APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – A seven-year fundraising campaign is complete at Lawrence University.
Officials say donors raised $232.6 million dollars. They had set a goal of $220 million.
“Our goal was always to end in 2020. A bit of a tagline was that we were trying to raise $220 million by 2020, and that was always our target,” said Lawrence University President Mark Burstein. “Over 16,000 people participated in the campaign. A little over half of them were alumni, and the other half were friends as well as corporations and foundations…We had a gifts ranging from fifty cents from a current student, to multi-million dollar gifts.”
The private liberal arts college made the announcement virtually Thursday night.
The money is earmarked to help the university renew existing facilities, expand academics, enhance the student experience, and provide scholarships.
“Allowed us to expand the education we offer into areas like cognitive neuroscience, bolstered our innovation and entrepreneurship program, and created a new position in organizational psychology,” Burstein said. “Instead of focusing on building a new building or new space we decided to focus on renovating our existing buildings…Fully renovated 2 of our residence halls and touched many other parts of what students experience every day.”
Burstein says they raised over $91 million to support students and families in perpetuity, and that it has dropped the average debt at graduation by over $5,000 in a four-year period ($34,573 in 2016 to last year’s $29,118).
“The core of the campaign was to raise money for scholarships to support students and their families as they try to afford a Lawrence education,” Burstein told WTAQ News. “Thanks to additional money we could give as grant aid, students and families had to take out less loans to pay for Lawrence.”
The campaign drew another $31 million to support the college's day-to-day operations through the Lawrence Fund. Nearly $26 million was raised for campus renewal, including renovations to Kohler Hall, Lawrence Memorial Chapel, Warch Campus Center, Ormsby Hall, Mudd Library, Brokaw Hall, Banta Bowl, and Alexander Gymnasium, among others. Classrooms are being upgraded in Youngchild and Briggs halls. Landscaping was or will be replaced in multiple spaces across campus. And the Net-Zero Bjorklunden Initiative has been launched, which will eliminate the generation of greenhouse gases from the Door County campus.
Technological advances also played a major role in this past year, as it has supported education for students across the globe who may be studying from home. Lawrence University has students from over 35 different countries and more than 40 states.
The campaign also has delivered five new endowed professorships, strengthening academic disciplines across campus. The Esch Hurvis Center for Spiritual and Religious Life was created. An investment of $5 million has revamped and invigorated the Career Center, a major push following a 2018 Life After Lawrence study.
“Because of Be the Light, because of you, we are able to make Lawrence more accessible and more affordable for more students, ” said Ken Anselment, Lawrence’s Vice President of Enrollment and Communication. “The great thing is they get to focus more of their energy on their academics while they’re here. And they graduate from Lawrence with less debt.”
The University says this was the boldest fund-raising effort in the school’s history.
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