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For All We Call Mizzou Campaign Raises $123.9 Million in FY07

July 17, 2007

Story Contact:  Mary Banken, 573-882-6211, BankenM@missouri.edu

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Donors to the University of Missouri-Columbia's $1 billion capital campaign gave $123,943,437 in fiscal year 07, or more than $10 million per month, making this fiscal year the third most productive year since the For All We Call Mizzou campaign began in 2000. According to MU Vice Chancellor for Development David Housh, the campaign is on target to reach its $1 billion target by spring of 2009. The cost of raising a dollar in FY07 fell to 10.5 cents.

“I am very proud of the development staff members who reached this milestone on a tight budget,” Housh said. “They worked hard to personally contact alumni who previously had not given to the University, and as a result, MU's undergraduate alumni donor participation rate is at an all-time high.”

According to U.S. News and World Report magazine, the national average alumni donor participation rate for public universities is 11 percent, and for private institutions, it is 17.5 percent. This year, MU's alumni donation rate rose to 17 percent, placing MU among private institutions for the rate of alumni giving.

“We greatly appreciate the loyalty and dedication of our alumni who so generously give of their time and resources to support MU,” Chancellor Brady Deaton said. “Especially during this critical time when we are competing with the best universities in the nation, it is gratifying to see that our alumni are giving above the rate for other public institutions and more equivalent to the rate for private institutions. Our staff and alumni association have worked closely to make this possible. We are deeply indebted to our generous alumni who help us maintain the quality of our education as we move through very critical times of a tight budget environment.”

Donations to the campaign are used to support students, faculty, facilities and programs. Ninety-eight percent of the donations are project-specific in that donors specify how their donations will be used. To date, 76 endowed faculty positions and more than 650 scholarships have been created from donor gifts during the campaign.

Some highlights of this year's campaign are a record $2.8 million donated or pledged to MU libraries, including Ellis Library and the eight branches, and a record of more than $52 million — the highest annual total in MU's history — in gifts and grants from corporations, associations and foundations, including these awards:

  • A $1 million grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to launch a College Access Corps program for Missouri high school and community college students;
  • $700,000 grant from the Wallace Coulter Foundation to support the building of prototype devices to aid in the detection and treatment of cancer and autism;
  • $1.3 million from the Missouri Foundation for Health to encourage improved self-management of diabetes through a collaboration effort of the University's extension program, physicians, community partners and patients;
  • And a $1 million award from Pfizer and Pfizer Animal Health to the College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.