The Face Behind the Fundraiser

By Madeline Marriott ’24 

A successful day at work for Fred Brown ’89 includes two things: building relationships and solving problems. 

Before beginning over two decades of work in higher education, these were his favorite parts of his job as a civil engineer when he worked with municipalities in central Pennsylvania to align their systems with the regulations of the Clean Water Act. 

“What I really liked about engineering was the design part, where you actually crunch the numbers and solve problems, because there’s no cookie-cutter way of doing things,” Brown says. “The other part I loved was working with the clients directly. When you go into a community and see how important the dam is for them, it made the work all the more rewarding.” 

After a few years there, Brown realized he wanted to transition to a role with more of that direct interaction. He had stayed involved at Lafayette, volunteering with the admissions team to organize speakers and alumni engagement, so when a job opened up in the Alumni Affairs Office, he made the jump. 

“I think people all thought I was crazy and that I would leave after a year or two, but I told them all the same thing: I wanted interaction with people in my job, and I wasn’t going to get more of it where I was,” he says. 

Brown spent the next seven years working in Alumni Engagement, where he led the alumni chapters program during a time of immense development for the College. He worked on the campaign that led to projects still recognizable on campus today, including the conversion of Oeschle Hall from a gym into the home of the psychology department, the expansion of Kirby Field House, and other capital improvements.

Brown was also instrumental in mobilizing alumni volunteers during the evolution of Gateway Career Center. 

“We ran a ton of events and engaged a lot of alumni, and that was really fun to do,” he says. “The way I saw it, I was able to work behind the scenes to help the College move forward.” 

He then took a position at Goucher College running its annual giving program. He overhauled the process, converting it to a more public-facing, volunteer-driven process, and learning how to maximize resources at a school with a smaller alumni network than the one at Lafayette. He also continued to learn exactly what kind of work he wanted to do in the higher education space. 

“I was there for three years, and the reason I ended up changing roles is because while annual giving is extremely important, I didn’t get the chance to build relationships with people,” he says. “We were on an annual cycle, so I was always moving on to the next person.” 

His next role in the Major Gifts Office at the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College as liaison to the Eisenhower Institute allowed him to do just that. He was tasked with securing gifts of over $100,000 in alignment with the institute’s goals. 

“Gettysburg was a place where I really got to lean into one-on-one, face-to-face fundraising,” he says. “I always tell people the best gifts I got for the college while I was there were for initiatives that weren’t necessarily on the top of the campaign priority list because I was engaging with donors about their passions and moving forward that way.” 

After a few years in an assistant dean role at Syracuse University, he returned to Pennsylvania as executive director of Development and Campaigns at Franklin & Marshall College. 

There, he was a part of the largest campaign in the college’s history, which surpassed $200 million in donations. He is currently navigating a presidential transition while looking forward to the start of a new campaign to expand the college’s science building. 

“I always felt that with my passion for education, this is the best way I can make an impact,” he says. “I’m always looking for schools trying to do innovative things with their programs, because I want to be able to make changes while I’m there.” 

He has also used his development skills to assist with fundraising efforts at the primary and secondary school levels—he has served on the boards of the Pennsylvania Education Foundations, National School Association Foundation, York Academy Foundation, and more. 

“It’s all worthwhile to be able to give back as much as I can, to utilize my knowledge to help these organizations get the funds they need,” he says. 

His time working in higher education has made him appreciate his Lafayette experience even more than he did at the time. 

“People who go to bigger universities often don’t have the same relationships with faculty members that were extremely important to me as an engineer and a student-athlete on the football team,” he says. “I met all different kinds of people, and I feel like I have a whole family from my time at Lafayette. As I say all this, it’s clear why building relationships is so important to me.”