Podcast: ‘Think and Do’ In Review With Brian Sischo

Theme music (00:01): Please listen carefully.

Taylor Pardue (00:05): Welcome to the NC State Philanthropy Podcast, telling the world how we Think and Do through the support of our friends, alumni and more. I’m your host, Taylor Pardue. On today’s episode, we’re joined by Vice Chancellor Brian Sischo to learn how NC State’s recent Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign has set the university up for a big, bold future, and about what that future holds. We’re honored to have Brian Sischo with us here today. He’s NC State’s vice chancellor for University Advancement and has really been, um, a major leader in our Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign, which came to a close last December. Thank you for joining us today, Brian.

Brian Sischo (00:59): My pleasure.

Taylor Pardue (01:00): To kick things off today, please give us just a quick overview of all that we accomplished in our recent campaign, what it’s done for the university and just kind of how that sets us up for the future.

Brian Sischo (01:10): Well, thanks Taylor. I think to start, we really need to look backward and think about, you know, where we started. This campaign was launched publicly in 2016, but there was a lot of work done prior to the public launch of campaign. For those who may recall, we launched the campaign with over a billion dollars already committed. So, there was a lot of work done in what I like to refer to as the nucleus phase — it’s that couple of years that leads up to the launch of the public phase. But it was at that time that we talked about really five overarching goals for this campaign. The first and foremost was to really elevate NC State’s brand, both in terms of awareness and reputation. And I think it’s fair to say that this campaign allowed us to really do that, particularly within the borders of North Carolina.

Brian Sischo (02:04): When you think about parts of this state that we may have lagged behind some of our schools down the road, let’s say. And I think at the end of the campaign, we can look back now and say from a brand recognition and reputation and visibility perspective, that we’re in a much stronger place today. So, that was really kind of the first overarching goal. The second was to mobilize and expand our alumni volunteer network. And boy, we sure did that throughout the period of this campaign. We had more alumni volunteers than ever before on the campaign cabinet, which represented volunteers from every school and college and unit who came together regularly. They were engaged with the university from the very beginning, and I think the participation in this campaign really shows how well we were able to bring more alumni and friends to the table than ever before.

Brian Sischo (03:06): We also talked about this thing that I’ve referred to as a culture of philanthropy. And to me, that was, perhaps, the most important piece of what was going to be essential in achieving success in this campaign. And what that really represents is how we visibly demonstrated throughout the period of the campaign the impact that philanthropic dollars have made or will make on the university. And I think we did that, particularly in how we communicated to our constituents; how we visibly demonstrated the impact through grand openings, through gift announcements, just bringing focus to what those philanthropic dollars would do for the intended cause. And the campus community as a whole became much more engaged on a day-to-day level in really elevating NC State throughout the period of this campaign.

Brian Sischo (04:11): Perhaps the most visible sense of that is our annual Day of Giving. We’ve just completed our fourth Day of Giving and continue to set records in terms of donor participation and dollars raise. So incredible. The fourth issue, and it’s one that’s been a focus mine the eight years I’ve been here, is to really build out the infrastructure within University Advancement to be able to carry forth a campaign of this magnitude. Part of that is ensuring a much stronger “One Pack” mentality, where effective coordination and collaboration across colleges and units, along with the central advancement, functions in terms of how they operate and how they work together with one another. I think we’ve come leaps and bounds in the time period of this campaign, and that only sets the stage for greater things to follow. And the fifth and, perhaps, the most important goal is we wanted to raise $1.6 billion over the period of this campaign — really, the most ambitious fundraising effort the university’s ever undertaken, and one that we knew was going to be a stretch from day one. And so, that was, you know, where we started with this campaign, and those kind of more tangible subjective goals were things that we really set our sights on early on and really continued throughout the campaign.

Taylor Pardue (05:47): Excellent. Um, you mentioned $1.6 billion. We know now, a few months removed from the campaign, how much we excelled that goal, exceeded that goal. Um, tell us a little bit about just what all went into that, how our Pack came together, especially during COVID, which made things even tougher for this campaign, and how that really unified us in this goal of trying to provide more for our students and for our faculty.

Brian Sischo (06:11): You know, I think one of the things I have experienced in the time I’ve been at NC State is the pride and passion that our alumni have in NC State is, frankly, surpassed by no one. At the same time, I believe that NC State hadn’t routinely tapped into that pride and passion previously. Part of that is the fact that we have been so well supported by the state of North Carolina. We still remain one of the most well supported university systems in the country, but I think there was a time when the state provided so much support that there was less of a need to expand our reach, to raise private support. And, you know, the chancellor is often quoted as saying, with state support, we can and have been a very good university, but the road from good to great is paved with the private resources that the university’s able to garner from those who care deeply about the institution.

Brian Sischo (07:17): So, but we’re newer at this game than many other schools. Many other universities have been at this a lot longer. I like to joke that Harvard had their first campaign in 1643. They’ve been at this a while. NC State really only got serious about maintaining its alumni records electronically in 1980s. And so, to a certain degree, we’ve been playing catch-up. But the good news is that our alumni and friends were poised. They were ready to jump in. Part of that’s a function that the fact that two-thirds of our alumni remain residents of North Carolina, and fully one-third of our alumni are based right here in the Triangle. And so, people are closer to the action. And I think, as a result of that, they feel more connected than other institutions where maybe they move out of the area or out of the state or out of the country. We’ve had the benefit of having folks closer to us, and so, that connection is stronger here. We just hadn’t, as a university, taken full advantage of that, historically, and I think this was a campaign where we were able to seize that opportunity, and it really paid off in a multitude of ways.

Taylor Pardue (08:34): Absolutely. Just for listeners who may not have caught one of our earlier episodes, our final campaign total came to $2,103,932,120, which greatly exceeded our $1.6 billion ambitious goal at the time. Something that, you know, a lot of people may not realize talking about playing catch-up and how quickly we have caught up, only 12 other public universities in the United States have ever closed a fundraiser at or above $2 billion. So, I know I’ve heard you say it from time to time, we are in “rarefied air” now. We’ve really shown what our Pack can do when we have the opportunity to give, and just the joint mindset.

Brian Sischo (09:17): Yeah. I think that’s true, Taylor. It puts us in really good company, and, importantly, it’s also helpful to think about the universities that we may think would already be part of that company that are not, and that includes Georgia Tech or Virginia Tech or Michigan State or Florida State or Clemson, South Carolina and on and on and on. Right. And so, we’ve been able to really take it to a whole other level, and it’s something that our alumni and friends should be very proud of. You know, we recently put together a film highlighting the impact of the campaign, and at the front end of that, I’m captured as talking about how, you know, for those that have not reunited have not reconnected with NC State, I do feel sorry for them.

Brian Sischo (10:13): I feel sorry for what they’ve missed. Now, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity going forward, because, I think, the continued ability to reconnect with NC State will only be enhanced. We’re only going to look to springboard off of what this campaign has done to engage our friends and family. And so, the time is now. If you haven’t had that chance to reconnect, we’d love for you to be part of the Pack. And, in fact, one of the things when I meet with groups of alumni, and we’ve been touring the country in what we call our Tour of Gratitude, we’ve been in, I think we’ve done 12 stops now across the state and across the country, but I say to our alumni and friends, the single most important thing that they can do at this stage is to identify those four or five fellow alumni or friends that they know care as deeply about NC State as they do but maybe just haven’t had that opportunity to reconnect and bring them to the table, because we welcome them with open arms and can’t wait for them to experience NC State in 2022, because it’s a remarkable place.

Taylor Pardue (11:32): I think that’s a great segue. So many people hear that, that large number, that $2.1 billion, and they think, you know, this is a, an enormous pot of money. You’re never gonna have to fundraise again. This solves all your, all your problems. Help people understand that, how that’s earmarked, how that actually affects the university and how it’s divvied up and how, you know, what are our needs going forward that are always gonna be, um, pressing issues for the university.

Brian Sischo (11:58): You know, sometimes folks will joke, you know, they say to me, you know, you and the chancellor must have this big fault with this $2 billion sitting in it. And I can assure you, that isn’t the case. The way campaigns work is it’s an accumulation of gifts that the university receives over that period of time that go directly to whatever the cause is that that donor wants to support. And I’m a big believer that, you know, our job is to help you understand where your passion is at the university, because I know if we connect you to that, whether it’s athletics, academics, the libraries, music, art, the Technician, whatever that may be, that if we can connect you to your point area of passion, you’re more likely to wanna support that eventually. And so, we have today over 7,000 different accounts to which donors contribute on a regular basis.

Brian Sischo (12:58): So, there’s virtually nothing at the university that doesn’t already have an established account that you can give to today. But think of this as an accumulated amount of money. So, one of the things, for example, is, during the period of this campaign, we put a large emphasis on building the university’s endowment. When Chancellor Woodson arrived in 2010, our university endowment was roughly $400 million, and he quickly recognized that that was insufficient to meet the needs of this great university. And so, he made it a priority, and it became, really, the most important priority in this campaign was to build the endowment. And I’m really pleased to say, of the $2.1 billion in total commitments, that over a billion of that, so, just less than half of that, was from gifts earmarked to build the endowment. Now, not all of that has been received in some of those; it’s a multi-year pledge.

Brian Sischo (13:53): In other cases, it’s an individual who’s put NC State in their estate plan. So, in those cases, you know, we all know that the best way to extend your lifespan by 25 years is to put your alma mater in your estate plan. Um, so those funds will come eventually over time. So, even within that $2.1 billion, it’s not all cash in hand, but in the case of the endowment, not only have we experienced some tremendous investment growth over the past 10 or 12 years, but we’ve also added an additional $650 million of new dollars through gifts that were included in this campaign to help build that endowment to, now, to a point where the total endowment’s over $2 billion. Now, to put that in perspective, the university has a spending rule. We spend a 4% payout on the endowment, but where that is really critical is in the support that drives directly to the bottom line.

Brian Sischo (14:54): So, for example, the spending from our endowment, when the chancellor came here was less than $10 million a year. This past year, the spending from endowment resources was over $65 million. So, that’s a tremendous increase, but consider that in the grand scheme of the fact that the university has an annual budget of roughly $2 billion. It still represents a fairly small percentage of the operating budget of the university. It’s critical because, in particular, what that has done is provided more scholarships. So, today, as a result of this campaign, over 5,000 more students are receiving financial aid today then were prior to the start of the campaign. So, that says to me that there were maybe as many as 5,000 students who might not have had the opportunity to attend NC State had it not been for this campaign. So, if you really want a tangible outcome, there’s no better example than the financial aid that scholarships and fellowships provide to help augment the, you know, the cost of education that our students have to bear.

Taylor Pardue (16:04): Again, if listeners haven’t heard, um, the previous episodes where we gave those rundowns, we have 13, over 1,300 new scholarships and fellowships that have been created during the campaign. A lot of those came through what we call the Extraordinary Opportunity Scholarship Initiative. Tell us a little bit about that, how that’s already come to bear through, um, like you said, individuals finding particular, uh, particular colleges, particular departments that they wanted to support, and how that’s enabling new people that may never have thought they could afford to, uh, sponsor a scholarship, how they’re able to fund that now.

Brian Sischo (16:36): Yeah. This was a program that we rolled out midway through the campaign. We had the fortune of having a couple of donor families step up and provide a matching fund as incentive for donors to set up new scholarships. And so, it became a $0.50-on-the-dollar match. So, if an individual committed a $100,000, this matching pot would provide them an additional $50,000. So, their entire fund would now be $150,000, as an example. But what this particular scholarship was really earmarked for were students from North Carolina, particularly those from families with the greatest financial need, and I think that appealed to — continues to appeal to — an increasing number of donors who realize that they can make a direct impact. And so, this scholarship really became a way that we could package something that made it, perhaps, easier for some donors to be able to provide a meaningful scholarship and to have the bonus of a matching pot of funds that would augment what they were able to give. So, we’ve had some tremendous progress with this. In fact, I believe we’re getting closer to capturing all of the matching funds at this point. So, we may have another challenge on our hands to maybe find some more matching funds.

Taylor Pardue (18:08): OK. And this is obviously something, um, that goes beyond the campaign. We will definitely keep supporting this and keep looking for new donors for that.

Brian Sischo (18:16): True. True. Well, in addition to that, Taylor, I think one of the things that we see as an ongoing priority is that the Extraordinary Opportunity Scholarship is really earmarked for undergraduate students, but we have an increasing need to find funding to support our graduate program and our graduate fellowships. And so, we’ll be emphasizing this in the years ahead, particularly, as many folks know, at the request of the legislature, NC State is going to be looking to expand in engineering, particularly with a 40% growth in engineering enrollment over the next five or six years, and a big portion of that will be graduate students. And this is all in response to the companies already in the Triangle and other new companies coming to the Triangle, like Apple, like Google, like FUJIFILM Diosynth and others that want NC State talent. They want to be able to recruit our students, and so we need to grow that pool of available graduates. And part of that will be really building the graduate fellowship funds that are available to help attract those graduate students here.

Taylor Pardue (19:36): I think that speaks so well to NC State’s land-grant legacy. Um, you mentioned earlier how so many of our students stay in the state, stay in the Triangle area, you know, as a land-grant university, that means so much, I think, to the people of North Carolina, that the investment they make into our university, and now private support as well, they really see the results of that on the ground level. You know, so many colleges train these students, but then they go out into the world and, you know, that talent is lost to the larger community, where NC State is helping draw these companies to us and really benefiting the state and the students at the same time.

Brian Sischo (20:12): Yeah, I think that’s a, it’s a win-win-win, right? It’s a win for the university, it’s a win for these companies and it’s a win for the state to be able to really, you know, build this highly educated workforce that want to stay here. They want to help continue to thrive in North Carolina. I think that’s the piece that it, it really kind of ties all of that together, um, and it’s great that NC State can play such an important part in making that happen.

Taylor Pardue (20:49): So, what are some other, um, some other areas that we are going start concentrating on in the coming years? I know, uh, distinguished professorships were a huge thing during the campaign, with 104 new ones created to help us continue to draw even more of these talented faculty members from around the world. Um, speak a little bit about how that’s going to, how we’re gonna focus on that in the coming years.

Brian Sischo (21:11): Well, the lifeblood of any major research university is the quality of its faculty, and NC state is no different. We continue to be challenged with the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty, and one of the ways that we’re able to augment the salary support that they received through the state is in the form of a named endowed position that brings not only prestige, but the additional resources that faculty can use to bring in graduate students to help develop their research, to help enhance their teaching. And so, right in this campaign, we raised over and we actually raised an exact number of 104 new professorships benefiting every college on campus. To put that in perspective, prior to the start of the campaign, less than 9% of our faculty were in a named endowed position.

Brian Sischo (22:10): That number is now over 17%, so, practically doubling the number of active tenure and tenure-track faculty that are in a named position. And that only, not only allows us to retain some of these outstanding faculty, but it’s also been a carrot to attract new faculty to the university. The benchmark in our, within our peer group is roughly 20% of faculty in a named position. So, we still have some work to do, but we’ve made some tremendous progress. And I think any faculty member who’s in a named position will tell you that it’s a difference-maker for them as they build their research profile, as they look to do the things that will allow them to take things to the next level. Having a named position is a really important part of being able to do that.

Taylor Pardue (23:02): Obviously, students and faculty are the heartbeat of a university, but tell us a little bit about some of the programmatic initiatives that we have going on that started maybe in the campaign and that are ongoing and things that we will continue to keep developing.

Brian Sischo (23:15): I think a couple of things that come to mind that arose primarily as a result of the pandemic but continue today. I think of the Student Emergency Fund, and this is a fund that actually was created after one of the more recent hurricanes when we realized that students had these kind of short-term but really immediate and high-impact needs. And so, donors stepped forward to create that fund in 2017. When the pandemic hit, we had an outpouring of support from donors who realized that we had students that were in real dire straits, in some cases. And so, these kind of micro-grants became critical to help students get over the hump and to stay enrolled, to find housing when it wasn’t available as a result of, you know, everything shutting down almost overnight.

Brian Sischo (24:14): A related program that emerged during this time was our Feed the Pack food pantry. And so, we have an increasing number of students, unfortunately, that face not only housing insecurity but food insecurity. And so, the food pantry is there to help students at both the undergraduate, the graduate level, even some of our faculty and staff who may have a short-term need have access to food at times when they might not have other options. And so, those are kind of ongoing initiatives that will remain a focus for our, for the university that continue to support a lot of students. Stepping aside for a second, I think we also have a number of other key initiatives, uh, particularly in our athletics program. You’ll see, and are seeing, some work being done to enhance our baseball facilities.

Brian Sischo (25:05): You’ll see some work being done to continue to enhance our football facility. Having Reynolds Coliseum and Valvano Arena was really critical during the run that our women’s basketball team had. And so, you see how athletics, and even just this week, currently, showing up as an eighth place in the Director’s Cup, we’ve had some real phenomenal success across the spectrum in our athletics program. And Boo Corrigan’s doing a great job of really looking to enhance not only the facilities, but the programmatic offerings within athletics. But, overall, I think you’ll see, you know, there are a number of other key initiatives that will, you know, that will arise. You know, I think it’s important to recognize that even though we’re not formally in an established fundraising campaign, the amazing staff and University Advancement are always looking to highlight and advance the university’s highest priorities. And, I think, likewise, oftentimes, donors, you know, their timing doesn’t always sync up exactly with campaigns. And so, you know, our job is to continue to highlight and communicate the, you know, the things that donors can support that will carry us into the future. And we’ll continue to do that.

Taylor Pardue (26:37): You mentioned facilities. I know, um, the campaign was huge for providing us with Fitts-Woolard Hall and then, um, being dedicated this year, the Plant Sciences Building on, both on Centennial Campus. You mentioned, uh, the new initiative with North Carolina focusing on increasing our engineering, uh, capacity and everything. Tell us a little bit about the Innovation District that’s gonna be coming, uh, to Centennial Campus soon, uh, and how that’s gonna help us train even more individuals.

Brian Sischo (27:03): Yeah, I think this is a really distinctive opportunity, not only for NC state, but for the Triangle region and for our state. The Innovation District is one where a developer has been identified and will be seeking to develop a portion of our Centennial Campus to attract new businesses to that may or may not have a direct link to the, you know, the academic work of our university, but more often than not, that’s what we’ll attract them here. It’ll include residential housing. It’ll include retail. We’ll see, I think, as a result of this the kind of live/play/work environment that you see in other, larger cities. Um, so I think there’s a formula for this that is being modeled, but I think it’ll take a real advantage of the, not only the space that we have on Centennial, but the quality of our academic program. So, it’s really exciting, I think, as, over the next few months, I think we’ll be hearing and seeing more about the plans that the developer has for this in partnership with the university. It will be really exciting for NC State. Taylor Pardue (28:29): I think it’s just another one of the ways that we’re, like I said earlier, bringing people and jobs to the area, not just producing talented individuals, that, you know, graduate, and then they go elsewhere.

Brian Sischo (28:39): Right.

Taylor Pardue (28:41): You mentioned earlier that so many of our alumni were engaged through the Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign. Um, one of the figures that I’ve got written down: 29,759 were first-time givers who saw what the university was doing, saw the needs and really became engaged, um, in a big way. How would you tell people who may have not given during the campaign, but are, you know, they’re really intrigued by what we’ve been able to accomplish so far — some of these people may be interested, but they may think it’s only a dollar amount. Tell us a little bit about how you can give of your time and talent too, to really bring your knowledge and your wisdom that you’ve accumulated as an alumnus and bring it back and really benefit our students and faculty still.

Brian Sischo (29:22): Yeah, I think it, you know, we were really excited and impressed and overjoyed that nearly 130,000 alumni and friends contributed in this campaign. It really exceeded our expectation. And, as you noted, such a large percentage of them made their first ever gift in this campaign. I think some of that was the result of very effectively administered Days of Giving. We’ve just completed our fourth, and that’s brought a whole other level of folks to the table. Keep in mind: every year, we graduate roughly nine or 10,000 new NC State alumni. And so, as a result, the average age of our alumni body gets younger every year. The secret sauce behind Day of Giving is so much of it is digital, right? From social media to web to online. And let’s be honest, today’s generation does most of their stuff digitally.

Brian Sischo (30:22): And so, I think it’s opened the door for people to become engaged where, maybe, those doors weren’t as open in the past, but one of the things that’s really critical on this is the first step is engagement, right? So, I am often quoted as saying that engagement leads to interest, interest leads to investment. So, job one is, we need to engage you as an alum with your institution, with your alma mater, for those things that you’re most passionate about, and our job is to create that opportunity for you to see that path. Once you’ve gotten engaged, then we’re able to hone in on that interest. And only then, once you are in, if you will, then we can really sit down and talk about what investment looks like. And investment is your time, your talent, certainly your treasure, importantly, your testimony, right?

Brian Sischo (31:20): And so, investment comes in many forms, right? Whether it’s mentoring a fellow alum or a younger alum, in some cases. Whether it’s serving on one of our numerous boards. We have a lot of volunteer boards, so, if you have the time and energy, we’d love to be able to plug you into, you know, one or more of our boards. It’s finding, you know, groups of alumni. You share the passion that you have, right? And being able to reach out and bring more of those folks to the table, and so, yes, I think it’s really a whole cycle. And our job in University Advancement is to show you that menu. I liken it to, if you’ve ever been to the Cheesecake Factory for a meal, I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but the menu at the Cheesecake Factory, it’s a book, and it is page after page after page of just about anything and everything that you can order at the Cheesecake Factory, regardless of where your interest lies. And that’s a little bit about what I view as our job at NC State, is to present you with that menu of the variety of things that you can do to be engaged with NC State, and if there’s a passion for your alma mater, we’re going to find something on that menu that gets you excited, and from there, then, making those connections will lead ultimately to, you know, to that investment.

Taylor Pardue (33:00): Day of Giving, especially so, but just our social media team in general does such a great job. And I think you’re right: being able to see, not just your alma mater as the university, but your specific college, maybe your department, you’re able to see these social media pages and really reach out and keep, you know, keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on campus and see the needs as they arise, and just really be able to be a part of that, still, that campus community, even though you’re an alum living elsewhere.

Brian Sischo (33:24): Well, I will say, I mean, while the majority of alumni do connect back to their home college, or more importantly, as you say, to their home department, we shouldn’t assume or presume that that is where the passion lies, because that same person may have had an amazing experience with the Libraries, or may have gotten very engaged in student activities, or may have connected with an entirely different college or department. And so, while that does tend to be the typical route, we should always be asking the question about, well, what was it about your experience that really stood out? For many, it’s that they were involved in one of our signature scholarship programs, the Park Scholars or the Caldwell scholars, or, more recently the Goodnight Scholars. That becomes a connect space for a lot of our alumni. And so, figuring that out is where the fun starts.

Taylor Pardue (34:27): Absolutely. We’ll include that in the show notes, too, the overall giving page and just show people, like you said, the menu, the quote-unquote menu of, you know, there are so many ways to get involved with this university, and you see the results of it very quickly. I mean, you really do see it lived out in the lives of people — not just in their postgraduate careers, but through Feed the Pack and things. I mean, you really see the results of your investment.

Brian Sischo (34:50): Well, it makes me think we’ve got some really well-organized and impactful groups. Three that come to mind are the Black Alumni Society, which has done some amazing work over the past couple of decades. They’re very well established, but a couple of newer ones include our Latinx Alumni group. They just had kind of their first on-campus weekend of events — well attended, lot of energy. We have our, more recently, our Wolfpack Women in Philanthropy, a leadership group that was initially cofounded by Susan Woodson and Ann Goodnight, and this is a hard-charging, very energized group of leadership women who are really looking to reach out and touch other women leaders. And so, I could go on. I mean, there are so many affinity-based groups that are doing some amazing work.

Taylor Pardue (35:56): Absolutely. Brian, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us today. It’s great to hear from leadership and really see that overall view of, you know, what this campaign has done for the university, what all the donors mean to the university, and to see the future, the vision that you all share with Chancellor Woodson for where we go next. So, thank you so much.

Brian Sischo (36:17): Well, this is a phenomenal university, and it’s one where, if anything, what this campaign has done has given our alumni and friends permission to shout from the mountaintops, be very proud of their institution, their university, for all that it has achieved and all that it has yet to achieve. The future is very bright, and it’s just a real pleasure and a joy to be part of it.

Taylor Pardue (36:48): To learn more about the Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign, visit go.ncsu.edu/campaignclose. If you’d like to hear even more stories of Wolfpack success, please subscribe to the NC State Philanthropy Podcast today in the Apple or Google Podcast stores, on Spotify or through Stitcher. Be sure to leave us a comment and rating as well to let us know how we’re doing. Thanks for listening, and as always, “Go Pack.”