St. Mary’s University officials announced Friday the school reached the goal set forward by its largest-ever fundraising campaign two years ahead of schedule.
Launched in November 2017 with the goal of raising $130 million, the campaign raised $138 million from 10,811 donors, 35 of whom gave $1 million or more, university officials said. The money will put close to $52 million toward new scholarships and nearly $12 million to labs and classrooms.
St. Mary’s board of trustees have approved increasing the Defining Moment campaign’s goal to $150 million as the fundraising effort continues.
“What this campaign is doing is two things: securing a strong financial future for St. Mary’s and strengthening the academic programs,” President Thomas Mengler said. “We keep going. We are confident that we will raise more than $150 million, so we are just going to keep going and going. The campaign will end officially and not a minute before on Dec. 31, 2021.”
In the future, the campaign will focus on strengthening the university’s identity as a Catholic and Marianist institution, academic success, and developing faculty and educators.
The money already raised helped St. Mary’s create 14 new endowed academic positions.
The largest campaign prior to the Defining Moment campaign aimed to raise $22 million, Mengler said.
“Many of our goals we’ve reached and exceeded,” he added. “We will continue to raise money for scholarships, of course. We are still raising money to promote our academic programs. We are still rebuilding the facilities for our [School of Science, Engineering and Technology.]”
