External relations VP outlines fund-raising plan
Prof. Ni Ni Thein, AIT's vice president for external relations in charge of fund raising, presented ideas for a three-year $6 million campaign at a community forum on 20 July 2006.
Since 12 July, Prof. Ni Ni has been conducting a fund raising feasibility study with the help of Mr. Folke Hjalmers, former vice president of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and current senior adviser at Chalmers Industriteknik. Mr. Hjalmers has extensive fund-raising experience from especially Chalmers University and has been member of Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) European Board of Directors. In the work he has during along time been working close with Brakeley Ltd Fundraising & Management Consultants as consultants.
Prof. Ni Ni said that a fund-raising campaign involving all stakeholders would be no quick fix to the institute's financial situation but the long-term pay-off would ultimately be successful. A strategy that she and Mr. Hjalmers are preparing involves alumni relations, fund raising, marketing, public relations and communications, taking into account current and future students, alumni, faculty and staff, the board of trustees, decision makers and leaders inside and outside AIT.
She envisions creating a subsection of the External Relations and Communications Office as well as a volunteer steering committee devoted to the campaign. Those involved would be focusing on developing a case for support, maintaining a list of funding needs, identifying sources of support and preparing AIT as a whole to undertake such a campaign.
The ultimate decision, she noted, will be up to AIT President Said Irandoust, who will review Prof. Ni Ni and Mr. Hjalmers' full report when it is completed in the next weeks.
Prof. Ni Ni is based in Paris as the chief of the Sustainable Water Management Section, Division of Water Sciences, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. She devotes 20 percent of her time to her AIT role, donating her salary to a scholarship fund for students from her native Myanmar.