Why Madison? - Tampa, fl

Tonight we are here in Tampa Florida. It’s a beautiful location, the Marriott overlooking the bay, a great place to draw together alumni here from central Florida so we’re very pleased to be here in the winter and drawing people out to come together in a beautiful location to talk about JMU. We heard tonight a very clear message that people want to give and are willing to give when they feel connected to a cause, to a particular need, not just a generic call for giving. The fact of the matter is that we have thousands of different funds with all the different schools, the different departments across campus, a lot of different, very specific needs that you can give to and support, but what we need to do is connect those with people who share that passion, who share that interest. There are so many different ways we can connect with people and that’s what we need to continue to explore. We heard tonight from people who said look if I knew there was a particular need in that corner of the university that I can relate to, that I care about, I would take out my checkbook or I’d give online that day if I heard about that specific need. We got to think about how we make those connections, not just to try to do everything in a cookie-cutter way, but to reach people where they are, where their passions are and educate people about the many needs and the different priorities that we have at the university. So that’s certainly a theme that we will continue to explore, with advancement, as we go forward.