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Home > Featured Stories > Power of Partnerships > September 2008 > Achieved! NC State Shatters Fundraising Records

Achieved! NC State Shatters Fundraising Records with $1.37 Billion Campaign

Wolf at Murphy 
By David Hunt, News Services

Achieve! The Campaign for NC State wrapped up its seven-year fund-raising effort with a record-breaking achievement. With every donation tallied, Achieve! stands as the most successful capital campaign ever conducted by the university, and places NC State among an elite group of colleges and universities that have raised more than $1 billion.

More than 66,000 individual, private and corporate donors contributed to NC State during the campaign, giving a total of $1.37 billion. The donations already have begun to underwrite research and educational innovation on campus, as well as extension, engagement and economic development efforts across the state and around the world. Every college at NC State benefited from the comprehensive campaign as well as athletics, the libraries, the Alumni Association and ARTS NC State.

NC State launched the campaign's quiet phase in July 2001, followed by a well-publicized public phase in September 2005. The response from NC State supporters exceeded expectations from the start, enabling the university to reach its $1 billion fund-raising goal 19 months ahead of schedule.

NC State received some of the largest donations in its history during the campaign, including $20 million from the Randall B. Terry Jr. Charitable Foundation to support the College of Veterinary Medicine and $10 million from alumnus Edward P. Fitts to support the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

"It's not just the dollar amount raised or the square footage of space provided by the campaign that is so impressive," said Chancellor James Oblinger. "It is what these things bring to our campus that make them remarkable for NC State."

The campaign raised more than $400 million to meet the growing resource and facility needs that a leading research university demands. Among the new capital projects made possible by the campaign are:

  • The soon-to-be-completed Randall B. Terry Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center, which will more than double the clinical space available to treat the ever-growing number of companion animals in need of acute treatment.
  • The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, which targets research and resources to bolster the state's efforts to improve K-12 education.
  • The Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center, a 59,000-square-foot headquarters for the university's Alumni Association.
  • The Lonnie Poole Golf Course on Centennial Campus, a home for the Wolfpack golf teams and a much-needed facility and living laboratory to support NC State's No. 1 ranked turf-grass management program and the Professional Golf Management Program.

Students and faculty members received significant support thanks to the Achieve! campaign:

  • $205 million in scholarships and fellowships to ensure NC State remains accessible to a diverse population of deserving students
  • $73 million for the hiring, retention and support of faculty members of distinction who teach, create and discover.
  • New endowed professorships from individual donors as well as longtime partners Duke and Progress Energy and other corporations.
  • The Jimmy V - NC State Cancer Therapeutics Training Program, which encourages promising high school and undergraduate students to pursue careers in cancer research through early, hands-on training.
  • $500 million to fund research that will lead to new knowledge, a stronger economy and improved quality of life.

The campaign gave a major boost to NC State's athletics programs, raising more than $136 million for new and improved facilities, including the addition of the Wendell H. Murphy Football Center and the C. Richard Vaughn Towers at Carter-Finley Stadium, renovation of Doak Field at Dail Park and construction of the new J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.

The arts community benefits from a $16.5 million renovation of the Frank Thompson Building, now under way, which will make it the crown jewel of ARTS NC State, with state-of-the-art facilities for the university's theatre productions and Crafts Center.

Achieve! also raised more than $114 million to support outreach programs to serve people across the state. NC State reaches families and individuals in all 100 North Carolina counties through the NC Cooperative Extension Service and other extension efforts throughout the university, working to apply knowledge and research findings to solve real-world challenges.

Another $71 million in unrestricted support was raised, providing flexible funds that will enable NC State to seize promising opportunities and meet unexpected challenges.

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