Nonprofit Expert Episode 24 – Fundraising Foundations

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Robbe HealeyHost00:13

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DonorPerfectAd00:03

Welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect.

Robbe HealeyHost00:13

Thank you for joining us. My name is Robbie Healey and I’m so glad you’re joining us for Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect in our series Respect, relationships and Resources. Today we have with us Dr Mike Mittelman, president of Salus at Drexel University. He has a rather interesting path that brought him to his current role and I’m going to ask him to share what he thinks might be the highlights of that journey. Thanks for joining us, Mike.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest00:50

Well, thanks for having me, Robbe, it’s a pleasure. So, yes, I have a rather unusual career path to becoming president of a university. I am a retired naval officer, as my wife likes to say, a transitioned naval officer. I spent 33 years in the Navy. I’m an optometrist by training. I became a healthcare administrator a bureaucrat, if you would. I’ve commanded large naval hospitals. I’ve been through the Navy flight surgeon program. I was the US Pacific Command surgeon during the Fukushima disaster, so I got to orchestrate our medical response to that incident back in 2011. And my penance for having a good time. I was stationed in Hawaii at that time. I got called back to Washington DC where I was made the Deputy Surgeon General of the Navy. At that point, I was literally recruited to become the president of Salus at Drexel University, and I’ve been there since 2013.

Robbe HealeyHost01:52

Well, I think it’s probably very clear you must have a heart for service, or you wouldn’t have done all of those very things, because at the core of that is giving back.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest02:02

Absolutely.

Robbe HealeyHost02:03

So, thank you, thank you very much, and think um in your current role. One of the things we’ve been talking about is is within an organization, within an infrastructure, even when it’s a non-profit university such as yours, there’s so many misconceptions about fundraising and its role and its relationship and how it works and who really needs to be involved, and you’ve been instrumental in helping to start to really shape the perceptions and the culture so that it can be more successful. Can you talk a little bit about how you’ve been helping your board members and your staff colleagues faculty really begin to think about this differently?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest02:52

Sure, I’d be happy to. It helps to have the history. When I got to Salus, we didn’t have a professional fundraising staff at all. There were two people One was a nutritionist and the other was clerical and we started out as a single purpose optometry school, so many of our alumni were optometrists. The president was basically tasked with raising the money for the university.

Robbe HealeyHost03:18

Also was single-handedly doing it all.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest03:21

Doing it all. The board was not philanthropic per se, although for certain things they were. When we moved to a new campus, the board raised a lot of money within themselves. We had one donor who gave six figures as a matter of fact, but for the most part they were not regular donors. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even have a minimal give to be on the board and when we suggested that, they pushed back. So it took a lot of training and cultural manipulations really to get them to really buy into it.

Robbe HealeyHost03:55

And how did you find the right point of entry for doing that?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest04:01

I found a couple of champions on the board. You know, I found a couple of champions on the board. One of my goals was to reconstitute our board with people who had board experience, and those people were able to help me message the importance of the philanthropic role of the board because they would set the tone for everybody else. And so it took a few years and frankly, it wasn’t easy. We started out with a very small number, relatively speaking, but our board chair and a core member of the board and a lot of training frankly got us to where we at least had a minimum give.

Robbe HealeyHost04:38

And as you’re bringing new folks onto the board, how does that look different, perhaps or perhaps it’s not than the way it was done when you first joined?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest04:48

Actually it is different One. I’m the one who does the initial interviews and I tell them, I said, you know, we want you for your, for your talent, but we also want you to be able to give to the University. And I tell them we would like, ideally, to be one of your top three charities and, and you know, they all go. Okay, that’s fine. And I said, but at a minimum, we’d like you to give X amount, and most people nowadays expect that. It was the older board members who had been there for many years that really had a harder time with it and we lost a couple of board members, frankly, over this.

Robbe HealeyHost05:26

I don’t necessarily think that’s unhealthy as long as it’s done with dignity.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest05:31

It was done with dignity. Well, one of the things we didn’t have was term limits on our board, so that was another challenge that we got to. Our board chair was fabulous and she helped us along the way. So we were kind of tag teaming this the whole way. But we brought in people like yourself to talk to the board. We brought in AGB, the Association of Governing Boards to talk about best practices in the board, and the way I sold it to them was I need all of my deans and directors to also be fundraisers. So from a board perspective, you have to set the example so that I can say look, the board’s giving, I’m giving. We need you to help as well, because it’s a team.

Robbe HealeyHost06:12

Well, and I’ve never worked with any organization that wanted its programs to be average, so why would it want its administration and its governance to be average?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest06:24

Well, it’s interesting, though, at our institution, because we morphed, in a sense, from that single purpose school to university. That evolution did not happen, naturally, so there was definitely a hard line between what we’re doing academically and what was being done administratively. While the board clearly had oversight, the academic side didn’t really interact that much, only at the higher levels.

Robbe HealeyHost06:53

And, of course, donors pay for outcomes. Absolutely, they don’t pay your bills. So until the people who are involved in creating the outcomes become part of the storytellers, they’re sabotaging themselves.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest07:08

No, I think you’re hitting the nail on the head, and we started telling that story. We’ve got some very sophisticated board members who were able to help bring others along and, frankly, they helped bring the deans and the directors along as well. So, and you know, for us it’s all about the students. So how do we generate scholarship dollars so that we can attract the best and brightest students? And that really is what gets the faculty and the deans engaged, because they want to bring the best students into their programs.

Robbe HealeyHost07:37

And they probably want the best equipment and classrooms for those students too.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest07:40

Absolutely.

Robbe HealeyHost07:41

And of course, there are donors who like buying stuff and others who like funding scholarships, so there’s clearly room for both.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest07:48

There is, but I’ll be honest with you when I talk to our donors. We have a relatively new building that’s in good shape and I wasn’t so much interested in brick and mortar when I was talking to people. I was interested in attracting great students and what I found as I talked to folks because you’re just don’t go in and ask, having conversations they’re interested in what can I do that is going to be basically through perpetuity and I explained to them well, if you give a scholarship, then we can affect students for years to come and that resonates.

Robbe HealeyHost08:23

I think it does especially with people who have a history of being a student themselves, which may be different than others, but I think that that legacy piece of being part of something and seeing it thrive- it’s interesting you say that and our optometry program, because that is our legacy program.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest08:43

We have much more of that. We got a lot of pushback from the newer programs about being even engaged in fundraising initially, and it wasn’t until actually fairly recently in our history that we were able to do it, and we use landmark types of things for our audiology program, for instance. It’s going to be 25 years old, so, okay, we have a target for that and the alumni have been engaged, like you wouldn’t believe.

Robbe HealeyHost09:08

Yeah, there’s nothing like a milestone that you can leverage.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest09:12

Well for the optometry program. We turned 100 years old several years ago and we raised a great deal of money for scholarships for that and that was a real boon.

Robbe HealeyHost09:21

So are there common themes that came up in the resistance, or common themes that seem up in the resistance, or common themes that seem to be a gateway that you could guard against or try to leverage?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest09:32

One of the most common themes we heard from the more mature board members people who have been there for a long time is we’re a working board, so we give our time. We shouldn’t have to give our money. And you’re smiling because you’ve heard this before, probably.

Robbe HealeyHost09:47

Only every day of my life.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest09:50

And I would remind them and I know when you came in and helped train them, you did as well. But part of your obligation is to help us along financially and that’s one of the pillars of being a board member is to financially support the institution that you are a part of. Yes, we greatly value what you’re giving and, ok, so you may not be able to give the minimum, give something. It’s really important for us when we apply for grants that they look at the percentage of the board that is given and we always strive for 100%. If we don’t have 100%, the grantors are going to ask why.

Robbe HealeyHost10:30

Indeed, and they’ll find someone to support who has. And I think that’s interesting, the idea that we’re a working board, every board’s a working board.

10:40

And it’s interesting that that myth of you don’t have to do it because you’re doing something else. And you referenced AGB. I think AGB is very clear that that’s a board accountability and board sources are very clear that that’s an accountability. In the 1950s it might have been an either or, but I don’t think it was, Because I think the families that were populating boards then took it very seriously and as the number of nonprofits grew and the number of board members with experience became part of governance, that got a little fuzzy. But I think it’s not just grant makers, it’s also major gift donors who are saying does your internal leadership have skin in the?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest11:28

game. Well that, and even accreditors are asking how engaged is your board, and that’s important.

Robbe HealeyHost11:33

Well, and I think that has to do with respect for the function. It’s not and in talking with a couple other people I’ve interviewed the analogy the donors aren’t an ATM. You need to have a relationship with them. But how do you structure not just the board engagement but also the back office infrastructure within your development program to make sure that you can implement all the tactics you want to? Because you have the right staff, they have the right tools. You said you had no professional development officers. Talk about that journey of building the infrastructure that you needed, at least in the beginning.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest12:15

Sure, well, one of the first things we did, we did a national search for a professional fundraiser and we ended up with a wonderful gentleman. Actually, he was a great fundraiser, not a great organizer, but he was the right guy at the right time because he motivated the board, he would make you feel comfortable and he talked and trained the people like me about the importance of establishing the relationship. It’s not a quid pro quo type of relationship relationship and it’s not a quid pro quo type of relationship and it wasn’t so much for me but for the faculty and others. They needed to understand that you just don’t go in and say I’m gonna have dinner with you and can I have $100,000. It doesn’t work that way and it takes years sometimes to manifest that kind of a relationship.

13:03

But he did a fabulous job and then he decided to leave and we ended up doing another search and we ended up with a wonderful woman. Actually, he’d hired her and she actually won the competition, basically, and she knew how to establish a staff. She knew we needed somebody for alumni relations. Most importantly, we needed somebody for data management. Indeed, because you know we had all this data and I would always ask you know, questions about. How do we know this person can afford to give and how do we do all this stuff? How do we harvest information? And it’s interesting we had the right programs, but we didn’t have the right expertise.

Robbe HealeyHost13:47

Well, and I think that there’s always a sensitivity to investing money in overhead, which I understand, that we all understand that but at the same time, if you under-resource an entire function, you’re never going to have the kind of results you could an entire function you’re never going to have the kind of results you could Right. So, having that real robust CRM with the data that you need and the person who’s dedicated to doing that, it’s such a deficit when you don’t have it and it’s such a benefit when you do.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest14:19

No, it’s true it took us about a year to get everything together, but it was not to your point. Those were the years that we started seeing the lines go up and you know we just merged with Drexel University and the year before we did that we had our most successful giving year and you know I credit well, it was a team effort, clearly, but understanding where do you go, look how do you do it, and having the right expertise in the office, pointing people in the right way, that made a huge difference.

Robbe HealeyHost14:49

Well, and I think when you think about developing infrastructure, there’s always a cost with that. So there’s a cost-benefit. There is a cost-benefit and I’m glad you brought that up, because I think a lot of people will say it’s too expensive. But what other programs within most institutions, when they’re well-structured and well-staffed, will always be a positive revenue stream.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest15:12

Absolutely. We had a very good institutional advancement committee on the board and that helped kind of push this envelope in the direction that we all needed it to. But one of the things we were looking at for every dollar spent, how much do you raise? And when I got there it was zero sum gain. Actually it was costing us money, but by the time we left the ratio had improved significantly.

Robbe HealeyHost15:39

Well, and I think that’s a mystery too to some people because if you start a brand new program, even if the goal is for it to break even In the first few years, it never will because you have to invest in that buildup. So when you start a development program, as you are from the ground up, essentially, is it year three where it’s really starting to come to its own? Is it year five? It’s certainly not month three or month five. And what metrics are you really looking at? Cost per dollar raised is always an important one, but it’s never enough. So I think, looking at things such as how many new qualified prospects have we identified? You’ve already mentioned that how many visits did we have? How many proposals were we invited to present? How many did we close those metrics also matter.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest16:29

Right and in academia. What percentage of your alumni you’re touching? That’s a significant metric and when we first started it may have been 5% in the aggregate and by the time we did the turnover it’s approaching, I don’t know, something like 30%, which is a very high number for us and ideally you want to see it like 70%. But it’s much better and you can see it, because people, you know, even if people are not writing us a check for $100,000, we’re getting a lot more small donations than we ever have, which add up pretty quickly.

Robbe HealeyHost17:09

Well, and you’ve got those entry-level donors who will eventually become mid-level donors, some of them, not all and some of them may become major gift donors and, of course, some of those very loyal small donors become legacy donors, bequest donors. So you can’t treat donors as a commodity. They aren’t all identical. So, as you’ve been evolving the program, how have you seen perhaps your own role in engaging with different donor constituencies or your own portfolio of people who you are really focused on?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest17:47

You know, my message to my IAEA VP is point me in the right direction and tell me who I need to meet. We do alumni gatherings. That’s nice, but what I want to do is be able to sit down and have a cup of coffee or something and just chat. We recently had a trip to South Carolina to meet with a prospective donor who had a lot of potential and my inclination was just to have a conversation. We’re not asking for anything. And somebody else said no, we’re going to ask, no, you’re not going to ask. And it turns out that my instinct was correct Greatly appreciated the fact that we spent time with him, greatly appreciated the fact that I didn’t ask for anything and, oh, by the way, I’m planning on giving you this.

Robbe HealeyHost18:36

And was the this something you were pleased with?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest18:39

Very pleased with and that was helpful. You know, most recently I had an opposite interaction with an alumni saying boy, I’m glad you didn’t bring that person with me, because that person just is too aggressive. No problem, and it’s funny, I didn’t ask for anything and we just went out for breakfast up in New York and we’re walking back to my hotel and he said, oh, I forgot to give this, and he just hands me a check. I didn’t even look at it.

Robbe HealeyHost19:17

Just put it in my pocket and said I had a great time talking to you, and I didn’t look at it until I got back to the school. Well, and I think you bring up such an important point because every donor is an individual, and I’m imagining that if the gentleman or lady in South Carolina had said what would be helpful, you would have had an answer for that.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest19:26

We absolutely would have been. Well, he knew what he wanted to do and he knew what he wanted for. He wanted to do and he knew what he wanted for, and we obviously would respect that. So it’s, you know, a lot of these, the older graduates, especially from the optometry program, they want to see their name continue, but they also want to be able to help the students. I mean, they’re very student-oriented, which you know. So, okay, so that’s the note I’m going to hit. Some people are just I would like my name on this thing, and you know we don’t have that many things, but sure we can do that.

Robbe HealeyHost19:58

You would probably find more things to name than you might have thought I’m happy to name a hallway. Well, and what’s the harm in that?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest20:06

Well, it’s interesting, you know. Talk about the board. When I first got there, we needed to replace all of our benches around thewe have a beautiful little pond and I said, okay, let’s get every board member to donate $2,500 to buy a bench, and I will be the first one. I did this at a board meeting. Two people did it and then they eventually came around. So then we made it into a little bit of a competition and then all of a sudden people were getting into it.

Robbe HealeyHost20:35

I’m sure they were, especially when they saw somebody’s name on the bench.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest20:39

Right and don’t do it for you. Do it in honor of your parents or something like that. And now, if you walk around our campus, the majority of benches have a plaque.

Robbe HealeyHost20:48

And I think there are things that take well to plaques and things that don’t, and every board has to make those decisions. What will we? Name and what will we not name? And it’s good to have those conversations and, I think, also being careful whose name will you hook to your brand and who would you perhaps not want? And that’s become more and more poignant in the last decade, obviously.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest21:14

It has, and they all have shelf lives too, right they do, and that’s the other thing that we’ve toyed with is okay, how would you like to have your name on this for 10 years?

Robbe HealeyHost21:24

With the exception of scholarships. I think, pretty much everything has a shelf life and I think people have gotten more comfortable with a term of naming.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest21:37

They have. The one challenge we’ve had is and this is something I’ve had to learn to maneuver and others will probably run into this people want to give a scholarship for a very narrow type of thing. Somebody who grew up in the Caribbean has three noses and one leg, and so if you can find a student like that, they’ll get the scholarship, and we had several of those and I actually had to go back to donors and say we want to be able to give this money out. But you’ve got to broaden the approach and most people are pretty good about that, but others you really have to convince them.

Robbe HealeyHost22:14

Well, and if you can convince them, then declining the gift is the only appropriate thing, because it’s useless money.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest22:21

Yeah, well, right, exactly, and we’ve done that once or twice, but for the most part, people listen.

Robbe HealeyHost22:28

They probably are listening because you’re having thoughtful conversations with them, not telling them what they have to do.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest22:33

Oh, I’ll never tell them what they have to do. That’s another lesson learned.

Robbe HealeyHost22:39

If you think about the process that you’ve been going through from hands-off board president, was the guy responsible developing a program evolving the board, understanding, willingness, working with the deans and your other academic colleagues, I’m imagining that’s not necessarily linear. Parts of it are cyclical. If you were giving advice to a development professional who was trying to help their CEO or their board chair, think about supporting you in the journey you’ve been on. Are there particular benchmarks or milestones that you think of, as it would have been helpful to know this first and I realize you were in the role before you even had a development officer. That’s right, but what are the things that you would have liked to know first or second or third?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest23:39

Well, it helps to know the culture of the board that you’re going into, and I’d ask the question I didn’t even know enough to say does this board give?

Robbe HealeyHost23:51

Would you have said that in the interview?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest23:53

No, certainly not in the interview, but certainly when I got the job I would have talked to somebody, and one of the things that’s really important and the other thing is I would talk to the development officer. I certainly would do that.

Robbe HealeyHost24:05

I’ve learned that lesson If there was one, if there was one.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest24:09

Well, what’s the giving history? Now, mind you, I had a very unusual experience because I was an alumnus of this place, so I knew how they would solicit money and it was very impersonal. So I would get you know. I’d get these mailings and you know give, and every once in a while I would show up at one of these alumni things and the president would pull me aside and go hey, mike, we’re doing this. Can you write a check for $1,000?

Robbe HealeyHost24:35

Literally that way, literally that way.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest24:38

So you learned how to not do it. I was going to say I learned how to not do it. I had the opportunity to go to Harvard and where they had a seminar on. It was part of my how to be a college president continuum. It was part of my how to be a college president continuum but they brought in folks from Case and other experts and they explained to us the importance of developing the relationships. And these are some of the questions I would ask how do you do it? What’s your infrastructure for doing it and, most of all, what are your expectations of me? Because I didn’t learn that until I got there and, frankly, working for the government, I had no experience fundraising. It was very uncomfortable for me to ask for money. It’s just I’d go to Congress and ask them for money. But it’s different when I’m sitting next to you and say we really can use some help with our scholarships for audiology and whatever you can do. You know really would appreciate that.

Robbe HealeyHost25:36

But you’ve gotten less uncomfortable. I have Well have you gotten to the point of comfortable, yet A little more comfortable.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest25:43

Well, the other thing is, I’ve learned that you don’t just go do that, indeed, I mean sure, if you do, you’re not going to succeed. People want to know a little bit about you and they want to feel special and, frankly, if they’re meeting with the president or dean, they can make them feel special because in their mind, they’re important people and so we’re giving them our time For us, no, you’re giving us your time. It works both ways. But that’s important and you have to realize that these people you’re talking to, they don’t have to give you anything.

Robbe HealeyHost26:20

No, they don’t.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest26:22

You want to get them to the point where they want to give it to you, but they’re only going to give it to you if you’re interested in them or you show interest and you’re sincere. People can see, right. I know if somebody’s asking for me, if I can see if they’re sincere or not, and if somebody comes to write me a check for a thousand dollars generally, yeah, I’ll think about it yeah, I think it’s interesting.

Robbe HealeyHost26:43

this idea of solicitation is the stereotype that that’s what the conversations about, but it’s really about cultivation and stewardship after and understanding what’s in the donor’s heart. So you talked about alumni who really want to support scholarship, but if you assumed every person who was a graduate of any program automatically wanted scholarship, that could be wrong. So you’re asking them what’s in their heart and asking them permission to have the next conversation.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest27:17

Well, you know, you talk about this podcast being about respect, and I think the ultimate respect you’re showing people is not asking, frankly, it’s, you know, encouraging them, teaching them. You know why is it important? The way I have a conversation is I talk about our programs, I talk about the outcomes of our programs, I talk about how some of our students really have a hard time and maybe we’re not attracting the best students, sometimes because we don’t have enough scholarship dollars. And then I tell them what I’m trying to do to raise scholarship dollars, not with you, but through the state and other venues, and then sometimes the light goes on. Sometimes it might take another conversation, but for the most part people go well, how can I help? And when I hear that, that’s my end to say well, you know, let’s think about that a little bit.

Robbe HealeyHost28:09

Exactly, and getting permission to have that conversation by hearing them say how can I help Exactly? Or perhaps something like. We’ve been having a lot of conversations about this. Would this be a good time to explore ways you might want to help us? Yeah Instead of oh. By the way, I’d like 100 grand.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest28:24

Well, that doesn’t work. Well, the other thing I found is if I connect them with the deans of the programs. The deans are the best salespeople for their programs because they know them best. And in many instances these donors know the deans, where they might have even gone to school with them or they might have been involved with them if their kid went to one of the programs or something. So they’ve got that direct connection.

Robbe HealeyHost28:48

And do the student scholars ever get involved with the deans, with talking to prospects?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest28:55

We don’t do that as often, frankly, because they don’t have time. They used to do that and now the programs have gotten so compressed with information. These students are so stressed it’s hard to ask them to do that.

Robbe HealeyHost29:11

Do you ever have an opportunity for the donors to meet their scholars?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest29:15

Yes, we do, we insist on that, we insist on that and then actually the students are great about that. I’ve seen some of the letters they’ve written thanking them.

Robbe HealeyHost29:25

That’s got to be really heartwarming.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest29:27

It is, it’s fabulous, and that’s where my staff helps them along.

Robbe HealeyHost29:33

I don’t think any of this is hard. It’s just got to be done correctly. It’s easy for you to say, but seriously, Mike, think about how hard it is to do stuff wrong. And you have a finite amount of time and you might as well do it right, Absolutely.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest29:51

No, you have to think about what you’re doing and if you make it a one and done, you’re not gonna succeed.

Robbe HealeyHost29:59

No, that’s transactional annual giving Right well, right and unfortunately, that’s the guy walking up to you saying give me the $1,000. How about?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest30:06

$1,000? Well, and that’s a lesson that I had to was to teach my staff it’s not transactional, it’s not quid pro quo Give me this and I’ll give you a ball cap or whatever. We do right. But that’s sometimes people think that’s what fundraising is. But fundraising is relationship building.

Robbe HealeyHost30:24

At least that’s what I’ve learned. Well, what you described is treating the donor like the ATM.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest30:28

Yeah, yeah exactly, but that for us it doesn’t work. And what has worked is patience, respect, having the conversations and frankly, I just love to bring them to campus if they’re willing, and just I give them the $50 tour and people love that cuz one. They wanna see what we’re doing. They truly wanna see what we’re doing, especially people who graduated 20 years ago, cuz the technology has changed so much and we’ve got pretty good looking toys, so people like that.

30:59

But they just want to have your time and if you’re willing to do that, you’ll be successful.

Robbe HealeyHost31:05

So if you could give a new college president about to take the kind of role you have, the best advice you’ve ever gotten, or advice you got that you knew wasn’t all that good. Are there things that come to your mind?

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest31:21

You know, the best piece of advice I got actually was from a Navy mentor, and it plays here because it’s called be gentle with people and you can connect the dots to be respectful, to be a good listener and it’s how you say things, not what you say. But if you’re gentle with people and you’re willing to embrace them, you’ll be successful. And I try to live by that not all the time, unfortunately, but most times. And I find when I do that not all the time, unfortunately, but most times and I find when I do that it works. And the worst piece of advice I’ve gotten is kind of on the opposite side Just go do it.

32:06

And I’m a proceed until apprehended kind of person, but that doesn’t work all the time. And so what I’ve learned as I’ve kind of grown into this role, is that you gotta be patient, and sometimes you just can’t say do it. You have to really kind of think, maybe sometimes count to ten, before you make that hard decision. Now you may come to the same conclusion I just recently had to do. That Doesn’t make it any easier, but sometimes you make the right decision for the right reasons and it’ll all play out.

Robbe HealeyHost32:42

Well, and in this case it’s making the right decisions for the students.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest32:45

Well, it’s all about the students, and that’s what I tell my faculty. I had a discussion with them this morning. Everything we do is about the students. Everything the reason we’re there is for the students. Everything the reason we’re there is for the students. The reason I’m here is for the students, and if we don’t have the students’ best interest in mind, whether it be through fundraising or anything else we do, then we’re doing it wrong.

Robbe HealeyHost33:07

Well, I’m sure a lot of your pearls of wisdom will be very helpful to the people who are listening to this. I hope so. I know they will be, and I really appreciate you taking time to share your insights and your experience as a new college president and a new fundraiser who figured out that, in my opinion, philanthropy makes the exceptional possible. So in adding more scholarships and adding the infrastructure and resources, you’re helping to make sure the exceptional can continue to happen at Salus at Drexel University.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest33:39

Appreciate it, appreciate it.

Robbe HealeyHost33:40

Oh, you’re welcome.

Dr. Mike MittelmanGuest33:41

Enjoyed the conversation.

Robbe HealeyHost33:43

I did too, so thank you very much for joining us. I hope you have enjoyed this conversation with Dr Mike Mittelman, part of Nonprofit Expert sponsored by DonorPerfect.

DonorPerfectAd33:57

Thank you for listening to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. For more information and a special offer, visit DonorPerfect.com/podcast.

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