Miami University's donors have some control over the money they donate but federal regulations limit that control.
One of Miami's well-known donors, Mike Armstrong, who provided the funds for Armstrong Interactive Media Studies (AIMS), as well as the Armstrong Student Center, continues to be involved with AIMS as an advisor, whereas Harry T. Wilks, who provided the funds for the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute, only maintains a general interest in the Institute's functions according to AIMS co-director Glenn Platt and Wilks Leadership Institute director Eric Buller.
Armstrong provides a guidance role for the AIMS program as a member of the AIMS advisory board. Armstrong is also one of Miami's non-voting national trustees.
"My role is vision, donor and volunteer," Armstrong said. "I have donated funds to enable the Miami academic experience to best competitively prepare our graduates for societal and career success."
Platt said Armstrong is not involved in everyday administrative decisions such as class offerings and hiring, but does provide his opinion on strategic direction.
It is not typical for donors to be as involved with the results of their gifts as Armstrong, Assistant Executive Director of the Miami University Foundation Mackenzie Becker Rice said.
"It's not a bad thing that Mike is as hands on as he is," Rice said. "We think it's great, but it's not typical."
Wilks's involvement with his gift, which created the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute, is a result of his involvement as a member of the Board of Trustees.
"Harry is a little bit different." Rice said. "He is already going to be more hands on by nature of the fact that he is a board member."
Wilks is not actively involved with the Wilks Leadership Institute outside of his involvement with the Board of Trustees, Buller said.
"We update him and let him know what's going on; occasionally he may ask us a question, but beyond that he's really not involved," Buller said. "He is a member of the board of trustees and so his involvement can potentially influence what we do plus others at the university."
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Buller said that unlike Armstrong's involvement with AIMS, Wilks does not play an advisory role at the Wilks Institute.
A donor's involvement with their gift should not to be mistaken for control over the project their gift funds, Rice said.
"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) won't let the donor have control," Rice said. "Miami is legally bound to follow the gift agreement and follow the restrictions that the donor has placed on it, and the donor also has to give up control and let Miami do that."
When Armstrong donated approximately $15 million to AIMS, he outlined how he wanted that money to be spent.
Donors outline where they want their money to be spent through a contract called a gift agreement, Jayne Whitehead, senior director of development and planned giving, said.
"We seek guidance in the form of gift agreements for endowed contributions so that we know how the donor wishes their funds to be used," Whitehead said.
It is more common for donors to be involved in the gift-agreement process as opposed to being involved with results of their gift, Rice said.
"They do ask for updates, they do want to be involved with the gift, but it is more typical for that to occur early on and not be as ‘hands on,'" Rice said.
Whitehead said University Advancement writes a draft of the gift agreement based on conversations with the donor and then rewrites the drafts until both Miami and the donor are satisfied.
The stipulations of the Wilks Institute gift agreement outlined the vision of the Wilks Leadership Institute, according to Buller.
The gift agreement discussed the creation of academic coursework on leadership, the development of a speaker series and the development of a campus-wide culture of leadership, Buller said.
The creation of the advisory board was a stipulation of the AIMS gift.
The AIMS fund primarily went to endowed chairs and professorships and to providing some of the operational expenses of AIMS, Platt said.
It would have been difficult to get AIMS started without Armstrong's gift, because AIMS is an inter-divisional program that exists across several departments, Platt said.
"It is this horizontal program in an institution that is primarily vertical," Platt said. "Making something work that's horizontal like that is a real challenge and I can say with complete confidence that without Mike's gift that would have never happened."
Platt said the university likely would have been resistant to the creation of the AIMS program.
Armstrong said AIMS needed to be inter-divisional in order to create successful graduates.
"I absolutely work to help interdisciplinary collaboration," Armstrong said at a later date. "I think it's important that the educational experience include an increasing amount of interdisciplinary curriculum and classroom."
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