Dr. Michael Lomax became president of Dillard University in New Orleans in 1997. He increased enrollment at the Jewel of Gentilly by about 50%. Fundraising tripled. Some reports say private giving increased 300% and alumni giving increased 2,000%. That was highly unusual for traditionally under-funded HBCUs, then and now.
While Lomax was at Dillard, the UNCF’s endowment was $60 million. When former U.S. Rep. Bill Gray was stepping down as UNCF president and CEO, people wondered who could succeed the affable, outgoing former U.S. House budget chair. Lomax was selected in 2004. Twenty-two years later, Lomax has led UNCF to $4 billion raised and an endowment of about $500 million.
The organization of private, four-year HBCUs started with 27 schools before Lomax was born. There are 36 member institutions today, as Lomax plans a June 2027 departure. During a recent Dillard University faculty semester kickoff, Lomax and others joked that Dillard was the first stop on his “legacy tour.”
There are 23 UNCF regional offices, including one headquartered in New Orleans, which opened 50 years ago. Its members are Dillard, Xavier University of Louisiana and Philander Smith University, in Little Rock.
Lomax lived in the president’s house on campus during his Dillard presidency, just off of Gentilly Boulevard, near Stern Hall and along the DU-famous Hall of Oaks. Several Lomax-era DU faculty and staff attended the program featuring three Dillard presidents, Lomax, Dr. Walter Kimbrough and President Monique Guillory.
Former Dillard University President Michael Lomax stands with Dillard President Monique Guillory and former Dillard President Walter Kimbrough with university faculty, staff and students after a campus program. Tuesday, August 4, 2026
“The amount of money that you’ve been able to raise in the name of our institutions has truly been transformative,” Guillory told Lomax as she looked his way on the Georges Auditorium “I’m not going to give away all of my secrets here, but I want to work with a small group of presidents who are really ambitious for their institutions and talk with them about how you develop a strategy to raise $100 million, $200 million.”stage. “And entering HBCUs, and putting us on the table, on the radar, in the conversation in a way that is going to be your legacy.”
Lomax is stepping down from the UNCF’s top job, but he’s going to stick around, at least for a year, during which he’ll introduce his yet-to-be-named successor to key donors, stakeholders and supporters and work on a $1 billion capital campaign he started.
As his next chapter continues, he plans to “do a lot of what I want to do, (which) is grounded in what I learned to do here at Dillard…..I learned some skills beginning here at Dillard that I think I’ve put to pretty good use.”
While at Dillard, he hired Therese Badon, a Hibernia banker. He brought her in as part of a program to build a new group of development officers. Today she’s a UNCF senior vice president responsible for a $100 million annual fundraising campaign for UNCF institutions.
From left are Gayle Benson, Michael L. Lomax, Mayor Helena Moreno and Therese Badon
Provided by UNCF
“Fundraising is an art and a skill. You have to learn certain kinds of things to do it,” Lomax lectured to the attentive group of student leaders, faculty and staff. “You’ve got to learn here are the stages of fundraising, here’s how to write proposals, here’s how you do all that. But, at the end of the day, it’s relationships. You have to learn how to build relationships.”
He said UNCF has raised $6 billion in the 82 years of the group’s history, including $4 billion in the 22 years he’s led the fund. There was a $100 million donation from the Lily Endowment Inc. and $80 million from McKenzie Scott.
“If you want to learn how to hit the big numbers, you’ve go to learn how to do this, and the key is relationships. It’s not can you ask somebody. It’s not what’s a great proposal. It’s have you built a relationship of trust and confidence for the individual with the money is going to trust you to do what they want with it.”
Lomax isn’t retiring. He’ll keep an office at UNCF headquarters and start some consulting. He won’t be responsible for helping 37 UNCF member institutions; that will be the new CEO’s job. But he will be helping a handful of HBCUs, likely three or four.
“I’m not going to give away all of my secrets here, but I want to work with a small group of presidents who are really ambitious for their institutions and talk with them about how you develop a strategy to raise $100 million, $200 million,” he said during his remarks.
Some lucky HBCUs are going to gain an advisor, a confidante, a ride-or-die friend and an expert fundraiser.
HBCU presidents, start your engines, develop your best pitch, get in line and pray you can develop this relationship.
