The University Record, September 5, 2000

$230.6 million = best fundraising year

By Judy Malcolm
Office of Development

New students took their first steps across the Diag last week as the University welcomed them and the returning students. Many of the gifts received during the past year have immediate benefits to students in financial aid support and new initiatives in community service. Photo by Rebecca A. Doyle
The University has reported its most successful year ever for fundraising after receiving $230.6 million in gifts from alumni/ae, friends, corporations, foundations and other organizations in the 1999–2000 fiscal year ending June 30, 2000.

In making the announcement, President Lee C. Bollinger pointed out that the total raised is significantly higher than the $177 million raised last year and higher than a previous record year in 1998 of $179.5 million. The $230.6 million represents 106,702 donors, also a record number. Last year there were 102,988 contributors, the largest number up to that year. Alumni and friends provided nearly 70 percent of the gifts, while organizations provided more than 30 percent. This continues a trend of support increasingly coming from individuals, up from 41 percent in 1980 and 58 percent in 1990.

“This is a remarkable year, with new records set both in total dollars and in number of donors, demonstrating an increasingly broad base of support for the University and its programs,” said Vice President for Development Susan Feagin. “These gifts help fund important academic initiatives and help bolster the University’s financial stability overall.”

Major contributions in the 1999–2000 fiscal year include gifts for wide-ranging purposes:

  • Two gifts, totaling $10 million, encourage public service, for undergraduate and graduate students. One supports community service projects at the local, state and national level while the other supports public service internships for students and encourages students to enter public sector jobs after graduation. As the University seeks to foster such activities, these gifts provide a tremendous resource for our students.

    A gift of $5 million from William and Inger Ginsberg and members of the Ginsberg family for the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning supports and inspires students to work in public service activities during the school year.

    An anonymous $5 million gift for undergraduate internships in public service has been designated for students in LS&A; a debt reduction program for graduate students in the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies who go into public sector work after graduation; and the expansion of a debt management program at the Law School for students who study in public sector/public interest work.

    Other outstanding gift receipts include:

  • $8 million from Charles and Jean Walgreen Jr.; $5 million to be used to create the Walgreen Drama Center, housing the Arthur Miller Theatre and $3 million for support in four units: the Paul Boylan Collegiate Professorship in the School of Music; and student aid in the College of Pharmacy, LS&A and the School of Education.

  • $30 million in trust from the late Lincoln Knorr, designation pending.

    Also included in the 1999–2000 fiscal year total are payments on the following significant new pledges:

  • $30 million pledge from A. Alfred Taubman for the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning endowment fund.

  • $22 million pledge from Richard and Susan Rogel to fund undergraduate scholarships for promising out-of-state students.

  • $10 million pledge from Sam Zell and Ann Lurie to establish The Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Business School. The Institute will add not only to individual opportunity, but also to the economic growth within the state.

  • $9.3 million pledge from Ford Motor Co. Fund, the philanthropic arm of the company, to support major initiatives at Michigan that will have a significant impact on graduate fellowships for women in business and engineering, the College of Engineering’s minority student support system, the visual and performing arts, the School of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as U-M Dearborn’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.

  • An additional gift of $2.5 million from the Ford Motor Co. Fund to U-M Dearborn will support restoration of the roof of the Henry Ford Estate Fair Lane. Ford is the University’s top corporate donor.

    “These gifts help us realize important goals---everything from increasing aid for students, to providing exceptional spaces for learning,” Bollinger said, noting that the gifts help meet a tremendous range of purposes in the life of the University.

    “Lincoln Knorr’s gift represents a long-term investment in the University, a trust which will provide an infusion of funds in our future. It follows an important trend as donors increasingly use bequests to make sizeable gifts to the University that would not be possible during their lifetimes. In contrast, Chuck and Jean Walgreen, having set up a bequest, are using additional funds now to make an immediate difference in programs at the University.”