$1.8 billion raised to empower students and faculty

Michigan State University’s most ambitious fundraising campaign in its history, Empower Extraordinary, concluded on December 31 with $1,834,145,673 raised during the past seven years.

Publicly launched in October 2014, the campaign set out to make a difference for students and faculty and expand MSU’s impact through research in areas of critical importance to the world.

“I am deeply grateful for every member of the Spartan family – alumni, friends, faculty, staff, students, parents and others – who helped us reach beyond our goals,” said Satish Udpa, MSU acting president.” These gifts will empower our community for generations, allowing Spartans to push the boundaries of discovery and help people realize their potential.”

Record giving by donors pushed the university past its original goal of $1.5 billion. With a total of 255,284 donors overall, the campaign finished strong with the best December on record at $59.4 million for the month and more than $1.24 billion received in cash and new pledges.

“Guided by our strategic priorities and many generous donors, this campaign is already having an impact, said Marti Heil, vice president for University Advancement. “Students have access to additional scholarships and fellowships, we have increased endowed funds to help recruit and retain top faculty, colleges and units have more funding to support researchers who are doing cutting-edge problem solving, and additional investments have been made in new, modern teaching and learning facilities that will serve students, faculty and our entire community into the future.”

Immediate Impact

• Scholarships: $376.5 million in endowed support was raised with $76.3 million immediately available to fund scholarships and fellowships. In all, more than $148 million is already at work. The total funds raised will support 3,500 additional undergraduate students through scholarships annually.
• Endowed Positions: 112 new endowed positions were established including the university’s first named professorships in the College of Nursing and Libraries, and the largest number of new positions in the College of Engineering (21), the Broad College of Business (16) and in the College of Natural Science (16).
• Facilities: $293.8 million was raised for 22 significant capital projects. These modern facilities and enhancements give students the highest quality educational environment to prepare them for a bold future and position MSU for academic leadership.

Historic Results

• During the campaign, 363 gifts of $1 million or more were documented. This compares to a total of 242 gifts of $1 million or more during MSU’s entire history.
• Of all the dollars raised, 61 percent came from individuals, while in the previous campaign, just 49 percent came from individuals.
• The largest single gift from an individual ever received in MSU’s history came in September of 2018 from alumnus Edward J. Minskoff for the Business Pavilion capital project at the Eli Broad College of Business.