For Kenneth C. Griffin ’89, a long-term relationship with University leaders translated this February into a $150 million gift to the University, $125 million of which was designated for undergraduate financial aid.

Griffin served on the FAS’s Financial Aid Task Force before making his record-setting gift. “They are really, really engaged on the task, and its a hard task, to make sure that not just with respect to our country, but with respect to the world, Harvard stays at the forefront of education.”

When New York real estate magnate Peter J. Malkin ’55, another member of COUR, and his wife decided in the early 1980s that they wanted to make a major gift to the University, they immediately approached then-President Neil L. Rudenstine and then-FAS Dean Henry Rosovsky. At the time, the Indoor Athletic Building between Kirkland and Lowell Houses was nearly six decades old and badly in need of attention. Rosovsky presented the project to the Malkins.

“The Dean said that Harvard needed  to renew the Indoor Athletic Building, a crucial facility for the entire community,” Malkin remembers. “It was a project that, when it was presented to us, struck us as something that could really mean a lot to the students, faculty, and staff.”  In 1984, the Malkins celebrated the renovation and renaming of the building as the Malkin Athletic Center.

Like other donors, the Malkins have stayed involved with their project, allowing the University to assume the day-to-day operations and upkeep of the MAC but holding onto the final say when it comes to big decisions. When the MAC came up for renovation in the early 2000s, Malkin consulted architect J. Timothy Anderson ’55 and ultimately revised the University’s proposed changes to the exterior.

Malkin adds that the role of University leadership is crucial when it comes to soliciting philanthropy. “It is the personal touch that the president or the dean provides that really brings those big gifts,” he says. “You're more likely to give if you are called on that way. If the president of Harvard asks you to do something, then you're going to give it a lot more consideration.”

COMING TOGETHER

Though there are many paths to making a donation to Harvard, Faust has emerged during the University’s capital campaign as a uniting force. Though she often meets with donors in small groups, she also travels to generate wide interest in the capital campaign and promote alumni reconnecting with the University.

“I give a lot more speeches,” Faust says of her campaign responsibilities. “Those kind of events mean a more public presentation of the campaign, supporting the different school campaigns, [and] setting the agenda for the larger meetings.”

This May, Faust traveled to New York City where, aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid on the Hudson River, she rallied nearly 600 alumni and donors. In attendance were some of Harvard’s wealthiest benefactors along with some Harvard affiliates who had recently graduated and for whom the registration fee of less than $50 had been waived.

After delivering her standard campaign stump speech, in which she outlines the fund drive’s priorities and speaks of her vision for Harvard’s future, Faust mingled with the crowd in the ship’s hangar, posing for photos and working the room.

“The president is always a big draw,” Rogers says. “Many alumni don’t have the opportunity to hear her speak. By her going around the country, it’s a great chance for people to finally have a chance to see her and hear her and then perhaps meet her at the reception afterwards....some of the students from 2013 and 2010, 2011, and 2012 said, ‘wow, we wanted to come back; we haven’t heard her since our baccalaureate speech.’”

But while Faust is a uniting force, the Development Office is well aware that every potential donor has a different Harvard story and a different interest in supporting the University.

After Faust’s speech and the well-appointed spread at the night’s reception, alumni gradually made for the exits. As they stopped to retrieve their coats, many dwelled over a crimson-clothed table bearing various bowls of pins. In the bowls were symbols of Harvard experiences, ranging from the undergraduate Houses to the University’s graduate schools. As they went their separate ways, some alumni grabbed a few, others just one.

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.

—Staff writer Theodore R. Delwiche can be reached at theodore.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on twitter @trdelwic.