University Park

Penn State surpasses $1.3 billion campaign goal for private support

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State has surpassed its goal of raising $1.3 billion in private support through its seven-year Grand Destiny capital campaign. As part of a two-day public celebration that highlighted the achievements of the campaign, University President Graham Spanier announced that the campaign had secured $1.36 billion in gifts and pledges.

"Our aim was to raise funds for student, faculty and program support in areas of highest priority," he said. "We succeeded in magnificent fashion, thanks to the marvelous generosity of our alumni and friends, and the hard work and dedication of our many campaign volunteers."

A Grand Destiny: The Penn State Campaign began on July 1, 1996, and will officially end on June 30 of this year. It involved all of the University's campuses statewide.

Penn State has received more private support since the start of the campaign than it did throughout the previous 141 years since its founding in 1855, a period in which it received a total of $923 million.

The campaign placed the highest priority on securing endowed gifts, that is, gifts that the University invests and that yield a permanent source of income for the purposes specified by donors. Commitments designated for endowment total about $516 million.

The campaign emphasized four areas that would benefit from endowed and other gifts: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and programs. The results in each of these areas are as follows:

-- Undergraduate student support: $317 million, which has helped to endow 962 new scholarships and award funds, increasing the total number of student-related endowments by 85 percent since 1996. More than 8,500 students now benefit from privately funded student aid.

-- Graduate student support: $60 million, creating 188 new scholarship, fellowship or assistantship funds, and 90 additional scholarship funds that can support either undergraduate or graduate students.

-- Faculty support: $173 million, boosting the number of endowed chairs, professorships, and faculty fellowships from 161 in 1996 to 290 today. Such endowments enable Penn State to recruit and retain world-class teachers and researchers.

-- Program support: $225 million, for activities as diverse as the University Libraries, the performing and fine arts, the World Campus and outreach learning, and centers and institutes across the University.

Beyond these four areas, donors also designated gifts for such initiatives as research projects, equipment and other in-kind gifts, and facilities.

In the facilities category alone, campaign support-sometimes combined with University and state funds-has made possible the construction or renovation of more than 35 structures on 12 Penn State campuses. Those facilities have added, or will add when completed, 2.6 million sq. ft. of space.

Spanier pointed to two significant and related overall campaign accomplishments in addition to dollars raised.

"First, the campaign has made philanthropy an integral part of the culture at Penn State," he noted. "Our alumni and friends, as well as our own faculty and students, are now keenly aware that private support gives Penn State the resources that are available nowhere else.

"Second, nearly 165,000 individuals and organizations made gifts to Penn State for the first time during the campaign, which broadens the base of philanthropic support the University can depend on in the future."

First-time donors accounted for about 53 percent of the grand total of 312,000 campaign donors.

According to Edward R. Hintz, who served as the campaign's first volunteer chairman (1996-2001) and who is currently chairman of Penn State's Board of Trustees, nearly 290,000 Penn State alumni and other individuals made gifts during the campaign. Gifts also came from about 22,000 corporations, foundations and other organizations.

"We are deeply grateful for this wonderful outpouring of support," Hintz said. "It reflects widespread confidence and enthusiasm for the work that Penn State is doing, as well as strong desire to help the University carry on its mission of teaching, research and outreach far into the future."

Hintz singled out the generosity of two groups for special praise. "Some 53 percent of all University faculty and staff members made campaign gifts totaling

$40 million," he noted. "In addition, members of the Board of Trustees made commitments totaling $85 million. This generosity was a powerful inspiration for alumni and for individuals and organizations outside the immediate Penn State community."

Hintz is a 1959 Penn State graduate and is chairman of the Wall Street investment firm of Hintz, Holman and Robillard.

James S. Broadhurst, who became campaign chair in 2001, also lauded the 600 volunteers who provided leadership for the fund-raising effort.

"These men and women worked on the front lines of the campaign and did a superb job in presenting the case for philanthropy's importance to Penn State's future," he said. "They led by example-their own generosity and their tireless dedication to our campaign played an extremely instrumental role in our success."

Broadhurst is a 1965 Penn State graduate and chairman and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Eat'n Park Hospitality Group.

Spanier noted that the University's fund-raising efforts would not cease with the end of the campaign. "The hard work of making the world and Penn State a better place is never over for those who care about the future," he said. "We will continue to vigorously seek private support so that the University can meet its obligations to the citizens of Pennsylvania and beyond in years to come."

The Grand Destiny campaign takes its name from a phrase used by George Atherton, Penn State's seventh president (1881-1906), who spoke of "the possibilities of a grand destiny" that alumni "must labor to achieve." Go to http://www.giveto.psu.edu/agranddestiny for more detailed information about campaign giving through April 26.

Last Updated March 19, 2009

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