Michael Andreasen brings more than two decades of fundraising experience to the UO Development effort

Like many successful leaders, Vice President for Development Michael Andreasen learned some of his most important lessons from an early setback. His fundraising career got off to a rocky start—then took flight—his freshman year at the University of California at Irvine, where he worked as a student caller with their annual giving program.

"It turned out I was struggling on the phone," remembers Andreasen. "By spring break, they sat me down, handed me the help wanted ads, and suggested I look for a new line of work." But they were short on callers, so Andreasen agreed to stay on for two more weeks. With the pressure off, he relaxed and started having natural conversations with donors. That's when everything changed.

"I had fun and listened," he recalls. "It was true engagement, not just reading a canned script." Andreasen was so successful, they kept him on staff. By his sophomore year, he held the top student position, managing and training other callers. The rest, as they say, is history.

Two days after graduating, Andreasen started as director of Irvine's annual giving program, where he won a national award for a foreign language calling program. After Irvine, he went on to spend more than a decade in development at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Then he moved to the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor just as it was launching its $250 million fundraising effort—one piece of the university's $2.5 billion "Michigan Difference" campaign. The goal was later increased to $350 million, and Andreasen reached it seven months early.

This July, Andreasen started as the UO's new vice president for development and began laying the groundwork for another record-breaking campaign. He is joined by his wife, Marie Andreasen (they met during his senior year at Irvine when they were both student callers), ten-year-old son, Caleb, and four-year-old daughter, Jordan.

"It's an extraordinary time for the University of Oregon," says Andreasen. "The university continues to achieve new heights in giving in spite of real challenges in the economy, and we aspire to set the national gold standard for fundraising and support for higher education. After finishing a big campaign in 2008, the university has continued to raise money at unprecedented levels. Now we're gearing up for our next campaign at a time when the university is leading the national conversation on a new type of partnership for public education with the state."

This upcoming campaign will be innovative, says Andreasen, but the basics of development—lessons he's learned from twenty years of success—still apply.

"The best approach to fundraising is to inspire people," he says. "When I think about how to engage potential donors, I simply share with them the very real opportunities we have for them to make extraordinary things happen on campus."

—Ed Dorsch