MANDEL CENTER FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

Jerome Davies

I came to the Kansas University Endowment Association in August of 2000 as the Assistant Vice President for Major Gifts and was subsequently named Vice President for Development in July of 2002.  Now in my eighth year, I have been serving as Senior Vice President for Development since being appointed to this role in February of 2005.

I am primarily involved in the management and administration of KU Endowment’s comprehensive fundraising program involving nearly 70 development staff in everything from annual, major, deferred, corporate and foundation giving programs.  Our development staff members support the fundraising initiatives of the key academic and other programmatic areas of the University of Kansas by concentrating a bulk of their energy and time on the major gift fundraising efforts critical to KU’s success as an academic institution.

I cannot imagine my professional life without the benefit of the knowledge I acquired through the curriculum, group projects, internships, and faculty mentoring of the Mandel Center.  Though I have clearly focused my professional pursuits since leaving the Center on development, I have applied numerous elements of my degree to the various situations I have found myself in during the past 13 and one-half years working in higher education.  The practical experience I gained with classmates collaborating on projects, visiting the Foundation Center Library, and interviewing key staff from a variety of Cleveland area nonprofits all gave me a wealth of information that I continue to apply to work that I engage in today.  In a very practical sense, the ability to represent myself as someone with the very unique MNO credentials that I acquired, and the experience I have gained since, continues to propel me forward professionally. 

The learning that occurred while studying, engaging, debating and collaborating with staff, faculty and my classmates still stands out as both the most enjoyable and important elements of my time at the Mandel Center.  I have shared with many over the years that while completing my undergraduate degree at Utah State University, I discovered myself, but that at the Mandel Center, I really found what I wanted to do with myself.

The relationships I developed with people in and around the Center were the difference between simply getting a degree and developing through my interactions with them, the interpersonal and analytical skills that proved critical to both my professional and personal growth.

My time at the Mandel Center, starting in August of 1992 and running through about February of 1994 was one of the most important and influential periods of my adult life.  That period provided me with the most significant, focused educational experiences I had participated in to that point in my life.  What I learned about and was exposed to at the Mandel Center I continue to drawn upon today in both my work and life.