Isabel Penne is the director of partnership and academic development for Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, a Catholic University with more than 30,000 students in Belgium. In this position, Isabel is responsible for coordinating the university's fundraising office, sustaining existing programs such as "named chairs" and starting new initiatives, especially with alumni. Previously, she served as the alumni coordinator for Alumni Lovanienses, the umbrella organization for 30 study-related alumni groups at the institution. Isabel is a past CASE Europe board trustee and a frequent presenter at CASE conferences. She can be reached at Isabel.penne@abh.kuleuven.ac.be.

Higher education institutions in European countries and other parts of the world have seen a reduction in funding from their governments. Is this also the case in Belgium? What is the climate of giving in Belgium?
Unlike governments in the U.K. and other European countries, Belgium hasn't made cuts in federal funding to its universities and colleges. This has actually made it more difficult to fundraise at my institution. Our economy minister says she is providing more money for basic research and equipment for Belgian universities, which makes people wonder why they should give. Also, people believe that higher education is the state's responsibility and not an individual's responsibility. A study showed that Americans tend to give more because they believe an education is an individual's responsibility.

Giving to education is not a common notion in Belgium. Some professors will leave money to the Red Cross or some other charity and never think to give money to the department where they worked for most of their career. I'm trying to educate people, telling alumni and others that if they want to do a good thing, they should donate to their institutions.

We were able to start a proactive fundraising office after the celebration of the institution's 575th year. We organized 150 events during two years and were able to rather easily get sponsors. After that, the school set up a philanthropic office. The success of fundraising depends very much on leadership. Our current rector (head of the institution) believes fundraising is an important part of a greater outreach to the external audience, and we have his full support.

What are some of the differences between fundraising in Belgium and the United States?
There are three main differences. While institutions in the United States and elsewhere focus on the top of the classic fundraising pyramid, where all the top donors are, we start at the bottom of the pyramid, targeting smaller gifts. We don't have $1 billion campaigns. We focus on asking larger groups for smaller amounts of money (the lowest donation is 30 euros or about US$39, the smallest amount which they can deduct from their taxes).

We also work more project-based: projects may be suggested by professors who want to advance a certain research topic or an idea might be raised by donors who want to provide money to professors working on a particular project that is of interest to them personally. I've had fairly well-to-do people who have had cancer or other illnesses set up a fund for a professor who is doing unique research in that particular area. I tell them that the real answer for cures is in the research labs in the universities.

Another difference between the United States and Belgium with respect to fundraising is that we look more at corporate giving and try to convince the boards of corporations to give money to the institution.

Our general manager understands that we need to go slowly into major giving. A telephone campaign would be an unthinkable thing to do in Belgium. It took the United States 50 years to be successful in fundraising and the U.K. 20 years, but Belgium will get there as well because educational research is important.

How has CASE influenced your professional career?
CASE has always been there for me, and as a CASE Europe trustee for five years, I have received great support from the other board members. CASE always gives me new inspiration and courage.

I've only missed two CASE Europe conferences out of 17, and I've always come back with new ideas. After one conference, I came back with the idea to set up an alumni portal. No one had ever heard of it here. But we set it up and had the first one in Belgium.

What I like about CASE members is even though there's competition for donors, everyone is very open about their work, sharing best practices. Our advancement shop is small-we have three people-but we're treated the same as other offices that have more than 100 advancement staff members.

Without CASE, I would never have kept faith in the job I'm trying to do at K.U. Leuven. My colleagues have always been my examples, my strongholders, my inspiration and some of them real friends.

This article is from the January 2007 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.