Steve Smith and Capital Campaign Cabinet Help Raise over $1.4 Billion for “Campaign for MSU”

East Lansing, MI – In concluding its first capital campaign since 1988, Michigan State University announced donors had far surpassed the university’s goal of $1.2 billion by committing a total of $1.439 billion during the campaign.

The campaign, led by a 62-member cabinet including Co-Chairperson Steve Smith, was a concerted multi-year fund-raising initiative designed to raise private money for all units within MSU, and officially began in July 1999.

“The response to this campaign was extraordinary. Michigan State alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and retirees clearly showed their commitment to the mission and values of this great institution,” said President Lou Anna K. Simon. “Their enormous generosity will help secure the future for the next generation of Spartans and position MSU to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.”

Programs and initiatives throughout the university’s mission will benefit from the campaign, as will facilities and infrastructures. One major goal of the campaign was to increase MSU’s endowment from its level of $810 million at the beginning of the campaign to more than $1 billion by the end of the campaign.

“Increasing our endowment was a key focus of the campaign,” stated MSU Vice President for University Development Charles H. Webb. Endowment is a means of investing funds, spending only a portion of the interest earned and growing the principal, which in turn ensures that funding for faculty and student needs will continue in perpetuity. It provides for a level of quality that state funding alone can’t offer as well as insulating the university from inevitable economic cycles.

“At the start of the campaign,” noted Webb, “MSU’s net endowment portfolio was valued at $488 million, ranking at the bottom of the Big Ten in endowment size. Coupled with exceptional investment management by the Office of Investments & Financial Management, the generosity of donors has resulted in MSU’s net endowment reaching $1.631 billion.”

At the start of the campaign, MSU had a total of 1,209 planned gifts documented at a value of just over $190 million. By the close of the campaign, the university had a total of 1,650 planned gifts documented at a value of nearly $500 million in future support.

During the campaign over $140 million was raised to support – either fully or in part – construction and renovation of 18 MSU facilities. This includes, but is not limited to: Delia Koo International Academic Center, Lyman Briggs Student Laboratories, Marshall-Adams Hall renovation, Matilda R. Wilson Pegasus Critical Care Center, Secchia Center, James B. Henry Executive Development Center, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and Alfred Berkowitz Basketball Complex.

Other co-chairpersons of the campaign cabinet were Dolores Cook, MSU trustee; Patricia Geoghegan, partner in the New York City law firm of Cravath, Swaine and Moore; Lynn Myers, general manager of the Pontiac and GMC divisions of General Motors; Randall Pittman, MSU trustee and chair and chief executive officer of Chatham Capital Corp. and Forest Health Services Corp.; Glenn Schafer, president of Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co.; Gary Seevers, retired, limited partner for Goldman Sachs; and Kenneth Way, chairperson of the Lear Corp.

Honorary co-chairpersons were Pauline Adams, professor emerita of American thought and language and first lady emerita; Eli Broad, chairperson of SunAmerica Inc. and founder-chairperson of KB Home; James Cornelius, chairperson of the board of Guidant Corp.; John and Nancy DiBiaggio, MSU president emeritus and first lady emerita; Gordon Guyer, MSU president emeritus; Cecil and Clare Mackey, MSU president emeritus and first lady emerita; Russell Mawby, retired from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and MSU trustee emeritus; John McConnell, chairperson emeritus and founder of Worthington Industries; and Clifton and Dolores Wharton, MSU president emeritus and first lady emerita.

President Simon also worked with a campuswide advisory committee that included deans, administrators, faculty and others. The campaign involved the entire university, with individual colleges moving forward to achieve their own goals as part of the university-wide effort.

“The university-wide commitment to The Campaign for MSU, including the hard work and support from the academic leadership and staff of each of the university’s colleges and programs, has transformed and enriched MSU.”

For more information, please visit www.givingto.msu.edu.