“I’ve had a great time, and I wish Penn was my alma mater,” says Virginia B. Clark, vice president for development and alumni relations, who at the end of July will take up a new position heading fundraising at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Her diploma may not have Penn on it, but the University is all over her résumé. Clark has spent 25 years around campus, working first in the old Publications Office, later at the Wharton School, and for the past eight years directing the University’s fundraising and alumni-relations activities.
During her years as Penn’s top fundraiser, more than $2 billion has been raised for the University—$900 million of which has gone to support the goals of the Agenda for Excellence, the University’s recently completed five-year strategic plan [“The Agenda for Excellence, 1995-2000,” September/October 2001].
“I feel like [the money] really did help change Penn, and make it a better place,” Clark says. She cites donations for professorships, buildings (such as the Perelman Quadrangle), and scholarships as gifts that “really helped make a difference.” From a long-term perspective, she adds, “I think Penn is a much better university for Philadelphia and for our country than it was 25 years ago.”
Involving the broad range of alumni—through expanded programs at major events like Homecoming and Alumni Weekend; new outreach efforts such as the “Penn on the Road” series, the alumni online community, and the recently launched e-mail newsletter Red and Blue Online; and increasing the circulation of the Gazette—has been a companion focus of Clark’s tenure. “I don’t think we should think about the alumni as a commodity we should pull off the shelf because it serves the purpose” of raising money, she says. “They are part of a dynamic community. The role they play is multiple.”
One role is to represent the University throughout their lives. “You’ve got 270,000 people out there who say Penn in what they do—in their jobs, how they react to their colleagues, what they do in their communities. And any institution that has lasted as long as Penn has must take care of its reputation,” Clark says. “So the alumni have that role and responsibility. And we have the role and responsibility to educate them, to keep them engaged, to keep them informed, and to remind them of who they are—they are our advocates.”
In an e-mail sent to development and alumni-relations staff announcing her decision in April, Clark cited the need for “change—acquiring new ideas, experiences, and challenges” for organizations or individuals “to stay ‘on top of their game.’” The opportunity to move to the Smithsonian, “one of the nation’s greatest institutions, was unexpected, but it represents a challenge I am ready to accept,” she added.
Noting that Penn had “benefited tremendously” from Clark’s leadership of development and alumni relations, President Judith Rodin CW’66 called her departure “a true loss to the University.” Medha Narvekar, assistant vice president for principal gifts, has been appointed interim vice president (but by all reports is not interested in the position permanently), while the University conducts a national search for a replacement—who will likely lead Penn’s next major fundraising campaign.
Clark believes that Penn has the right organizational model in combining development and alumni relations in the same department. “The alumni think of themselves as alumni of the University, and their philanthropic support should not be considered separate from their social or class activities,” she says.
The University administration “has been very supportive of the development and alumni-relations mission and purpose —and very open and welcoming to its alumni and donors into the life of Penn,” she adds. “That is something that some institutions struggle with, and I don’t think Penn has struggled with that at all, and I applaud them for recognizing that.”