Binghamton Foundation

Since this week's readings are about Foundations, I figured I would provide some information on how I work with our Foundation here at the University. Although the Binghamton Foundation is a big part of the University, most do not realize it is actually a separate entity with separate funds. The Foundation funds are private funds and are not paid for with tax payer dollars. The funds they work with are based on donations to the Binghamton Fund and other contributions from SUNY Foundations, fundraisers, their endowment, and other support. Employees like myself and Professor Campbell who are New York State employees can still have access to Foundation Funds because their mission states that they raise funds to further the mission of Binghamton University. I know that often times, there are many events, travel, entertainment, etc that there is no budget for out of state funds. This is where the Foundation comes in to help pay for some of the expenses, and thus further the mission of the University. Further, due to the stringent guidelines that the Office of the State Comptroller usually imposes on my office, there are many items that we cannot pay for, even if there are available funds. There is not enough room on this blog post to go over the list of unallowable expenses, but once again this is where the Foundation comes in to save the day. Their guidelines are much less stringent and they usually can pick up the costs of many of the mischellaneous items that NYS will not pay for.

The Foundation operations reside under the Vice President for External Affairs, Marcia Craner. The departments on campus who work closely with Foundation are the Alumni and Parent Relations Office and the Office of Communications & Marketing. These departments' main goals are to connect factulty, staff, students and alumni to built long-term relationships in support of the University. Ultimately, these relationships help promote support to the Binghamton Fund, which in turn helps further the mission of the University.

This is pretty much a very high level overview of how I work with the Foundation. I think this week is a good opportunity to learn more about it here.