Dear Colleagues,

This Web site presents a variety of information related to our commitment to mobilize private resources on behalf of our campus.  The Campaign for UMass Amherst, now in the quiet phase, provides us the opportunity to capture the benefit of a major, professionally-managed, donor-driven fundraising program. In addition to building the staff and the back office infrastructure essential to an effective organization, we have the great advantage of our University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation. An independent 501(c)3 corporation, this campus-based foundation, led by some of our most dedicated and effective volunteers and donors, provides direction and policy guidance for this campaign. With this support, UMass Amherst has leadership and systems comparable to our competitors among America’s top public research universities.

This campaign also enjoys the full engagement of the Faculty Senate Advancement Council whose collaboration and advice over the past two and a half years has helped make this effort possible. They have designed the key elements in the communication strategy we initiate with this Web site, a process created to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to understand the process, review the priorities, and comment on the direction and goals of the campaign. The chair of the Advancement Council is a voting director of the UMass Amherst Foundation Board.

This site provides information on the preliminary campaign priorities. Developed through extensive consultation with the campus academic and administrative leadership, and with expert advice from school and college development officers, these priorities reflect a subset of the total needs of our campus. Every campaign has more high priority needs than any campaign can reasonably support, but in developing the priorities described here, the units have succeeded in including the key areas for high return investment by our donors. Each unit has identified priorities within four major categories: professorships, programmatic improvement, student support, and capital requirements. The provost and chancellor reviewed and refined these priorities. The information presented here reflects this process.

As is always the case in major research university fundraising, the exact programs and activities funded during a campaign will reflect the interest of donors, the effectiveness of the various units in articulating the case for investment, and special opportunities and initiatives that will emerge during the years of the campaign. In every successful university campaign, the purpose of goals, whether for units or the campus at large, is to set a challenging but not impossible target. This campaign will last for 7 years with a preliminary working goal of $350M. At the conclusion of our feasibility study and the quiet phase of the campaign, we can announce a formal goal, based on our capacity, as we launch the public phase of the campaign.

You should feel free to talk with the dean or director of your unit about the priorities identified for that unit. His or her email address and telephone number appear below the chart for each unit. Toivo Tammerk, Interim Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, tammerk@admin.umass.edu, can answer questions about the campaign timeline and campaign logistics.  I look forward to any suggestions or comments about the campaign process in general at lombardi@umass.edu.

The Campaign for UMass Amherst offers us the opportunity to join the ranks of America’s top public research universities, all of which use their private fundraising to invest in the high quality that determines national competitiveness. We seek not only investments in permanent endowment, but also investments in capital for laboratories, renovations, enhanced classrooms, recreational spaces, and other critical facilities for students and faculty. We look for current funds to enhance existing programs in teaching, research, and outreach as well as deferred gifts that will continue to build this campus well into the future. No American research university, public or private, succeeds without the full commitment of its campus to this process. A campaign allows us to demonstrate the accuracy of our belief in our own quality by persuading others to invest in the realization of our shared dreams.

With thanks for your participation in The Campaign for UMass Amherst,

Sincerely yours,

John V. Lombardi
Chancellor