WHAT’S UP DOCK?

WHAT’S UP, DOCK?

Meet Tim Dockery, Vice President of Advancement

Tim Dockery, a 2009 transplant to the Naples area, joins Ave Maria University as the new vice president of advancement. Advancement has always played an important role at Ave Maria, but the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has magnified the importance of philanthropy to help secure vital financial aid for our students.

Q: You and your wife have been residents in the Naples’ area since 2009. What led you to apply for this position?

A: My wife had been encouraging me to begin thinking about getting out of the world of fundraising consulting, and all the travel required, and find the right opportunity locally. My previous employer operated with a business model called embedded consulting, which required me to relocate temporarily to the client’s location and live in hotels for most of the past 16 years. I said, ‘Well, there’s really only one major non-profit in Collier County that aligns with my values.’ When I saw President Ice had been hired, I thought well I’ll bet they’re going to start looking for someone to fill the advancement position that had initially posted a year prior. When I met with President Ice, the Executive Team, and some members of the Board of Trustees, I was thrilled about this opportunity. It’s absolutely God’s providence I’m here.

Q: As a proud Princeton graduate, what about Ave Maria University’s mission is inspiring to you?

A: When you look at the roots of formal education, and particularly higher education, it was the Catholic Church that started the concept of universities in the West. There is a perception that to be faithful is to not believe in science, and I think it is just the opposite. Faith does not fear truth, but truth is not what secular society thinks it is. Truth is the freedom to explore the full human potential but to do it in a way that is understanding of the Natural Law and that God has given that order to the universe. I am fully on-board with Mr. Monaghan’s vision that Ave Maria will seed leaders throughout the Church who are people of deep faith, well-formed, well-educated, and well-equipped to be significant contributing members of parish communities and to help participate in the reawakening and revitalization of the faith. As Archbishop Vigneron wrote in his pastoral letter Unleash the Gospel, God wants His world back!

I'm always optimistic because if God is with us, who can be against us?

Q: You have run many successful fundraising campaigns throughout your career, what qualities would you say you now bring to Ave?

A: I think what I bring to Ave Maria is a proven track record in successful philanthropy, married with a deep understanding and commitment to the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

I have raised over half a billion dollars for my clients. During my time as director of development services for the Archdiocese of Chicago, my team oversaw one of the largest capital campaigns a Catholic archdiocese had ever conducted and simultaneously grew the annual fund for the archdiocese almost five-fold. I think my experience of raising significant money and leading successful fundraising teams was important to President Ice, but the questions he asked me during the interview process had every bit as much to do with whether I was someone who would authentically represent Ave Maria and whether I lived my Catholic faith. I think those were the qualities President Ice saw.

Longer-term, I hope we can secure a much larger number of endowed professorships, endowed scholarships, and just grow the base of donors supporting Ave Maria. In Pastores Dabo Vobis, Pope St. John Paul II refers to a vocation to the priesthood as a “…gift to the whole church” and says the whole Church must therefore nurture and support that call to consecrated life. Ave Maria is helping students discern and respond to God’s vocational call to them and I hope we can invite the whole Church to support that as well.

Q: How has your fundraising experience helped you navigate the COVID-19 crisis?

A: It’s an incredibly worn-out phrase, but these are unprecedented times. Nothing in my 32 years of experience has had as massive a global reach as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The good news is, many of Ave’s most significant contributors are somewhat insulated from day-to-day market movements. However, it’s going to be a challenging environment. Many of our current donors have to pause or reduce their giving as they deal with the changes in the economy. At the same time, what we thought was adequate to meet the financial aid needs of our students three months ago is not adequate now.

One of my first initiatives was to support President Ice’s crisis response fund to make available additional financial support for our students who have been impacted. We certainly hope that appeal is received by people who are able to respond.

I’m always optimistic because if God is with us, who can be against us? But, faithful optimism is not naiveté. We are praying God will help us find people who believe in our mission and have the ability to support us financially, and we’re working our tails off to try to make this happen.

Q: Any final message?

A: Ave Maria has enjoyed strong philanthropic support since its inception from a great group of people who believed in our mission and invested in it, even when they weren’t alumni or parents. We’re grateful for that, and we owe it to them to go find more people who will continue that legacy, and that’s what we’re going to do. —Madeleine O’Rourke ‘20

by: Madeleine O'Rourke, '20