There’s a new man on campus with a huge task ahead of him.
Love Collins III, vice president of development and executive director of FAMU Foundation Inc., said he is ready for the challenge of reaching the university’s $251 million Capital Campaign goals.
“I really believe that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got,” Collins said.
Collins, who received an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from West Point Academy and a MBA from Emory University, is in his ninth year of fundraising for an educational institution.
Collins worked for Dillard University in New Orleans, where he was the vice president for institutional advancement and development. After serving at Dillard University, Collins moved to Washington D.C. to serve as a senior manager at Howard University.
Collins worked for the institution’s capital campaign to raise $250 million in five years and supervised all campaign funding initiatives.
After 15 months into the campaign, Collins and 90 of his employees raised $115 million.
Phone calls to Virgil E. Ecton, Howard University’s vice president for university advancement, about Collins’ campaign accomplishments were not returned by press time.
Before working in higher education, Collins raised $1.6 billion for the 1996 Olympics as its Deputy Managing Director.
“Everything you saw in the Olympics other than the athletes, I had something to do with,” Collins said.
His resume didn’t go unnoticed. Before Collins knew it, he was on his way to Tallahassee to raise money for FAMU.
“I guess you can say President Gainous recruited me away from Howard,” he said.
As part of the campaign, Collins plans to introduce a comprehensive pre-alumni program that helps students understand the importance of philanthropy.
“We want students to graduate and appreciate the need for giving back,” Collins said.
Collins explained that alumni gifts come in financial and non-financial forms. He plans to increase both kinds of gifts by reestablishing the relationship the university has with its alumni.
James Earl Jones, the executive director of Alumni Affairs, is teaming up with Collins to help reestablish this communication.
“We’re going to work together to create initiatives that will allow us to improve communication with alumni,” Jones said. “This will enable us to establish donations in the long run.”
One way to ensure communication with alumni is to give each student an “E-mail for life” account.
By giving all students an E-mail address they can keep for the duration of their lives, the university will have a sure way to contact students once they’ve graduated.
Through this E-mail account, alumni will receive E-mails from the university that will address pertinent information regarding the university.
“Communication is the key,” Collins said.