Inside Iowa State
July 17, 1998
ISU Foundation repeats $100 million fund-raising year
by Dalene Abner, ISU Foundation
Spurred by a record-breaking number of donors giving $1 million or more, the ISU Foundation has exceeded $100 million in private gifts for the second year in a row.
In the 12-month period ending June 30, private support reached $103,533,618. That figure includes all gifts received, new pledges and deferred commitments. The previous high, reached last year, was $100,083,453.
"A second $100 million year in a row speaks to the commitment our alumni, friends, faculty and staff have to Iowa State University," said President Martin Jischke. "This extraordinary support has played a role in every major achievement of this university."
Two other fund-raising records fell during the year. Total receipts, the funds available for immediate use or investment, grew from $35.7 million the previous year to $59 million. Total donors reached 49,918, up from the 48,599 who contributed the previous year.
A key factor to the year's success was the record number of individuals, corporations, and foundations providing gifts of $1 million or more during the year. Gifts included:
"Our success a year ago was prompted by a $34 million gift to the College of Agriculture," said Tom Mitchell, president of the ISU Foundation. "Gifts like that happen very infrequently, so we didn't expect to repeat another $100 million year. During the third quarter of the fiscal year, we realized we were closing in our $85 million goal. We started to believe that with a very focused, targeted effort, we might reach $100 million again."
- A $9 million gift from Diane and Bob Greenlee of Boulder, Colo., to transform the journalism and communication program into the university's first named school -- the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
- A second $5 million gift from Lied Foundation Trust and its trustee, Christina Hixson, of Las Vegas, Nev. The gift for the Christina Hixson Opportunity Awards Program means fully funded four-year awards for the program's students.
- A gift of $2 million from Bobbi and Roy Reiman of Greendale, Wis. Building on projects initiated by their previous support, the gifts establish lectureship and scholarship programs in entrepreneurship, and a children's garden and endowment for the Reiman Gardens.
- More than $1 million from Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., to fund, among other projects, a chair of science and technology policy. The endowed chair will be part of the Global Center for Agricultural Development (GCARD), a proposed extension of CARD, considered one of the country's leading university-based public policy research institutes.
- A $1 million gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, combined with a $500,000 gift from the Wallace Genetic Foundation, establishing the Henry A. Wallace Chair in Sustainable Agriculture.
- A $1.2 million gift from the W.M. Keck Foundation, Los Angeles. The first-time gift to Iowa State is funding the Laboratory for the Fabrication of Microminiaturized Analytical Instrumentation. The new lab will allow researchers to transform analytical instruments into very small devices.
- More than $1.7 million from the Roy J. Carver Foundation, Muscatine. Carver Foundation gifts helped launch construction of Stanley and Helen Howe Hall, phase one of the Engineering Teaching and Research Complex. Subsequent gifts are helping launch the High-Speed Communications Circuit Laboratory, a College of Engineering experimental integrated circuit design and testing facility; and the Center for Biological Scanning Probe and Laser-Based Microscopy, a research and educational program. Other Carver Foundation gifts have benefited the library and provided undergraduate scholarships.
Another contributor to the record-setting year was a record- setting annual giving program, Mitchell said. Through telemarketing, the foundation reached 86,787 donors whose average gift increased by $5, to $150. Giving to the Greater University Fund for Excellence also reached a new high, increasing 9 percent to more than $1.1 million.
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