New hire at VI to help put college on firmer financial footing

Virginia Intermont College’s newly hired chief fundraiser will play a crucial role in securing the school’s future, President E. Clorisa Phillips said Thursday.

As the vice president of institutional advancement, Mary Anne Holbrook will oversee fundraising, marketing, communications and alumni relations for the private, liberal arts school. She returns to the Moore Street campus after managing fundraising efforts for the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., and previously at Big Brothers-Big Sisters of East Tennessee.

The announcement of her hiring comes about a month after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges extended a warning sanction against VI, citing concerns over long-term financial stability and insufficient financial resources.

It marks the second time in five years the accrediting agency has imposed a sanction due to financial concerns and means VI will undergo further review this year before its reaccreditation can be approved. The school remains accredited.

Hiring Holbrook is the latest step in trying to stabilize operations, Phillips said.

“We are charged by SACS to do two things closely related: increase sources of unrestricted income and reduce external debt,” Phillips said.

“Those paths include improving fundraising, reducing expenses and growing the student population. All three are important, but of those three, the one that plays the largest role – and can play the quickest, largest role – is fundraising,” Phillips said. “While we want VI to be larger, you’re not going to be larger overnight. Raising money is the most direct way to impact the availability of unrestricted funds.”

The school has about $2 million in long-term debt that college officials are trying to reduce and then refinance, and unrestricted monies could be applied there.

Having someone like Holbrook in this leadership role is “critical to the equation,” Phillips said.

“When you mention Mary Anne’s name in the community, she is thought of as someone who builds good relationships and this is all about relationships,” Phillips said. “You can’t raise money from people you don’t have a relationship with.”

Holbrook returns to VI after serving as executive coordinator for former VI Presidents Stephen Greiner and Michael Puglisi from 2005 until 2007. Holbrook said that experience should pay dividends with her new efforts.

“Although I assisted in some development work – events and report-writing – this is very different from what I was doing then. All that institutional knowledge will help me hit the ground running, which is what we need,” Holbrook said.

“I think it’s obviously going to help me get a structure in place at Virginia Intermont that will take us to the next level in both the fundraising and marketing departments. When you enhance marketing, you’re going to enhance your ability to raise money. My experience lends itself to get those processes and people in place to take us there,” she added.

Holbrook also praised the work Phillips has done during the past 18 months to rejuvenate VI.

“If I didn’t believe Dr. Phillips would be successful, I wouldn’t be here,” Holbrook said.

Phillips said she waited to fill this position until changing VI’s financial infrastructure.

“Even though I desperately needed money right away, I felt morally obligated to have a better financial shop,” Phillips said. “I felt morally obligated to get the financial housekeeping so we could properly account for gifts and show donors the impact of their gifts, have that paper trail and have them feel comfortable. A college is a business. We have to show we can run it like a business. Now we’ve got to get the money infused. We’ve got the infrastructure in place. That’s all critical to SACS and all part of the answer.”

An Amelia County, Va., native, Holbrook has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Radford University. She lives in Bristol, Va., with her husband and daughter.

dmcgee@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2532