Fundraising for the billion-dollar campaign is ahead of the $800 million year-end goal, with $812,112,094 raised for The Campaign for Syracuse University by the end of November.

‘The bottom line is we’re in very good shape, in very good position to be able to achieve the objective as it is set out before us,’ said Brian Sischo, vice president of institutional development.

The goal was to reach the $800 million mark by December, Sischo said, but the target was met and exceeded by the end of October at $801 million. Between October 2009 and October 2010, the campaign raised about $119 million, which was a 15 percent increase from the amount that had been raised in the previous 12 months, he said.

The increase ‘represented a resurgence’ for the campaign after the recession had taken its toll in the preceding 18 to 24 months, Sischo said.

Thomas Walsh, executive vice president of advancement and external affairs, said people’s willingness to give increased with the improvement in the economy.

‘Initially, when the downturn began, there was a loss of confidence, and I think we’re seeing some of that confidence starting to return,’ Walsh said.

The $20 million gift to the university by Howard and Louise Phanstiel and the $15 million gift to the College of Law by the Dineen siblings also helped SU reach the $800 million mark earlier than expected, Walsh said.

Reaching the $800 million mark in time was important because it would help the university ‘go into the last two years with a lot of energy and momentum,’ Walsh said. The goal is to reach $900 million by the end of 2011 and $1 billion by the end of 2012, he said.

The university tried to target donors capable of making larger gifts in the earlier years of its campaign to get a sense of whether or not the billion-dollar goal could be achieved in time, Walsh said. Now that more than 75 percent of the goal has been reached, SU is reaching out to a broader base of donors, he said.

With two years remaining, SU is trying to increase alumni participation, Walsh said. Alumni who have never made gifts to the university may be asked to step in and donate for the first time, he said. Alumni who have been making regular donations may be asked to consider a special gift dedicated toward a project or initiative they care about, he said. The special gift would be ‘a gift of a greater magnitude than the annual gift they have been making,’ he said.

SU will be launching a series of regional campaigns to target those areas where there is a high concentration of alumni, said Sischo, the vice president of institutional development.

The first of the regional campaigns launched in Boston in September, he said. As part of that regional campaign, SU alumnus and trustee Michael Thonis donated a $250,000 challenge gift, which calls for alumni in the Boston area to donate and meet the amount, Sischo said.

The next regional campaign will be launched in Los Angeles, followed by one in Washington, D.C., by late spring and another in New York by next fall, Sischo said.

‘This is an opportunity for us to reach out broadly to all alumni, family and institutions,’ Sischo said.

Alumni represent the biggest source of gifts at about 50 percent, which is on par with the goal of the campaign, Sischo said. Alumni donated more than $393 million to the campaign, according to the campaign’s website.

Other sources of gifts were from corporations, which donated more than $192 million to the campaign; faculty, staff, parents and friends, who donated more than $113 million; and foundations, which donated more than $112 million, according to the website.

Funds from the campaign are allocated to six different gift categories, according to the website: student access and support, faculty excellence, capital projects, programs and research, discretionary support and designation pending.

More than $141 million was donated toward student access and support, according to the website. Donors tend to emerge for support of scholarships and financial aid to make attending SU accessible and affordable, Sischo said.

About $54 million has been raised for faculty excellence, according to the website. Support for faculty excellence is important because it helps to create endowed chairs and professorships, which is critical in attracting and recruiting the best faculty and in helping retain current ones, Sischo said. Before the campaign started, there were less than 50 fully endowed chairs and professorships, but the current number stands at 80, he said.

About $74 million was donated toward discretionary or unrestricted support, according to the website. If a donor were to make a donation in this category, he or she might make a gift toward a specific college, Sischo said. The gift would then be deposited into the dean’s fund to support any priorities the dean may have, he said.

More than $128 million was donated to capital projects, which includes maintaining and updating buildings; more than $349 million was donated toward programs and research; and more than $64 million is in the designation pending category, according to the website.

SU is one of 32 universities with a billion-dollar-plus campaign, Sischo said.

‘If we look at the percentage of the campaign that has been achieved, when looking at the period of time during which the campaign has been underway, Syracuse has more than well held its own,’ he said.

With the progress SU has been making on the campaign, Walsh said he hopes the university will exceed the billion-dollar goal by 2012. But he said it is still too early to tell if the goal would be reached earlier than expected.

‘While we had tremendous success to this point,’ Walsh said, ‘we still need a lot of donors to come forward to close the gap between the $800 million and a billion.’

Shkim11@syr.edu

Published on December 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm