Fisk University, plagued with questions about its financial stability and future, is in the throes of a ramped up fundraising effort aimed at convincing its increasingly skeptical higher education accrediting agency the institution is financially viable.
The university hired a new advancement officer this winter and, with financial help from the Kresge Foundation, subsequently hired three new staffers in its advancement office to work on solicitations. It has organized a number of niche organizations to make appeals to specific alumni groups, such as a small task force of health care professionals for Fisk.
Fisk is organizing small, low-key fundraising events being hosted by university supporters in Memphis, Houston, Chattanooga and Detroit. It is again appealing to alumni to give more and to help the university with their “corporate connections.”
As part of a rebranding strategy the university this spring renamed its annual giving campaign the “Fisk Fund.”
The expanded fundraising efforts are aimed at raising $8 million by June 30, the end of the school’s current fiscal year. That would help the ailing school close the year in the black and ostensibly send a signal to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) that Fisk is viable, say those familiar with the new fundraising effort.
SACS placed Fisk on one-year probation last December, citing heightened concern about the institution’s financial viability. SACS will decide next December whether the school has complied with a variety of standard criteria required of institutions seeking clean bills of health from the Atlanta-based agency.
“I don’t know if we’ll get to $8 million but we’ll get close to it,” says one Fisk official who provided insight into the university’s recent efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
