Oakland University’s Development Information Services department developed a data collection and reporting tool called “The One Stop Endowment Shop,” an innovative advancement services program. The program is designed to decrease the time necessary to obtain information on endowments and named gift funds, along with housing the data centrally in order for the entire university to take advantage of this data for business purposes. The application was developed based on lean principles that are important to making the university as efficient as possible. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awarded “The One Stop Endowment Shop” program with the 2007 Circle of Excellence bronze medal.

Rob Saunders, director of development information services, worked with Stewardship Manager Rainy Stephenson, to develop the program to create a user-friendly, non-technical, unified data collection and reporting tool for endowments and named gift funds for any area within the university that has a use for such information.

“In the past, different pieces of information on endowments and named funds have been scattered throughout different data collection systems in different divisions of the university, from electronic systems to hard copies tucked away in filing cabinets,” Saunders said. “This created constant nightmares when a report was needed for any endowment or named gift fund. The entire university has adopted lean principles and this program follows those, creating and maintaining a culture of being streamlined and efficient.”

“The One Stop Endowment Shop” application tracks information such as division, school or college to which the fund reports, purpose of the fund that can be used for the undergraduate catalog and scholarship Web site, selection criteria for the fund for spending purposes, and annual endowment report information, including the audited value of the endowment and its associated spending fund.

There are many people within the university that will benefit from the information, including employees in University Relations, Finance Department, Financial Aid, Communications and Marketing, development officers, donors and students.

In the near future the information from “The One Stop Endowment Shop” will be used to populate other Web sites that need the information, such as the undergraduate catalog, with summaries, purpose and criteria of available scholarships, as well the scholarship Web site with the names of past awardees and donor information, including quotes about why they established the fund.

This is the second year OU was recognized by CASE with a Circle of Excellence award. Last year, OU received the silver medal for “Unit Business Managers and Fund-raising Issues,” a training program for business managers.

The CASE Circle of Excellence Awards program is open to all CASE member institutions. In 2007, CASE received more than 3,100 entries in 40 categories from 701 higher education institutions, independent schools and nonprofits around the world. CASE awarded 319 bronze, silver and gold awards and 12 grand gold awards.