Fundraising Priorities
2010 – 2011 Fundraising Priorities – Asper School of Business
The Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba is a GREAT school for so many reasons. Faculty and students have earned many unique and extraordinary awards and privileges. For example, for the second year in a row in August, we were one of three business schools in North America (and the only Canadian one) to have ever had the opportunity to ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ in New York City. In December 2009, the Asper School's department of Actuarial Science was named a "Centre of Excellence" by the SOA. At the Capstone International Fall 2009 Challenge, Asper MBA students placed second out of 522 teams (India was first). Last year was a GREAT year for Asper faculty and graduate student research. Some of the highlights include 53 papers published or in press, and more than 65 papers presented at national and international conferences. Further, two Asper faculty members, Dr. Kelley Main (Marketing), and Dr. Sam Cox (Warren Centre for Actuarial Science), achieved the highest of honours by having papers voted "best paper of the year" by top journals in their respective areas. Collectively, Asper faculty won eight major research grants totaling close to half a million dollars.
The Asper School of Business represents a GREAT business investment. A donation to the Asper School has a profound domino effect that enables The School financially to:
• attract the very best researchers and professors• do cutting edge research
• publish in top scholarly journals
• draw in much needed research grant funding
• attract and retain the brightest and best students, undergraduate and graduate
• bring innovation forward
• build Asper School's competitiveness and brand among peer business schools
• provide the most enhanced learning environments (intellectually, technically, and bricks and mortar)
• provide attraction and retention scholarships
• new forays into e-learning and executive education
There are many ways to give back to The School, be it small annual gifts to existing scholarships and funds, major gifts over time or in a single installment, stock transfers, the naming of a room or funding project in your own name or that of your children, or a bequest in your will, to mention a few.
Chair in Entrepreneurship $2.5M
A Chair in Entrepreneurship will have a compounding impact on Asper students, faculty, and the School overall. It is important because it will enhance our ability to attract and retain the very best faculty and entrepreneurship researchers to our Centre for Entrepreneurship. This in turn will elevate and enhance our academic leadership in entrepreneurship.
The Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship is a recognized centre of excellence. For example, we currently hold the world record of 46th first place finishes since 1995, in business planning competitions competing against US schools of note such as Harvard and U of Texas at Austin. Because of the School's respected business plan competition, the Stu Clark Venture Challenge, the Asper School of Business became the third university in North America to ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ OMX, the world-renown IPO launch pad, in New York City on August 18th 2009. We have earned this privilege again for 2010. Rare, memorable learning experiences like ringing the NASDAQ OMQ closing bell enrich the student learning experience and enhance our ability to recruit the very best students (and potential entrepreneurs) to the School. Further it raises the Asper School and U of Manitoba brands and reputation in the education community, in the business community, and it is a source of pride for our alumni
Financial Data Centre & Associated Scholarships in Finance $1.5M
Our vision for this project is to provide a rich, innovative student learning experience by having students use real-time financial data from industry-standard sources to analyze financial situations presented within their finance, accounting, and entrepreneurship classes. Within this environment student teams would access data, under the supervision of faculty, to complete course projects that focus on optimal investment portfolios, business valuations (for IPOs and M&A transactions), and venture-capital financing.
The Financial Data Centre will directly enrich the learning experience for all business students – undergraduate and graduate alike. The Centre will enable professors to enrich practical curriculum content and illuminate the theoretical. PHD students will benefit by having access to data for both their research projects and for teaching undergraduate students. Several of our current undergraduate and MBA courses, spanning investment banking, small business finance, portfolio management, financial markets and institutions, and entrepreneurship, will be enhanced by the practical experience hundreds of students will receive by working in The Centre and accessing the same type of data used by industry professionals.
Scholarships in Finance: These scholarships will help us attract and recruit the very best students and prepare them with a real world learning experience so they may successfully launch new businesses or take existing businesses to new levels of profitable success.
International business exchanges will further enhance student knowledge and understanding of multinational business, culture, and diversity, a critical understanding for today’s business environment.
Practice Management programming across professional faculties such as Law, will also benefit from access to the Financial Data Centre.
MBA Program $2M
The MBA world is global and highly competitive. Our goal for this program is to increase our competitiveness with our competitor business schools so we can recruit and attract leading students and faculty. We plan to improve the MBA student experience and MBA degree value by increasing program offerings (increased program streams and delivery platforms i.e. online courses, alternative delivery times a.m./p.m.), program accessibility (scholarships and bursaries) and outreach (international recruitment). We will enrich the MBA experience through participation in national and international competitions, study trips and exchanges. Enhancement of our career services (career management and placement), and MBA classroom and technology upgrades will complete the plan.
Definition of the needs of the Asper MBA program, and how those needs specifically translate into fundraising initiatives is still in discussion at this time.
Downtown Campus $1M
Our vision for Asper Executive Education Programs is to meet Manitoba’s needs for life-long business, professional, and leadership education. Executive Programs will be delivered in a new state-of-the-art facility at 177 Lombard in downtown Winnipeg by leading academic and professional instructors in a setting in which participants will also learn from the experiences of their peers.
Our main objectives are to meet the needs of Manitoba, to enhance the reputation of the School and University, and over the longer term to provide important financial resources to the School. Executive education will serve an important need in Manitoba servicing lifelong learning in community businesses, the Crowns, the professions, and government. Executive education delivered by the Asper School will advance the needs of Manitoba by providing cost-effective meaningful business learning opportunities in a Manitoba context and network. Second, executive education will enhance the reputation of the Asper School and the University of Manitoba, both within and outside the Province. Virtually all other leading business schools have a significant focus on executive education – that is, it is now a hallmark of leading business schools. Our limited involvement in executive education has led to most major Manitoba employers sending senior managers and executives to programs outside the province, or having programs delivered in Manitoba by business schools from outside the province (e.g., Queen’s, Schulich). Finally, over the longer period, it will provide a source of funding to the School.
The funding for the infrastructure development is complete. We now must focus on raising money to install state-of-the-art technology to enable our program delivery.
Actuarial Scholarships $500K
The department of Actuarial Sciences at the Asper School has a long and storied history. Many of our graduates have gone on to lead Canada’s and the world’s leading insurance and risk management firms. In 2009, the Warren Centre for Actuarial Studies and Research was recognized by the Society of Actuaries as a Centre of Excellence (CAE). This international honour places the Asper program in elite and international company. Only 12 universities in North America have earned this recognition. In order to maintain our level of excellence we must continue to attract the very best students. Competitor business schools offer generous attraction scholarships. We must raise funds to do the same. Scholarship support nurtures student academic excellence.
