Development Head Routh to Step Down

Posted on Sept. 7, 2022

David Routh ’82, vice chancellor for development and the chief architect behind the University’s record $4.25 billion — and counting — Campaign for Carolina, said he will retire at the end of this year when the fundraising effort is scheduled to end.

When the Campaign for Carolina was announced Oct. 6, 2017, it was the largest fundraising drive by a university in the state of North Carolina, the largest in the Southeast and the second largest among public institutions in the nation. But the University met the goal nearly a year ahead of schedule, making Carolina the eighth public university in the U.S. — and the only one in the South — to surpass $4 billion in a single capital campaign. The administration estimates fundraising will net more than $5 billion by Dec. 31, when the campaign comes to a close.

“Throughout his tenure here, David Routh has been an incredible leader and ambassador for Carolina,” Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said. “He set a new mark for higher education fundraising in North Carolina and in the South, and he did it a year ahead of time. Even when it wasn’t the easiest path, he continued to challenge all of us with audacious goals for the Carolina Community.”

The campaign was launched at Polk Place — inside a tent filled with students, faculty, staff, alumni, campaign leaders and volunteers — by then-UNC Board of Trustees Chairman Haywood Cochrane Jr. ’70, Routh and former Chancellor Carol Folt, now president of the University of Southern California.

Folt worked with Routh for five years and said his warmth, vision, passion for UNC and smarts are his biggest strengths. “David came to UNC determined to build the best team and support an historic capital campaign to advance UNC’s legacy of excellence and commitment to the public good,” Folt, who hired Routh, wrote in an email. “And he succeeded!”

Routh could always be counted on to provide steady counsel and strategic thinking while bringing a big-picture perspective and a deep, abiding love of North Carolina, the University and the people who make UNC strong, Folt added.

Campaign funds will allow for expansion of student aid programs; legacy campaign gifts, beginning with the historic $100 million gift to the Eshelman School of Pharmacy from Fred Eshelman ’72; and a gift of $5 million from former UNC System President Erskine Bowles ’67 to launch the $25 million Blue Sky Scholars program for middle-income students.

Shortly after the University announced it had surpassed its $4.25 billion goal, Routh spoke with the Review. He said he was hired in October 2013 with a mandate to get a campaign planned, structured and in the market as soon as his team could.

“That’s a complicated planning task when you have a university as big as this one and as decentralized as it is,” Routh said. “We started with conversations with deans about what they needed strategically in their schools. Outside the deans’ community, there were vice chancellors and student affairs, or any of the other vice chancellor units who needed to identify priorities.”

Conversations were held in focus groups with volunteers, alumni, donors, academic leadership, faculty and students to determine the authentic Carolina that the University wanted to promote to inspire people to give, Routh said.

Despite an announcement in early 2014 about an investigation of irregular classes at UNC, the campaign continued with its $4.25 billion goal. “That’s a very big number,” Routh said in January. “It’s almost too big to get your arms around. So what you need to do is break it down to how can a donor make a difference at Carolina for a student, faculty member, a program, an innovation [or] a disease area that they care about.”

Key to success was asking people what makes Carolina special to them, Routh said. “If we can keep people focused at Carolina about what they’re inspired by, a lot of times the giving takes care of itself,” he told the Review. “This campaign is not about $4.25 billion, or any number. It’s honestly about the impact the dollars have on the things that they’re giving to.”

In September, officials said more than 210,000 donors had contributed to the campaign, including more than 100,000 first-time donors. And while the campaign had received 94 gifts of $10 million or more, 83 percent of donors had contributed $1,000 or less.

Carolina Alumni members accounted for 85 percent of Carolina alumni gifts, and it contributed $2 million to establish the Lt. Col. Bernard W. Dibbert Carolina Covenant for Military Families Endowed Scholarship Fund. Former GAA Board Chair Vaughn Bryson ’60 and his wife, Nancy ’60, gave an additional $1 million to the fund.

“This campaign would not have been a success without David steering the ship,” Guskiewicz said. “He has been a faithful friend, teammate and confidant, and I am so grateful for him.”

— Laurie D. Willis ’86