Fundraising campaign approaches goal

By John Henry

Published March 14, 2008

The For All We Call Mizzou campaign, which started in 2000, is within $100 million of reaching its $1 billion financial goal.

The benchmark comes shortly after a survey from the Council for Aid to Education showed the number of alumni who gave donations to their alma maters fell 0.2 percent in the recent year. According to CAE’s Voluntary Support of Education survey, 2007 was the second straight year the amount of donations given by alumni fell countrywide.

But Associate Vice Chancellor for Development Linda L’Hote said MU has not seen that happen with its For All We Call Mizzou campaign.

“What seems to be happening across the country with massive campaigns, the number of donors seems to be decreasing a little bit every year, while the amount of gifts become larger,” L’Hote said. “That really has not been true at MU. We have kept up the number of donors and the increased dollar amounts.”

So far, the fundraising campaign has officially raised about $913 million. Alumni have given the most to the university, with more than a third of the money raised in the campaign coming from them.

Nonetheless, L’Hote said MU is conducting the campaign for more reasons besides raising money. She said donations help improve the way the university is ranked among other academic institutions, too.

“The reason that it is important is because one of the key ranking factors in the US News & World Report Best Colleges deals with your alumni donor participation rate,” L’Hote said. “So if we could just get more alumni to become donors, whether their amount was $1 or $10,000, it would improve the status of our rankings.”

To raise money in campaigns such as For All We Call Mizzou, MU relies on the help of a number of different organizations. The MU Tiger Calling Club, a group of student employees who call alumni and parents for pledge money, is one of these.

Tiger Calling Club supervisor Doug Tindall said donations help to fund things like visiting speakers. He noted that such services would not exist if it were not for the donations that MU receives from alumni and other groups.

“There are some other smaller amenities tuition fees either will not cover entirely or will not cover at all,” Tindall said.

University Development spokeswoman Beth Hammock said the fundraising campaign is slated to end in the spring of 2009. She said the university is already planning for a new campaign to take place after the current one is over.

“We are planning what happens after the campaign,” Hammock said. “That is something that our leaders are working on. We will continue raising money and, in about three years after our campaign ends, probably will begin a new campaign.”

She said the alumni of MU would likely continue to help contribute to the financial success of the university in the future as they are doing so currently.

“The University of Missouri has a lot of passionate alumni that care about ensuring that this university remains one of the great universities of the world and they are willing to invest in it,” Hammock said.