Michael Knetter may just go down in history as one of the greatest fundraisers of all time. Knetter is the dean of the Wisconsin Business School. Other universities have managed to raise substantial amounts of money by naming their business schools after generous donors (think Carlson, Tuck, Goizueta, Sloan, etc.). But Knetter did something far more impressive. He managed to raise $85 million in return for promising not to name the school for the next 20 years. A bunch of boosters liked the fact that the school is simply called the “University of Wisconsin Business School,” and they were willing to pay to keep it that way, at least for 20 years.
As one of my colleagues pointed out, it probably would have been a lot cheaper for the boosters just to bribe the Wisconsin legislature to pass a bill preventing the naming of the business school, although that strategy would not have gotten them many positive headlines.
Apparently, Knetter is now offering a full slate of objects not to name at the business school. For $50,000, you can have a classroom not named after you. For $5,000, you can not have your name on a plaque in the entryway to the building. For those of you with a little less to give, $50 will guarantee that the urinal of your choice will go unnamed. But only for the next 20 years.
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Why not give $85 million dollars and NAME the Business School: “The University of Wisconsin Business School”? Wouldn’t that presumably ensure that that name remained for all time?
Very clever. A nice counter to the “I want a plaque on the wall” mentality. From churches to universities to boy scout camps, it’s easier to raise money to build a wall with a name plaque on it than to get funding to keep that wall in good repair.
I think this is a bit more clever because a.) it’s gimmicky and b.) it gives the school flexibility so that 20 years from now they can re-evaluate their financial needs and name the school after a person if they desire.
On a side note, I attend a state university law school and they’ve actually published a brochure online of the cost of having any number of parts of the school named after the donor. It’s an interesting insight into what it costs to buy academic recognition.
Reminds me of the public TV stations I’ve heard about which have “pre-pledge-week” fund drives which knock time off of their “pledge weeks.” (Would be nice if my local PBS station did that, but they won’t.) I wonder how effective this is? Do they actually raise more money this way, or not?
Was this really worth writing about?
Haha… clever, but paying 85M to simply name the school “The Univeristy of Wisconsin Business School” probably would not have drawn any publicity and publicity is what they want to attract more applications…
Bob (#5): Well, it appears you think it’s worth commenting about…
In recognition, the University should name a building after Knetter or something.