Dobelle wants change The resignation of the University of Hawaii Foundation's president will provide the university with the opportunity to change the way it looks at fund raising, according to UH President Evan Dobelle.
at UH Foundation
Foundation president
McFadden resigned
his position last weekBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comPat McFadden resigned from the $150,000-a-year post last week, a few months after the foundation completed a record-setting $116 million, four-year fund-raising campaign.
McFadden said his resignation came after completion of the goals he set for himself when he became president in July 1999: finishing the campaign, hiring financial and development professionals to strengthen the university's fund-raising arm, and putting together a strategic plan.
"This is an appropriate time for my departure, and I look forward to seeking new professional challenges in Honolulu," McFadden said.
Dobelle, who has been critical of the foundation, said he had not expected McFadden's departure to come so quickly, but "the reality is that there is a change, and you have to take advantage of the opportunity by taking a look at the foundation."
The university president has made it clear in his critiques of the foundation that he plans to take fund raising to a higher level, and returned yesterday from a trip to the mainland and Asia, where he introduced himself to foundations and corporations.
Fund raising is big business and needs to be taken seriously, Dobelle said.
"It's not simply an add-on or small charity," he said. "It's a critical part of the university."
Dobelle said he would like the foundation to have a more direct relationship with the university, pointing out that UH has 106 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations that do their own fund raising, often tapping the same donors as other UH organizations.
"Everyone is raising money in an uncoordinated way," Dobelle said. "What we really need to do is to have some strategic planning to go in and reform or reorganize it."
Fund-raisers should also be tapping into alumni, Dobelle said.
Citing a UH survey, he noted that of 199,000 alumni, 50,000 cannot be located.
Of the alumni polled, 58 percent said they had never been asked for money. Of that 58 percent, half said they would give to the university if asked.
Dobelle said he has already asked Linda Campanella, a former senior vice president at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., to do an analysis of the foundation.
Campanella did an analysis of the UH system shortly before Dobelle came to the university from Trinity in July.
Dobelle said that he has already talked to several people about applying for the foundation job, including some from Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California-Los Angeles, as well as in Hawaii.
While a committee is in charge of nominating the new president, Dobelle said, "I'm sure they'll want someone who can work in concert with me."
"I would hope they would find an individual who more than anything else is a strategic planner and an individual who would understand corporations and foundations on the mainland," he said.
Foundation Chairman Warren Haruki said that as a trustee of the foundation, Dobelle will be involved in the selection of the new president.
The two have talked at length about Dobelle's vision for the foundation, Haruki said.
"They're great plans," he said.
In addition to coordinating the university's fund raising, they will "utilize all of President Dobelle's strength as a fund-raiser to bring fund raising at the University of Hawaii Foundation to a higher plateau."
Rick Frisch, interim UH Foundation president, said Dobelle's changes come with challenges, but added, "I think we're all anxious to get on to what we think is going to be a very promising tenure of office with Dr. Dobelle.
"I think it's going to be an exciting time to be a Rainbow Warrior."
UH Foundation
