of Biff having stolen the Sports Almanac and wrecking havoc throughout Hill Valley. 

 

Great movie, you say, but what does this have to do with fundraising? 

The topic of this article is the role of the alumni director in the life of a school as an intergenerational time traveler.

Back in 1919, fresh out of the Navy, Harold J. Seymour began his career in fundraising as part of the staff of the Harvard Endowment Fund Campaign, which was the first large-scale attempt to raise money for higher education. Over a career spanning several decades, Harold saw it all. In 1966 he condensed his experiences in Designs for Fund-Raising, a seminal work in the literature which set the bar for fundraising professionals.

Among a trove of insights Harold describes two basic motivations for giving: being sought and the pride of association. People want to feel picked out and called to for something great. Harold cites Dr. Lawrence C. Kolb of the New York State Institute of Psychiatry who says many live lonely lives,“for no better reason than because they think nobody wants them, cares about them, or wants to listen to what they have to say.” Harold also notes the work of Cornell’s Dr. Dorothea C. Leighton who, “‘after a long study of underprivileged Indian tribes in Canada, concluded that every individual needs to feel that he is ‘a worthwhile member of a worthwhile group.’” To be sought and to feel a part of something valuable are the primary components of building a community and growing financial support. 

On an institutional level in which members can have varying social experiences spanning many decades, this is the work of the alumni director, or as Harold sees it, to show “a responsible concern for continuity.” Harold continues:

“McGeorge Bundy put it this way in his Phi Beta Kappa oration at Harvard in 1965: ‘to hold to one another across the generations.’ Most causes, I think you will find, prosper best in terms of keeping faith with the past, keeping step with the present, and keeping some real or implied promise to posterity.” The alumni director shows a concern for continuity by holding one of the school’s most important communities across the generations, by seeking out individuals and reminding them that they are a part of something important.  

Back to today.

The alumni director is a time traveler. In the morning he’ll pick up the phone, or text, to find out the latest from a recent graduate. He’ll ask about the classes he’s taking in college and what he does with his free time. In the afternoon he’ll connect, perhaps this time in person, with an alumnus nearing his retirement. They’ll chat about the causes he cares most about and how he plans to redirect his energy going forward. The alumni director meets each alumnus where he is in the present, and then travels with him back to a specific point in time in the life of the school, to fort building during lower school recess in 1982 or to the high school hallways in 2003. He is there with the alumnus at the missed shot and the made free throw. The highlights and the lowlights. And even the thin slices of time, such as a passing word from a teacher, that made all the difference and was for that alumnus the complete school experience. Together they relive those moments that meant the most, when the spirit of the school most resonated.

However, unlike the plot of Back to the Future, the alumni director is precisely interested in interfering with the space time continuum. This is his chief concern. And this is where things get interesting.

He is a time traveler in search of those inflection points in the life of each alumnus that hold the school’s space time together and directs their meaning to the present. For the most part these are welcome memories that renew enthusiasm, the friendships made and the victories earned. But perhaps they are also something bitter which needs to be addressed, a brutal shove on the playground or a misunderstood comment from a teacher, which has kept the alumnus from engaging with the school in a meaningful way for so many years. The alumni director returns to those points in time and uses them as the impetus for a new beginning, an apology, a clarification, an invitation to attend a school event, a chance to mentor a young alumnus, or even, out of an overflow of gratitude, the opportunity to make a meaningful investment in the place that made him who he is today and which continues to impact so many others. 

While many lead lonely lives the alumni director calls out to individuals one by one and reminds them that they are a part of something great. The alumni director is a compiler of memories, a steward of the culture, and a guide to the future. He is at home in all eras, with the young and the mature, and a central touch point for the community. He defends the founding mission while always directing it toward the horizon. He is like “the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

As a time traveler, his job is to help people remember. To the young, he brings advice from the future about pitfalls to avoid and goals to pursue. And to all he helps to recall the moments that made them who they are, and to be grateful and proud.

This is the work of all fundraisers, but the awesome vocation of the alumni director. No Delorean, just a phone. Beer also helps.  

Of course, if he is able to get his hands on the Sports Almanac he won’t have too many issues with fundraising either.