Creating cooperation

Tim Mooney

Internal candidate wants to create cooperative culture

Transform and unite — two things Tim Mooney thinks a campaign should do for a university.

Mooney, associate athletics director for External Operations at the University of Idaho, said now that the recent Inspiring Futures campaign has concluded, UI should show donors how their donations did just that.

Tim Mooney

Tim Mooney

“We really want to focus on engagement,” Mooney said. “Keeping those donors that have been engaged in the campaign, and showing and sharing the impact that the campaign had on transforming the institution.”

Mooney, a UI alumnus, was the second candidate in UI’s search for the next vice president for university advancement.

He spoke about his experience as a fundraiser and took questions from the audience at an open forum April 8. Mooney is one of four vying for the position.

“It’s the circle of life, I started here, and gone away for a few years, and I’m right back here and that’s a good thing,” Mooney said.

If selected for the position, Mooney said he wants to set a clear and common goal for the department based off of the priorities set by the president and college deans. Along with a clear goal, Mooney said trust, respect and good character are key to strong leadership.

“To inspire people, you have to let people know you care about them,” he said. “If they don’t feel like you care about them then they are not inspired to work.”

In preparation for the next campaign, Mooney said UI should update its database system to something more user friendly.

“Banner is not easy, and I don’t think it makes us as productive as we want to be,” Mooney said.

Mooney said he wants to create a more cooperative culture and analyze what different deans expect from different development officers. He said knowing the strengths and weakness of every development officer make a fundraising department more efficient. 

After the success of the successful Inspiring Futures campaign that raised $261 million, Mooney said UI should avoid donor fatigue by focusing on raising money through grants, corporations and foundations.

Mooney said the university can continue engaging donors in the years before a major campaign by including them in annual giving.

In the next major campaign, Mooney said UI should use its statewide presence to share the fundraising message.

Mooney said it’s important to give support to the extension offices and communicate the fundraising goals of colleges and the university as a whole. He said the visibility of the extension offices and the alumni chapters can promote UI’s fundraising message statewide.

“Not just fundraising, but enrollment, which is in turn a way of indirectly fundraising, to get all of the boats floating higher,” Mooney said.

Before his position in the athletics department, Mooney served for four years as the associate director of Development-Athletics at Washington State University. Prior to that, Mooney spent four years as WSU’s head baseball coach.

Mooney started his higher education career at the College of Idaho as an assistant professor. He would go on to be the head baseball coach for 14 years and ended his time there as a tenured professor.

Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ryantarinelli

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