On a Wing and a Prayer

In March 2002, UGM invited about 500 potential major donors to participate in a conference call led by Pfiffner. One hundred chose to listen in, and what they heard was the straight-forward news that the mission needed $2 million for the retrofit project. But they didn’t get hit with an ask. The point of the call was to fill them in about what was going to be happening and to “invite questions and be as upfront as possible,” Carpenter says.