WMU anticipates another record year for private gifts
June 1, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- Western Michigan University is on course to duplicate the one-year record total of $17.5 million in private gifts received the previous year.
According to a report presented to the WMU Board of Trustees at its May 30 meeting, $16,474,538 in gifts was received during the first 10 months of the 2000-01 fiscal year, which ends June 30. That is virtually identical to the amount raised during the same period the previous fiscal year.
With May and June gifts still to be reported, the university is within $1.1 million of surpassing the one-year record total. The $17.5 million record set in 1999-2000 exceeded the previous one-year record, set in 1995-96, by $5 million or 40 percent.
All gifts to Western Michigan University are received through the WMU Foundation or the Paper Technology Foundation, which supports the internationally known paper programs at WMU. For the first 10 months of the 2000-01 fiscal year, the WMU Foundation reported current and deferred cash gifts totaling $14,664,022 and non-cash gifts valued at $1,296,768, for a total of 15,960,790. The Paper Technology Foundation reported cash gifts of $395,224 and non-cash gifts valued at $118,504, for a total of $513,748.
All of the larger gifts reported at the May 31 meeting of the trustees were made anonymously. A gift of $360,000 was received to support the jazz studies program in the School of Music, which also received $25,000 from anonymous donors for the Russell Brown Honors Quintet Scholarship.
The special collections endowment for the University Libraries received slightly more than $1 million in the form of two gifts from an anonymous donor. Two gifts totaling $558,571 were given to support the Center for Integrated Design in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which also received an anonymous contribution of $450,000 for equipment.
Also given anonymously were gifts of $47,665 to support a study fellowship in the Medieval Institute, $31,053 for the New Issues Press in the Department of English, $50,000 for the Southwest Michigan Children's Trauma Association Center in the College of Health and Human Services and $30,000 for scholarships in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
In a related action at their May 30 meeting, the trustees approved minor changes to the WMU Foundation bylaws regarding titles of officers and committee structure.
Media contact: Thom Myers, 616 387-8400, thomas.myers@wmich.edu