June 19, 2012
To the Campus Community,
As you all know, the campus has continued to face unparalleled budget cuts over the past decade. In order to address these we have continued to make sacrifices, reduced programs and cut budgets. The budget cuts to the campus this past year have forced us to take additional steps in order to avoid cutting core academic programs even further. At the recommendation of the Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy, and to avoid making further cuts to core academic programs, we are increasing the gift assessment as a means of displacing campus core funds with gift-related revenue.
The purpose of this assessment increase will be to accelerate our progress to ultimately eliminating the use of core funding (largely state funds) and unrestricted gifts in covering the costs of fundraising activities. This will allow the reallocation of such funds to other core programs of the campus. Once all core funding for fundraising activities has been eliminated, any additional fee revenue will be used to enhance and expand the fundraising efforts of the campus.
Beginning July 1, 2012 the administrative fee assessed upon receipt of new gifts and pledge payments (on pledges made subsequent to July 1, 2012) to the UC Santa Barbara Foundation and The Regents of the University of California for the benefit of the Santa Barbara campus will be increased from the current 2% to 6%. For gifts in excess of $3 million, the total assessment will be capped at $180,000.
To assure full compliance with the intent of this policy, budgetary allocation of these fees shall be made by the Office of Budget and Planning as a component of the campus' annual budgeting process and will be used to reduce core funding for fundraising activities; including support for the Office of Development and other units within the division of Institutional Advancement. I would note that this fee rate may be adjusted in future years as a part of the campus' annual budget process.
Clearly, while all other UC campuses have gift assessments of a similar magnitude, this was not a decision made without extensive campus consultation over the past year. However, as the Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy concluded, it is a necessary component to balancing our campus budget. I encourage you to visit http://www.policy.ucsb.edu/policies/policy-docs/gift-admin-fee.pdf
Gene Lucas
Executive Vice Chancellor