UWSP Centennial Campaign: Good Fund Raising or Good Public Relations?

Abstract

The UWSP Centennial Campaign is a $5 million capital campaign devoted to scholarship and faculty endowment. The campaign represents the central Wisconsin region's largest fund raising endeavor. The case study consists of fourteen, qualitative interviews evenly split between the institution's campaign leaders and major donors. The intent of the case study is to employ a public relations perspective to explain and better understand the communication strategies utilized with major donors in a capital campaign. The research problem is based on a literature review which describes the critical role of major donors to a capital campaign's success yet provides little critical analysis of the institution-donor relationship. Answering the call for research, the case study examines the UWSP campaign from the perspective of Grunig's four public relations models as applied to fund raising. Grunig's models suggest that a campaign and its communication strategies can be characterized by the campaign participant's statements, opinions, and impressions. The case study record is helpful in understanding the reasoning behind a public relations perspective concerning major donor cultivation and solicitation and insight toward applying such a perspective to one's own constituents and circumstances. The research information presented as a case study record is 'user-friendly' encouraging practitioners at other institutions to read, learn from, adapt, and apply to their own circumstances the experiences of the UWSP campaign. The theoretically grounded research answers the call for research and encourages further testing and knowledge building of a public relations perspective of fund raising.