“Onward” to $250 million

Story by: Trent Opstedahl and Alex Shaefbaur

University of South Dakota leaders are a quarter of the way through completing a seven-year, $250 million fundraising campaign, making it the largest philanthropic drive in the university’s history.

A comprehensive campaign impacting the entire USD campus, the “Onward South Dakota” campaign is expected to increase student scholarship funds, attract and retain a more diverse faculty, maintain student and program enrichment endowments and fuel capital revitalization projects, said USD Foundation President Steve Brown.

“This campaign is more far reaching to more constituencies than others (fundraising campaigns) may have been before,” Brown said. “…Our sights are set higher than ever before.”

Now in its silent phase, Brown noted “Onward” has raised nearly $75 million in gifts and pledges since its launch Jan. 1, 2012. Averaging about $1 million each week, Brown said the foundation is aiming to surpass the $134 million mark by Dakota Days 2014, when the campaign officially goes public.

The reasoning behind the $134 million goal goes back to the Foundation’s previous fundraising campaign, “Campaign South Dakota,” which raised nearly $134 million over its nine-year run. “Campaign South Dakota” is USD’s most successful campaign to date.

“We’re continuing to ramp up, and our public announcement  (in 2014) will really gauge where we are,” Brown said.

While the philanthropic agenda is outlined in four specific areas of need, each school is in the process of developing case statements to justify the ways in which their facilities would benefit from a portion of the campaign funds.

The College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law and the College of Fine Arts are among some of the university’s colleges to have submitted case statements to the Foundation for review.

Larry Schou, dean of the College of Fine Arts, has been active in developing the school’s case statement of about $25 million.

“We’ve never been involved with something like this before that I know of, so it’s very exciting, and I’m excited to have the college a part of it,” Schou said.  “We don’t have a large donor base in the college, so part of my work and the gift officer’s work and the Foundation’s work is to find more people out in the country that have interest in fine arts.”

Along with the creation of student scholarships and improvements to the fine arts department’s programs, the college is set to undergo a complete redesign. Nearly $17 million has been budgeted to expand and renovate the Warren M. Lee Center.

“This building (Lee Center of Fine Arts) is adding on for art, music and theatre to have some more space,” said Schou, adding that each of the school’s departments have grown significantly throughout the years, making an expansion “necessary.”

With a larger facility, Schou said the fine arts college would have the means to continue to expand its programs, as well as to look into new program opportunities.

“We’re hoping to add a new degree program to the college, and that’s going to need more space because we don’t have any targeted area for them to be in,” Schou said.

Schou declined to comment further on the possibility of a new fine arts degree addition to the college, saying the South Dakota Board of Regents has yet to approve the program. However, Schou said he has received strategic initiative funding from the Provost’s office to fund the degree.

“If the Board approves, which I’m hoping they do, we will be the only one to have this specific degree program in this whole area of the United States,” he said. “It’s going to network with the health sciences department, the medical school and Sanford Health.”

Like the College of Fine Arts, USD’s School of Law is planning to undergo many similar changes, internally and externally, with about $19 million outlined in its case statement.

Areas of renovation in the school include the law library, courtroom, public commons space and courtrooms, as outlined in the case statement.

According to USD Foundation plans, other major construction projects “Onward” will play a role in funding include the athletic arena project and the expansion of the National Music Museum and the Native American Academic Center.

“Our efforts in this campaign have taken us from coast to coast, meeting with individuals who can make very, very significant gifts,” Brown said.

“There are many more individuals with the capacity to make significant donations than ever before and they live coast to coast, whereas the previous campaign we would have visited many of our donors mainly in-state,” said Brown, adding that at least seven donors committing more than $10 million is necessary “to make the numbers work.”

With an alumni base of more than 60,000, Brown estimates less than one percent of this population have the means to make “very significant and transformational” six to seven figure gifts.

But this does not worry Brown, as he noted most higher education campaigns operate on a “95/5 rule,” meaning 95 percent of the dollars raised come from five percent of the donors in that campaign.

USD’s president, James Abbott, is one of the frontrunners usually responsible for securing these large commitments.

Abbott said when calling upon alumni, foundations, corporations, etc. to invest in “Onward,” he focuses on how USD, or other schools, impacted their life.

“If we’re calling on them, the experience they had here or elsewhere must have benefited them in some way,” he said. “I ask them to tell me their life stories.”

Since accepting the role as university president in 1997, Abbott has been involved in two major fundraising campaigns to benefit USD. Combining the funds raised from “Campaign South Dakota” with the projected goal totals of “Onward,” Abbott said he is proud to help raise nearly $400 million for his alma mater.

“I expect this to be my last major fundraising campaign as president,” Abbott said.

As a personal goal, Abbott said he would like to surpass the state’s record for largest and most successful fundraising campaign in higher education.

Currently held by South Dakota State University, “It Starts With State: A Campaign for South Dakota State University”  raised more than $255 million.

“I think $300 million has a nice ring to it, don’t you?” Abbott said.