By Jonathan Morales

January 24, 2025

Michael Reza learned the hard way how philanthropy in higher education benefits students.

While an undergrad at Long Beach State, he commuted 45 minutes each way from his home in Orange County and worked to pay for his education. He didn’t have time – or resources – for a more “traditional” college experience.

“I'm still driven by the idea of wanting to have a different experience and now truly allowing for students to have the choices I didn’t, the opportunity to have that experience,” Reza said. “My only choice was to work and do the things to pay for and get through school. I always think about what my experience could have been like if I had the opportunity that I now know philanthropy creates for students.”

Reza is working to provide precisely that kind of support, and much more, to Sacramento State students as the University’s new vice president for Advancement. In this role, which he began in September, he oversees Sac State’s fundraising efforts and alumni relations.

Reza previously served as associate vice president for Portland Development and Alumni Engagement at the University of Oregon and as vice president for Advancement at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.

In addition to coming home to California – his wife is from the Bay Area – Reza says he was attracted to Sac State because of the University’s position in the state capital of the fifth-largest economy in the world as well as it’s potential for growth and the pride the community has in the institution.

“The opportunity we have to grow our philanthropic contributions, enhance our community impact, support a growing student body, and to truly transform the lives of such a diverse group of students is incredible,” he said. “The trajectory of this institution is off the charts.”

Sac State boasts nearly 300,000 alumni. One in every 17 adults in the Sacramento region is a Sac State graduate. Reza also joins Sac State as the institution has built and maintained substantial fundraising momentum, including donations of $19 million from philanthropist Ernest E. Tschannen for two state-of-the-art science facilities and a successful comprehensive campaign that raised nearly $240 million in support of Sac State students.

Now that he has been at Sac State for a full semester and spent time meeting with students, faculty, staff and community members, Reza says the University is well-positioned to build on that momentum. His role as Advancement head, he added, is to translate what he has learned into priorities and outreach that resonate with donors to help them understand how their donations can benefit students.

Through this storytelling, along with transparency and clear institutional priorities, Reza said, Sac State can build the trust and capacity to attract even larger investments.

Reza is also mindful of his position as a person of color in Advancement leadership, something he said he did not see as he began his career and rose through the ranks. He also understood that college students, as a population, were becoming more diverse, and that the advancement profession would have to adapt in order to respond.

"How do we build a pipeline of future philanthropists that, quite honestly, have similar experiences to me that are more diverse, that expect different things from our institutions and expect different things from the philanthropic relationship?” he said. “I positioned myself to be able to take advantage of that shift and pursue roles and positions that allowed me to lead."

In his current role, he can now work to provide the type of support for Sac State students that he didn’t have when he was in college, the type that provides them greater choice in what they want out of their higher education experience.

Fundraising success, Reza said, is not just measured in total dollars, but also in the impact it has on students. And sometimes that impact goes far beyond the number written on the scholarship check.

“A student who received a gift from a donor said to me, ‘That gift was important, it helped me, but what helped me more was knowing there was someone who believed in me.’ ”