$1 billion goal in reach
Published Feb. 8, 2008
As MU’s eight-year fundraising campaign, For All We Call Mizzou, enters its last year, and university officials said they are confident MU will succeed in reaching the $1 billion mark.
So far, MU schools, colleges and departments have raised $898.93 million, and University Development spokeswoman Beth Hammock said if the expected donations come in, then MU should reach its goal by Dec. 31.
“We expect to reach our goal,” Hammock said in an e-mail. “Gifts to the For All We Call Mizzou campaign have come in at a steady pace throughout the past seven years, and we expect the pace to continue through the end of the campaign and beyond.”
Individual schools and colleges at MU have also played a large role in raising money.
The School of Nursing has been extremely successful in raising money, said Tracy Feller, development director for the Sinclair School of Nursing.
The school planned to raise a total of $3 million, but ended up meeting the goal two years earlier than the school expected. The school then set a new goal of $5 million and raised that money 17 months before the end of the campaign. As of Jan. 31, the School of Nursing has raised almost $6 million.
“We have exceeded our goal, and we’re very proud of that,” Feller said. “We have very little support a few years ago. I wouldn’t say that it’s been easy, but we’ve been really, really pleased with the response from our alumni and people that believe in nursing.”
Feller said she owes the success of the school to a “grassroots movement” where alumni, faculty and students got involved.
In fact, the School of Nursing is one of only two schools on the MU campus in which over 50 percent of staff participate in the campaign. Feller said they had secretaries, janitors, faculty and staff members making payroll deductions from their salary to help contribute to the fundraising.
“They’re not just going out asking for funds or alumni support,” Feller said. “They’re putting their money where their mouth is.”
Feller said nurses have the power to affect change.
“Nurses are doers, and nurses united in a collective purpose can affect great change,” she said. “If you give them something they can contribute to, they can attain their goals.”
The School of Health Professions has also been successful in its campaign. The school raised $7.5 million, which is 107 percent of their goal.
School of Health Professions spokeswoman Cheri Ghan said even though it was successful in its endeavor, fundraising is a tough job.
“Raising money is certainly something that can be a challenge,” she said. “With our school, we found that our supporters know of the good works that we do here at the school and they would like to see us continue to do them.”
Hammock said that the university expects to meet the Dec. 31 deadline, but if they don’t, they might extend the campaign by a month or two until they raise the $1 billion.
“We’ve been really fortunate, but we still have a long way to go,” Feller said.
