Fund-raiser brings experience, skills to Purdue

By Kurt Esposito
Assistant Campus Editor

Even though he raises large amounts of money for universities, Murray Blackwelder still uses a beat-up portfolio bag to hold all his documents.

Blackwelder, the new senior vice president for advancement, said he does not remember when he got the bag, but said he's had it for "too long."

His wife hates it and asks him to get rid of it.

He said he likes it too much to throw it away but still thinks he should eventually get a new one.

Blackwelder, who began at Purdue on July 1, has spent his first month and a half reorganizing the Office of Development — now the Office of University Advancement — and planning for upcoming fund-raising campaigns.

Before coming to Purdue, he was the vice president for external affairs at Iowa State. He began at Iowa State 10 years ago when he was hired as president of the ISU foundation. At that time, ISU was in the middle of a $150 million campaign that had stalled at $90 million.

Blackwelder said they were able to reenergize the campaign and it actually finished with $214 million.

Tom Mitchell, president of the ISU Foundation, said, "Murray was regarded as a successful fund-raiser. He's a high energy person."

In 1996, Blackwelder was appointed as vice president for external affairs at Iowa State. In the position, he oversaw departments at ISU that included the ISU Alumni Association, ISU Foundation, Iowa State Center, University Relations and University Marketing.

Mitchell said Blackwelder is good at raising funds for both academics and intercollegiate athletics.

In 1995, Iowa State began a five-year, $300 million campaign. When the campaign finished in June 2000 it had raised $458 million.

Blackwelder said the key to raising that much money was to start with leader gifts — gifts of $15 million to $100 million.

He said the same would need to be done if Purdue partakes in the campaign, as he would like to see it do in about a year.

"I want to do a billion-dollar capitol campaign," said Blackwelder.

For the campaign, each department within the University would develop a needs lists, which is expected to be completed by Dec. 30 of this year. The Office of Development would then determine the feasibility of those lists, whether or not the University could raise the money for the requests.

At Purdue, Blackwelder will oversee the University advancement area, which includes the Office of University Advancement, Office of University Relations and the University's radio station.

He said he also plans to develop a marketing/communications plan within a year.

One thing he said he would like to develop is a uniform way for Purdue to identify itself. He wants to develop a style manual of logos that the University would use to present itself.

He said the manual would receive input from test markets and everything in it would be decided by the faculty and the staff.

He's also working on raising a goal amount of $200 million by June 30 in addition to raising $4 million for the Advancement Planning building, which would hold the offices of the Office of Advancement Planning and the Purdue Alumni Association.

And he hopes to do this all while planning for the billion-dollar campaign.

The campaign is one of the reasons he came to Purdue along with the chance to work with Purdue president Martin Jischke, who he worked with at Iowa State.

"(Jischke's) just an excellent person when it comes to leadership," said Blackwelder.

He was also attracted to Purdue because it is located in the Midwest, just as Iowa State is.

"(There are) so many similarities it makes me feel right at home," he said.

He said people in the Midwest have strong values and believe in giving back to their universities.

Blackwelder has spent his whole life in the Midwest growing up in Augusta, Kan., and going to college at Baker University, a small liberal arts college.

He initially wanted to study density, but after 12 hours of organic chemistry he said, "I decided it wasn't for me."

Blackwelder then went into business and public administration and wanted to pursue hospital administration, but made the switch to fund raising.

His first position was as director of alumni affairs and parent activities at Baker University. He's also held positions at Rockhurst College and Wichita State University.

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CAMPUS DESK PHONE:
(765) 743-1111 ext. 253

Campus editor: Laura Pelner

Assistant campus editors: Kurt Esposito, Dave Stephens

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