WASHINGTON – In order to attract donors in a time of declining revenues, HBCUs must discard old ideas about uplift and focus boosting productivity and performance in ways that rival the most prestigious institutions.
That was one of a series of exhortations made Tuesday during an HBCU Week Conference panel discussion devoted to the contemporary demands of serving as an HBCU board trustee.
The whole approach toward “helping poor Black children” is becoming outdated and dwindling in its appeal, said Jeffrey L. Humber Jr., trustee at Gallaudet University and the University of Virginia Law School Foundation, as well as a former trustee at his alma mater, Virginia Union University.
“The board’s responsibility is to create the environment so that you have something to sell,” Humber said. “You either sell performance or you sell the plan to get to performance.
“If you don’t have any of those, you can knock on all the IBM and Xerox doors you want. They’re not going to be interested.”
Such corporations may purchase a $10,000 table at a fund-raising banquet, Humber said, but that’s only a pittance of the kind of money that institutions need to operate effectively in today’s environment.
Humber made his remarks during a panel discussion titled “Trusteeship: What Every Trustee Should Know Before and After Signing Up.”
