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The board of trustees at the University of Maine System met on Monday to discuss a proposed six-year fundraising campaign seeking to raise $150 million. The proposal, which was spearheaded by University of Maine President Robert Kennedy, was passed by the board, and the fundraising campaign will kick off this January.
From 1990 to 1996, the university embarked upon its last campaign, a similar fundraising effort, but with the notably smaller goal of only $50 million. This campaign seeks three times that amount in the largest fundraising effort ever conducted by the university. The new funds, once raised, would be spent in a number of areas, with preference being given to providing funds to the faculty and enhancing scholarships and fellowships for both graduate and undergraduate students at the university. Roughly $40 million will go to programs helping students, and $60 million to endowed chairs and professorships. Another $40 million is tagged to go toward improvements to university buildings, such as the Maine Center for the Arts, Fogler Library and Memorial Gym field house. Also included in that budget are proposals to renovate Coburn Hall and Holmes Hall, two of the oldest buildings on campus. The final $10 million is tagged for the deans of various colleges at UMaine, for use in special programs at their discretion.
The fundraising campaign itself will primarily rely on two groups affiliated with the university: the University of Maine Foundation and the University of Maine Alumni Association.
“The figure of $150 million is a little scary to some people, but I feel confident that the university will exceed that figure,” Amos Orcutt, president and CEO of the University of Maine Foundation, said.
Orcutt was involved in the previous fundraising campaign and noted that while the goal was only $50 million, “We raised $68 million.”
The University of Maine Foundation is a strictly charitable donation-based organization and raises all of its funds through private gifts from friends of the university.
The friends of the university, loosely defined, are those individuals who support the university system but are not alumni. Orcutt was quoted earlier as saying that the university had over 5,000 such donors, many of whom have given very generously in the past.
Orcutt said he was looking forward to the new campaign, saying it “will help not only the campus, but will assist the entire state as a result of the many economic benefits that are produced through university research and activities.” The University of Maine Foundation has a goal of raising $60 million or more of the total funds.
Donna Thornton, interim president and CEO of the University of Maine Alumni Association, is also involved in the fundraising process. She indicated that there were over 90,000 UMaine alumni worldwide, many of whom have donated large sums in the past. Thornton said UMAA will use the six years of the fundraising campaign to “design programs to increase the monetary contributions to the annual fund and reunion class gifts, and increase the number of donors to these programs.” The UMAA also administers a unique annual giving plan for alumni, which allows the donors to choose which programs their donations will go toward.
Thornton stressed that all of the areas that this fundraising campaign is seeking money for are important.
“Student scholarships, professorships and capital improvements to our facilities are all critical to our future success,” she said. “We want to do this fundraiser to raise awareness about the excellence that exists at UMaine in our students, faculty, staff and alumni and to raise the private dollars necessary to endow programs that will continue that excellence.”
The university has always depended in part upon private donations for funding, particularly in light of decreasing funds from the state.
“UMaine’s success is dependent upon private support to ensure the long-term financial health of the institution,” Thornton said.
The fundraising campaign will officially begin on Jan. 1 and will run until Dec. 31, 2012.
