The Journey Part 4

My service on the CARA Board ended in 2006. In 2009, I was honored with the CARA service Award. It’s an award I cherish dearly. 2009 also marked the start of my service on the Apra board which would end in 2012 at precisely the same time I ended my time at COH.

When I departed COH, Kathleen wrote me a nice note encouraging me. She said, if I gave it time, UCI would eventually feel like home in the same way COH eventually felt like home to her after leaving UCSF where she had spent a significant part of her career.

Her note was on my mind as I drove up to the office building at UCI in Research Park on my first day of work. In that moment, it felt strange to be there. This was in August of 2012.

On my second or third day on the job, I stopped at a Panera Bread close to campus to grab some breakfast before heading into the office and much to my surprise, I ran into Doris Jacobson, who I worked with at COH. Doris was working for the Jewish Federation of Orange County.

Doris had left COH several years prior and I hadn’t seen her since that time. It was nice to run into her during my first week. Like I keep saying; it’s a small world. Doris once told me she thought COH should be the premiere charity in Southern California. I never forgot that and came to agree with her during my time there. Seeing Doris was a reminder of what I had left behind.

UCI wasn’t anything like COH. First of all, at COH the majority of our development and external affairs team was housed in one building on two floors in downtown LA. UCI would have a central office, but each of the school based fundraisers were physically housed in the different schools along with the other fundraisers like those in Athletics, the Library, etc. There was also a separate medical center, with their own set of fundraisers spread out between Irvine and Anaheim. Even Gregory (Vice Chancellor) and his team were located on campus away from the rest of us.

This took some getting used to.  I was accustomed to walking down the hall to talk and/or meet with fundraisers or my supervisor at COH and that wouldn’t be the case at UCI.

I inherited a small team that included Dori Watanabe, Stacy Shipman, Robert Adams and Cleo Tung. Dori and Cleo handled prospect research and Stacy and Robert took care of prospect management.  Dori had been at UCI since 1995 and Stacy since 2001.

I knew Dori from our time together on the CARA board and we had also been friends for quite a while. I knew going in that this dynamic would be something I hadn’t experienced before – going from being someone’s friend to becoming their supervisor.

Well, let’s just say throughout my three years at UCI our working relationship wasn’t a good fit for either one of us. I’ll just leave it at that.

My first year at UCI was somewhat of a whirlwind.

The first thing I did was change the focus of the department. They were serving two separate roles at the time. I changed it from two team members focusing on research and two focusing on prospect management to becoming a prospect development team, where each member focused on both. I also changed the name of the department from Prospect Research and Management to Prospect Development. This was in line with the trend that was taking place across our industry.

Within my first couple weeks of arriving at UCI, I took delivery of modeling results from GG&A and Dan Lowman. The decision to use GG&A came before my hiring and was driven by Gregory Leet and his experience as a consultant with GG&A.

That certainly wasn’t ideal for me, but I wasn’t about to make waves. You have to remember that during my RFP for modeling companies at COH, I decided not to use GG&A.

That being said, Dan did a great job delivering our results and I was actually very impressed, initially. During the delivery process, I felt pretty good about how Dan presented the data. I really tried to keep an open mind, but would eventually struggle with the product to some degree.

The thing I remember most about those results is the countless times I had to have someone explain the scores to me. I know I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but this took longer for me to understand than I was accustomed to.  I was constantly questioning my own understanding of the scores.

That’s not a comfortable place. I had to “sell” those scores to my fundraisers and to my team and I didn’t completely understand them. I don’t remember the specific issues today, but I do remember how uncomfortable I felt with the process.

Never-the-less, I would use the scores to evaluate fundraisers portfolios and start a process of overhauling each fundraiser’s prospect list.

Simultaneously, I still had a whole new team of fundraisers to meet and get to know.

I spent my first several weeks, meeting with each and every one of them. It was a process I thoroughly enjoyed. I ended every meeting asking each fundraiser what they liked to do for fun. It was my way of engaging each person individually.

On some level, I was also sort of looking for who might be my new Joe Komsky. I missed talking baseball with Joe and hoped I would find someone who I would be able to engage with on that level. I never found that person at UCI. It wasn’t a big deal, but not having this contributed in some small way to UCI never really feeling like home.

Joe – if you’re reading this, don’t let that go to your head!

In any case, I did meet lots of great fundraisers and would enjoy getting to know each of them during my time at UCI. I have great admiration and respect for fundraisers and I think most of them are simply amazing.

One of the first challenges I identified after arriving was that several donors had multiple fundraisers assigned to them. To be perfectly honest, it was a mess.  Some donors had as many as 5 or 6 development officers assigned to them (possibly more). Assignments were being used to keep DO’s “in the know.” Needless to say, that had to change.

My team and I met with each fundraiser over the course of several weeks and we went through every name in their portfolios to determine who the best possible prospect manager should be for each donor and prospect. When the work was completed, many of the DO’s portfolios shrank considerably.

Gregory blessed this process and helped the fundraisers understand our process by using an analogy I still use today. Gregory’s analogy was that it was important to have a primary prospect manager in the same way an airport has an air traffic controller. It was imperative that one person and not several direct the traffic surrounding any specific individual. It seemed to resonate with the team and made the change easier.

I have since appended that idea to include the thought that assignment is about “coordination” and not about “ownership.”  In any case – we did the work that needed to be done and had room to make new assignments and used the GG&A scores to start identifying prospects.

Each member of my team was assigned to a group of fundraisers. The goal was for each of them to become strategic partners with their group of development officers.  All of this was taking place as my team began to adopt new roles. Some cross training had to take place, but the team was up for the challenge and quickly adopted their new roles.

At the same time, I was also trying to establish a new identity for the department. I wore a coat and tie every day (something I rarely did at COH) and expected my team to dress professionally whenever they were to interact with the development officers. Although we worked in the “back office” – I wanted the team to have a “front office” mentality.

I encouraged the team to not sit with one another during staff meetings and instead suggested they branch out and sit with their DO’s or other members of the development team. I wanted to create a culture of collaboration and teamwork.

I’ve never liked the “us vs. them” attitude that exists in some development shops between prospect development and fundraisers. I’ve also never found the jokes about fundraisers representing the “dark side” as being funny. As I said earlier, I have always had the utmost respect and admiration for fundraisers and I wanted to make sure my team knew that.

As we headed into the winter, I was pretty certain I was about to lose one of my analysts (Cleo). At the time, Cleo became engaged to her fiancé who lived in the valley. I knew once Cleo got married she would most likely move to the valley and leave UCI. After all, the valley is quite a distance away from Irvine.

I decided to approach the subject with Cleo, but with a twist. I told her that I was guessing she might move once she got married and I wanted to help her find her next job. I told her I would do whatever I could to help her find a job closer to where she and her soon-to-be husband would live. I wanted to alleviate any anxiety she might have and make it a positive experience for her instead.

Cleo ended up getting a job at UCLA and I happily served as her as a key reference. She has since gone on to have a fabulous career in development and currently works as development director in Portland, Oregon. I’m very proud of her.

In October of 2012, Gregory hired the first of three Assistant Vice Chancellors that would head different parts of the advancement team. His name was Dan Montplaisir.

Dan took residence in the office next to mine and in his first week of work, I invited him to lunch. It was an opportunity to welcome Dan and to get to know my new colleague.

Dan volunteered to drive that day and that would prove to be significant. When he started his car, contemporary Christian music came through his car stereo. I looked at his radio and then looked at Dan and said, I see you found “The Fish” (a local Christian radio station). This made for an instant connection and it was a great moment for me, knowing I had a Christian colleague working at UCI – in the next office no less.

Dan and I became friends and we spent a lot of time getting to know one another.

Dan is the now the VP of Development at Cal-Poly Pomona. We’ve remained connected over the years and met for lunch just last year. I’m happy to see he’s found his “home” at CPP.

I recently referred a colleague of mine who was laid off at APU to him and his team ended up hiring her. It’s always nice when I can help open a door for someone.

As I was preparing to lose Cleo, I hired Lauren Greenstein to join the team. That was in January of 2013. Lauren was a member of the gift processing team at the time and expressed an interest in becoming a prospect analyst. Her background in gift accounting and familiarity with our database was a huge plus and was an easy hire to make.  It also felt really good to give an internal candidate an opportunity to grow. She was a good fit and I enjoyed having her on the team.

Lauren would stay with the team through September of 2014 before going back to gift processing. Today she serves as the Director of Gift Services at UCI.  The experience of hiring someone from gift processing onto my team would prove valuable in the future.

Cleo would train Lauren before she left. I would also have Cleo train a new prospect researcher on the Medical Center side (who did not report to me). Her name was Melissa Dimayuga, who has since gone on to do a whole host of different things. Melissa was just out of college, but carried herself like an experienced professional. I served on her hiring committee and was pleased when she was hired.

Melissa recently reached out to me for some advice about a position she was about to take that would have some fundraising components to it and I was happy to help her. I always enjoy it when I’m able to connect and/or assist former colleagues like Melissa.

In February of 2013, I hired Jason Toma, a UCI alum. He also happened to be the first man I ever hired. I had meet Jason while attending a 2012 CARA conference in Long Beach, which took place during my recruitment to UCI.

Jason made an impression on me at that conference and when the opportunity presented itself, I reached out to him and asked him to apply. CARA and Apra events have always provided me with an opportunities to meet individuals I might later engage one way or another.

Jason was one of those model team members we all dream about. He was the consummate team player, he never complained and always rolled with the punches regardless of what was happening around him. He was always positive and willing to do whatever was being asked of him. He also had a talent and gift for all things computer related.

While at UCI, he taught himself how use geo mapping software and started to dabble in analytics. I encouraged this path with him and he took to it in a big way. It definitely paid off for him. Today he works as a data analyst for CorVel Corporation. 

Later, I actually tried to recruit him to PanCAN. One of my colleagues - Angel Montanez (my former boss), who is currently the VP of Operations at PanCAN tried to hire him as a data analyst after I referred him. Jason ended up turning down the offer and stayed at UCI. Although I was disappointed I didn’t get to work with him again – I’m happy to see he has since found a career path that suits him.

If you’ve been following along, you have no doubt noticed a theme to my journey. It’s all about the connections and people I’ve met with and engaged with over the years. We often initially come together to achieve a common goal for the organizations we work for, but we also move forward in different directions and still 
manage to support, advocate and help each other along the way.

I’ve always tried to maintain some sort of connection with the people I’ve worked with after we go our separate ways. It really matters to me. You never know when or how our shared experiences might help one another. It takes effort. It requires diligence and a willingness to being open to seeing opportunities not only for ourselves, but others. Those dots aren’t going to connect themselves!

It’s always fun when connections are made and something happens that isn’t necessarily by chance, but by design because you put in the effort. I think we all have the ability to be dot-connectors, but not everyone embraces that idea.

It’s one of the reasons Jeremiah 29:11 is close to my heart. Even though we make plans, I have long believed that God guides my steps. I believe the connections I’ve made and the dots I’ve connected aren’t necessarily by happen stance.

Back to my UCI story…

With the addition of Jason and Lauren, our team had grown to a total of 5 people (minus Cleo). Quite a small team for the number of development officers we supported, but it was becoming a strong team never-the-less.

At some point during 2013, I began to duplicate the networking lunches I had launched at COH. Having DO’s spread out across campus, who I might see once a month or in some cases, once a quarter didn’t allow me to build the kind of relationships I was used to. So, I started organizing the lunches and much to my delight, they became a hit – just like they had at COH.

This allowed me to get to know the DO’s a little better. I also included colleagues from other areas within Advancement and my network continued to grow. This helped build engagement and helped make me feel a bit more comfortable at UCI. It still didn’t necessarily feel like home, but it was getting better.

It was through this process that new connect-the-dot moments started to take place.

One of my favorite stories involves a fundraiser named Liz Eastin. Liz was the Director of Development for Nursing Science and Public Health. I learned about Liz’s two daughters who were standout high school swimmers at the time. The older of the two would go on to swim at Stanford, where she would set U.S. records and her younger sister would go to Michigan to swim. Their story became of special interest when Liz mentioned her husband’s background as a basketball player at Long Beach State. Liz would say that’s where they got their athletic talent and their height (Jeff was 6’7”).

Light bulbs went off in my head. Liz’s last name was Eastin.  Hmm. I looked at Liz and said, “Wait… your husband played basketball at Long Beach State? Did he go to Westminster High School before that? Is his name Jeff?”

The answer was obviously, “yes.”

I would go on and on about this fact. I said, “I remember him. I saw him play numerous times when he was at Long Beach State!” I probably kept talking for quite a while after that.

You see, there was a time when basketball was the all-consuming thing in my life (when I was younger and single). I went to basketball games regularly. More than that, I knew everything there was to know about the local basketball talent – not only at the collegiate level, but also at the high school level. Long Beach State basketball was a big part of my life back in the day.

This was one of those cool moments, I’ll never forget and it’s a story I love to tell. Liz probably thought it was a bit strange that I knew so much about her husband, but in that moment, I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Liz now works at Cal-State Fullerton (CSUF). She reached out to me when an opening became available that seemed like a good fit for my experience and background while I was working at PanCAN.  More on that to come…

DO’s at UCI with athletic children didn’t stop with Liz. I also learned Julie Sully, who was a DO for the UCI Libraries had two daughters who played volleyball at the collegiate level. One at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the other at the University of San Francisco (USF).  Volleyball was another sport I knew a little bit about and followed closely in my younger days. It was another point of connection with yet another fundraiser.

Having worked in college athletics at San Jose State University (prior to my career in development), I have always had an interest in college sports.  I have a great deal of respect and admiration for coaches in particular and anyone supporting the college athletics effort. Working with coaches and others involved in collegiate athletics has been one of the best experiences of my career.

Knowing all of that, it should come as no surprise that one of the most welcoming DO’s I met while at UC Irvine was Kara Correa. Kara was the Assistant Athletic Director, Development at the time and a former soccer player at her alma mater - Sacramento State University. We talked a great deal about the challenges of fundraising for a Division I program in Southern California and the needs all their programs had.

As I got to know Kara through the networking lunches, she asked me to include their Assistant Director for the Anteater Athletic Fund, Greg Paules. Greg was an alum and a graduate of the Paul Merage School of Business at UCI. Like Kara, Greg was approachable and a great colleague. He also happened to be a Dodger fan. I enjoyed getting to know Greg.

Greg left UCI in May of 2013 to become DO for CSUF’s Athletic Department. He’s the Sr. Director of Development and Associate Athletic Director today. It was actually Greg who first thought of me when a position became available at CSUF. Liz followed up by encouraging me to apply.

I was a little sad when Greg left UCI, but was happy for the opportunity he had before him. We had lunch prior to his leaving and we’ve managed to stay in touch ever since.

Kara is now a Sr. Director for Principal Gifts at UCI. Sadly, she lost her husband Vince in January of 2015 to colon cancer. That news was heartbreaking and is still something I think about to this day, just as I do with all those who have lost their battles with cancer.

In the late summer of 2013, things were humming along. I was crazy busy building a team and implementing new things.  It was around this time that a search for a second Assistant Vice Chancellor for Development took place and I was asked to serve on the hiring committee. I think it’s every prospect development professional’s dream to serve on a committee like this. I know I was thrilled to participate.

This is where I met one of the most dynamic personalities I have ever known in my development career. Sylvia Acosta came to UCI to interview from the University of Texas at El Paso and within the first ten minutes of her interview, I knew I was meeting a force to be reckoned with. She was a natural born story-teller – which I strongly believe is one of the greatest qualities any fundraiser can have. 

I don’t think anyone has ever made a bigger impression on me during an interview process. She answered every question with a compelling and well told story (l loved that). As we were interviewing her, all I could think about was that UCI needed to secure her before someone else snatched her up. I kept thinking, I hope she’s not interviewing anywhere else right now.

When the interview ended, the committee took quick action and encouraged Gregory to follow up with Sylvia right away. We all shared the same opinion – Sylvia could elevate the fundraising efforts of UCI in a monumental way.

Sylvia joined the team in August of 2013. I remember being extremely excited for the opportunity to work with her.

I really enjoyed working with Sylvia. I loved how fearless she was and how she always knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish. I admired her confidence. She came to lead and have an impact. Some fundraisers are just a joy to be around and she was one of them for sure.

A few years later; after leaving UCI, I would run into her and her daughter at a restaurant in Long Beach. She was heading home from the airport and much to my surprised found this small restaurant Cheryl and I frequent. It happened to be a regular stop for her whenever she made a trip between Orange County and LAX. Sylvia was about to transition into a new role at the time and head back to Texas.

Again, small world.

Prior to Sylvia’s recruitment, I tried to encourage a few people I had worked with previously to apply for the AVC role. This included Sharon Joyce from COH and Bettie Woods, who I had worked with at CSLA. The timing and commute wasn’t right for either one and they never applied. I guess it all worked out in the end.

Point is, I tried and this would be typical of me throughout my career. When opportunities arise, I have always try to do my own dot connecting. In any case – Sharon has continued to have a great career at COH and Bettie is currently at Cal-Tech after several years at LMU.

UCI is also where I got to meet one of the best fundraisers I’ve ever known in Nicole Balsamo. I’ve often considered Nicole to be the gold standard for fundraisers. Not only did she raise millions for UCI, but she also developed great teams of individuals who would go on to have great careers of their own. People like David Earl and Marijana Lekousis.

Nicole was and continues to be a great leader. Great leaders develop the potential of others and helps them accomplish great things of their own. Nicole does that as well as anyone. 

I would later encourage her to apply for a leadership position at PanCAN, but the distance she would need to travel deterred her from applying. She continues to make a major impact on the philanthropic community today while working at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach.

David Earl was someone I really enjoyed getting to know as well. David was a part of the Donor Relations team at the time.  He is a huge college basketball fan, a Mets baseball fan, enjoys finely crafted beer and has a love for music. At the time, I could see David becoming a major gift officer and the two of us discussed that idea from time to time.

I thought he was extremely bright and I really believed in his potential. In fact, I would later try to recruit him to PanCAN for role in our marketing department. He would eventually decline the opportunity to join PanCAN and would instead transition into becoming a fundraiser working with Nicole Balsamo. It was a smart decision.

He has since returned to his alma mater – George Washington University where he had previously coined the phrase “Raise High” for their athletic programs. He continues to progress in a wonderful and fulfilling career and currently serves as General Manager for GW’s Sports Properties. I won’t be surprised if he becomes an Athletic Director one day.

Some of the other talented and wonderful fundraisers I got to know over time included Julie Smith (a fellow foodie – who introduced Cheryl and me to one of our favorite restaurants).  She was another exceptional fundraiser, who I also tried to recruit to PanCAN for a leadership position. Like Nicole, she declined the opportunity to apply. Again, I tried…

Marijana Lekousis would serve, alongside fellow development officers Antigone Blackwell and Grace Han on hiring committees that would be instrumental in my efforts to recruit talent to my team. She is currently the Executive Director of Advancement for the School of Physical Sciences at UCI.

Marijana came to UCI with a background in recruiting and had some experience with recruiting research analysts. She was a perfect fit for the committee.

Antigone came to UCI from UCSD and raised money for the School of Engineering. Grace was one of 3 centrally based DO’s and I appreciated her work ethic. Grace was one of the first fundraisers I knew to use LinkedIn to reach out to alums and she was relentless in her efforts.

Another highly successful fundraiser I had the privilege of working with was Roland Ho. Roland was the Director of Planned Giving at the time. I used to call him “The Rainmaker” because he was among the highest achievers on the advancement team. He currently serves as the Sr. Executive Director of Planned Giving at UCI.

One quote I often attribute to Roland is that “every gift is a planned gift.”

Roland is a product of the American Institute for Philanthropic Studies’ Planned Giving certification program. It’s the only program that offers the Certified Specialist in Planned giving designation. I mention this because, another longtime friend and colleague of mine – Amy Walling is also a graduate and the two went through the program together. Amy started her career in prospect development and currently works at San Diego State with two of my other longtime friends – Cathy Terrones and Cristi Hendry.

Once again – it’s a small world.

There were numerous other fundraisers who I enjoyed getting to know at UCI. I found interesting connections with most of them.

One of the most interesting connections was with Michelle Duro. We discovered that we both worked in the entertainment industry early in our careers. I was a CBS Page (glamourous job, right?) and Michelle worked on production team for the game show – “The Price is Right.” We figured out that our time overlapped and that we probably worked on the set in Studio 33 at Television City during the same period of time.

We definitely had people in common that we both knew.

I also worked with Melissa Salazar, who headed up our annual giving efforts and her director – Kyle Cutter-Dabiri.  Melissa has since moved on to become the Associate VP for Annual Giving at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Systems.

Kyle – would be yet another person I would try to recruit to PanCAN. Kyle had some interest when I reached out, but was preparing to move back east with her husband and never applied. The timing was all wrong.

There was also Linda Haghi, who – along with one of her daughters, would join Cheryl and me at a few Angels baseball games; Valerie Amador – a Florida Gator alum and a terrific fundraiser (one of the best), and Brian Goldberg – who I would later help successfully recruit to join me at PanCAN. More about Brian later.

You know, maybe I should have had a career in recruiting…

There are so many stories – even in just the 3 short years I spent at UCI and I’m probably forgetting some of them.

During my three years at UCI, I reported first to Lynn Rahn, who was an Associate Vice Chancellor and CFO.  Not long after I started, I then reported directly to Gregory Leet.

In hindsight, reporting directly to the VC would have both pluses and minuses. During my first year-plus, I was pretty much left to do what I needed to do. I was a part of the leadership team and participated in meeting with the AVC’s. I also had great support from Gregory’s Chief of Staff – Babette Vogel (who had worked with Gregory at two prior institutions) and my team and I accomplished a lot in the first year.

It wasn’t easy. I remember thinking back on my first year and thinking to myself that I had to use everything I had ever learned about prospect development and managing people during my first year. It was a grind, but it was also rewarding because I honestly believed things were headed in the right direction.

In 2014, the search for the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Advancement Services continued on. The position had been open prior to my arrival in August 2012 and would remain open until the fall of 2014. During those years – several candidates came and went. It was a bit mysterious to me and probably others. I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult to find someone. Some of the candidates looked to be great fits (in my opinion), but they didn’t materialize for whatever reason. 

It all made me a little anxious because whoever was going to be hired would also be my boss.

As I previously wrote, I raised the question with Gregory during my interview process about why I was hired prior to the hiring of an AVC for Advancement Services. It was kind of unsettling that the position was still vacant.

At some point, I began to think about who I would like to see in that role. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, right?

So, I reached out to my friend, colleague and mentor Cathy Terrones to see if she would be interested in applying for the AVC position. The idea of working with Cathy was something I had to explore.

Cathy had an interesting response. She said to me – “Why don’t you apply for the AVC position and then hire me to come work for you in the role you have now.” I’ll never forget that. It was humbling for sure. It was also typical of Cathy to encourage me.

That conversation helped lead me to think about the possibility and I broached the idea with Babette. Gregory then decided to elevate my position on an interim basis and allowed me to take on some of the responsibilities (not all) that would eventually go to the new AVC.

I welcomed the opportunity, but distinctly remember telling Gregory that I didn’t know if I could do all I needed to do while also continuing to build a prospect development team and program. Gregory assured me at the time that the very fact that I had those concerns – were reason enough for him to believe I could handle the role.

That conversation is something I still think about today. I definitely wanted the interim role, but at the same time I had concerns that stemmed from a number of situations that were ongoing, but mostly because my plate was already full.

Little did I know what waited ahead. What would happen over the next two years would be the most difficult and most challenging time of my personal and professional life.