DUBOIS – The most significant fundraising effort in Penn State’s history, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students has generated $13.283 million in support for Penn State DuBois, surpassing the $12 million campus goal.
For all of Penn State, the total came in at $2.158 billion in private support. Penn State is one of only 12 public universities in the nation to have ever exceeded a $2 billion campaign goal, receiving support from 167,500 alumni, the most alumni donors to any campaign in the country.
More than 603,000 donors made more than 2.1 million gifts to the historic University-wide effort, including approximately $519 million pledged for undergraduate student scholarships, the top priority of the campaign. Of this total, Penn State DuBois raised more than $6.9 million for this critical need at the DuBois campus.
The campaign’s total donor figure is almost double the number who contributed to Penn State’s previous fundraising effort, A Grand Destiny, which lasted from 1996 to 2003 and raised nearly $1.4 billion. Penn State alumni have committed more than $879 million to For the Future. Penn State faculty and staff have also been important contributors to For the Future, surpassing their campaign goal and providing $61 million in support.
A celebration dinner marking the end of the campaign was held at the Lakeview Lodge at Treasure Lake on Aug. 22. Guests included donors and volunteers. Chancellor Melanie Hatch shared some details about the campaign with those in attendance.
“It raises a point of pride for us at Penn State DuBois to consider just how significant this campaign has been for our campus,” Hatch said. “In seven years, $13-Million was raised for Penn State DuBois alone. We surpassed our goal by more than one-million-dollars. To put things in perspective, the last large fundraising effort, the Grand Destiny campaign, brought in $4.5 million for our campus. So, while Penn State as a whole doubled the amount brought in during the last campaign, Penn State DuBois tripled it.”
Hatch credits the passion that alumni and donors have for the campus for making such support possible. Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Rodney P. Kirsch shares that sentiment.
“The success of For the Future clearly demonstrates that Penn State is stronger than ever and that Penn State values endure,” Kirsch said. “Giving back is a fundamental part of who Penn Staters are as a community. In fact, this spirit of caring, generosity and volunteerism defines the Penn State family. The campaign’s focus on how philanthropic support enhances every aspect of the student experience resonated deeply with our donors as they firmly stood by our students during an extraordinarily challenging time in our history. An institution that receives support from so many alumni, friends, organizations, faculty, and staff is a very special place, indeed.”
At DuBois, the support by donors demonstrated the same level of loyalty that all of Penn State enjoys, according to campaign chair Mark Freemer.
“To whom do we all owe the deepest gratitude? Our donors. Those who reached into their own personal funds and gave generously to Penn State DuBois students to help provide a world-class education and a bright future,” Freemer said.
“Donors have a variety of reasons for wanting to give; everyone has a story. But, it’s a desire to give back, and to help others that drives almost anyone to make the commitment of philanthropy. In the end, the satisfaction donors gain from helping to lift up others around them is the greatest thanks they can receive.
“We got here because of the stories our donors, alumni and friends tell, and the memories they have, that have made Penn State DuBois a special place for them and their families. It’s that loyalty to our campus that enabled us to far surpass other campuses that are of similar size, or even bigger, during this campaign.”
More than 91,000 new individual scholarships and awards were distributed to students across Penn State during the course of the campaign. Among the recipients of these scholarships are more than 16,000 individuals who are the first generation in their families to attend college.
Hatch took pride in explaining the impact the campaign had on scholarships at Penn State DuBois. She said, “The For the Future campaign was intended to generate scholarship dollars. An impressive 23 new scholarships have been created at our campus thanks to gifts brought in during this campaign. With these new resources, our total number of available scholarship funds is approaching 70; and we award more than $350-thousand in scholarship funds to around 300 students each year. This funding will help to make the dream of a higher education come true for many students who may otherwise not be able to afford it.”