Big Cal Lutheran Donation Switches Direction

Two years after becoming the founding investor in a new building for the School of Management at California Lutheran University, Steve Dorfman has changed his mind on how he wants his donation spent.

Due to COVID-19 and its financial impact, the university announced last month the $4.8 million pledged by Dorfman for the building would be redirected to help students and the school’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.“To use the words of startups and entrepreneurship, I did a philanthropic pivot,” Dorfman told the Business Journal.

He became the founding investor in the new school building on the condition that it be completed quickly, meaning in his lifetime, said Dorfman, who lives across the street from campus in University Village Thousand Oaks.“With COVID-19 causing financial stress on Cal Lu and on potential donors, the completion of that building receded into the indefinite future, which was not satisfactory to me,” he added.

In discussions with School of Management Dean Gerhard Apfelthaler and Cal Lutheran President Lori Varlotta, the three worked out a new deal for the money.

$1.2 million will go toward scholarships that cover 75 percent to 100 percent of the tuition for students in the management school majoring in business or entrepreneurship, while the remaining $3.6 million will be split between endowing a professor of practice in entrepreneurship; providing grants to startups with Cal Lutheran students or alumni; and supporting activities such as startup weekends and hackathons.

“We came up with a way for me to get more immediate results from my philanthropy,” Dorfman said.

Mike Panesis, director of Cal Lutheran’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which will be renamed the Steven Dorfman Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, will be the first professor of practice in the university’s history. It is a title, he said, that is conferred on an educator who has practical, real life experience and not an academic background.

With the scholarship money, Panesis said he believed Dorfman’s intent was to attract high-performing students who were likely to become entrepreneurs to Cal Lutheran so that it builds a reputation for the program.“It can be a challenge for universities,” Panesis said about attracting budding entrepreneurs. “It’s not where most twentysomethings are thinking about their first career move.”Moving money from one goal to another is fairly unusual, said David Steele-Figueredo, president of Woodbury University in Burbank. He was not involved in Cal Lutheran’s donation but has been involved in numerous fundraising campaigns during his academic career.

He said that there are typically two types of fundraising at the university level – capital programs for buildings and other infrastructure, and comprehensive programs that combine capital expenditures with other academic needs.

“In this case, moving money from a capital program to some other program would be rather unusual,” Steele-Figueredo said.

On the other hand, the pandemic has spawned many changes that in the past would have been considered unusual.Not a surpriseApfelthaler said it was not surprising that Dorfman decided to redirect his donation.After all, he was never interested in having his name on a building and more interested in taking the management school to the next stage, the dean said.“To make an exciting place that could inspire students and have plenty of opportunities for creative and collaborative meetings between students, faculty and businesses – that’s what he wanted to see,” Apfelthaler added. “He was more interested in the activity in the building than in the building itself.”Varlotta called Dorfman the prototype for 21st century donors.“Steve’s thoughtful decision reflects the kind of commitment and flexibility that universities are hoping their donors will exude,” Varlotta said in a statement. “It has been a pleasure to work with Steve during my first 100 days as president at Cal Lutheran to reconfigure a gift of this size in ways that meet donor expectations and benefit the School of Management and its students. Everyone is a winner here, and that feels really good.”As for the original intent of Dorfman’s gift, plans for the new building are moving forward.Apfelthaler said the design process was quite far along and the missing pieces were more fundraising and construction.“We are in the process of getting building permits and entitlements. That is close to being done or done already,” he said. “The project has not been canceled. It has just been put on an extended timeline because of the pandemic.”“I think the building will be built ultimately, but I don’t know when,” Dorfman added. “It requires us getting through this crisis.” Dorfman has always had an interest in higher education.After retiring as vice chairman from Hughes Electronics Corp., Dorfman became a visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received an honorary doctorate degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore.After moving to Thousand Oaks several years ago, he became involved with Cal Lutheran and the School of Management.